Sermons on the Song of Songs

THE KNOWLEDGE OF LITERATURE IS GOOD FOR OUR INSTRUCTION, BUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR OWN INFIRMITY IS MORE USEFUL TO SALVATION.

I AM here in fulfilment of my promise, in order to comply with your requests, and in discharge of the duty I owe to God. It is a threefold reason, as you see, which urges me on to speak: respect for my promise, brotherly charity, and the fear of the Lord. If I be silent, my own mouth will condemn me. If, on the contrary, I speak, I still fear the same judgment, inasmuch as my mouth will none the less condemn me because I say and do not. Aid me, I entreat you, by your prayers, that I may be able to speak what is true and edifying, and to carry out in my actions that which I preach to others. You are aware that I propose to speak to-day of ignorance, or rather of the various kinds of ignorance; for, if you remember, we distinguished two kinds — the one in regard to ourselves, the other to God — and I warned you that each was to be avoided, because each was a cause of condemnation. What I have to do now is to expound this subject more clearly and at greater length. But I think we must in the first place inquire whether every kind of ignorance be a cause of condemnation? And it seems to me that this is not the case; that it is not every [kind or degree of] ignorance that is blamable, since there are many things — they are, indeed, innumerable — of which we are allowed to be ignorant without peril to our salvation. For example, if you are ignorant of some mechanical art, as that of the wheelwright, or of the mason, or some other of those industries which are carried on by men for the ^purposes of this present life, would that be an obstacle to your salvation? How many men are there who have been saved, being acceptable to God in character and actions, without having been acquainted even with the liberal arts (though these latter are more honourable and more useful both in learning and in practice)! How many persons does the Apostle enumerate in the Epistle to the Hebrews, who became dear to God, not by their acquaintance with polite literature, but by a pure conscience and by faith unfeigned! (Heb. xi.). Others there were who pleased God in their life by the merits, not of their knowledge, but of their life. Peter and Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee, and all the rest of their fellow-disciples, were not drawn from the school of rhetoric or of philosophy, and yet the Saviour used them as instruments [by which to bring about] salvation throughout the earth. It was not because the wisdom in them was greater than that of all other men (as a certain holy man confesses of himself — Eccles. i. 16), but because of their faith and gentleness, that He saved them; yea, and made them Saints, and even teachers of others. They have made known to the world the ways of life, hot by the sublimity of their preaching, or by the learning taught by human wisdom; but after that the world in its wisdom knew not God; it pleased Him to save by the foolishness of their preaching those who believed (t Cor. ii. 1; i. 17, 2t).

2. I may seem to you, perhaps, to speak too severely of knowledge; to blame, as it were, the learned, and to forbid the study of literature. But I would by no means do this. I am not ignorant how great are the services that have been rendered to the Church, and are rendered to her continually, by her learned sons, whether in repulsing the attacks of her enemies or in instructing the simple. Besides, I have read the words of the Prophet: Because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee, and thou shall be no priest to Me (Hosea iv. 6); and also: They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to- righteousness as the stars for ever and ever (Dan. xii 3). But I know also where I have read: Knowledge puffeth up (1 Cor. viii. 1); and again: He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorroiv (Eccles. i. 18). You see that there is a difference between these [kinds of knowledge], for one kind renders [the possessor] vain, and another renders him sad. Now, I would ask you whether of the two is the more conducive to salvation, that which puffs up or that which saddens? But I doubt not that you would prefer the latter, since pain is a means to health, of which tumour and swelling is but a semblance. But he who entreats for salvation is near to gain it, for he that asketh receiveth (Luke xi. 10). Also, He who heals the heart that is broken holds in abhorrence that which is swollen with pride, as the- highest Wisdom teaches us: God resisieth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble (James iv. 6). And the

Apostle declares: I say, by the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think [0/ himself] more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly (Rom. xii. 3). He does not forbid knowledge, but only the knowledge which renders vain. And what does he mean by * soberly 9? He means to guard with the greatest care that knowledge which is essential before and beyond everything else to our salvation, for the time is short. All knowledge, however, which is founded on the truth is good in itself. But you whom it behoves, on account of the briefness of the time, to hasten to work out with fear and trembling your own salvation, you must take care to acquire first and most carefully what you feel to be of nearer concern to your salvation. Do not the physicians of the body define a part of medicine to consist in the choice among different kinds of food, which should be taken first and which afterwards, and in what manner each should be taken? For although all kinds of food, since God created them, must be good, yet you may certainly render them evil [to you] if you do not observe the proper manner and sequence in partaking of them. Apply, then, what I say of the food of the body to the various kinds of knowledge, which are food to the mind.

3. But it is better to send you at once to the Master, for this teaching comes not from us, but from him; or, rather, it is ours, because it is the word of Truth. If any man, he says, think that he knouteth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know (1 Cor. viii. 2). You see that he does not praise the person who knows many things if he is still ignorant of the right manner to know them, and that it is in that very point he places the fruit and usefulness of knowledge. What, then, does he understand by the manner of knowing? What else can he mean by it than in what order, with what degree of eagerness, and with what intention and object we ought to acquaint ourselves with all things? In what order? that is to say, so as to acquire first that which is more fitted to the work of our salvation. With what degree of eagerness? by which we learn that we ought to apply ourselves with the greatest ardour and vehemence to make progress in that which excites us the most strongly to the love of God. And lastly, with what intention and object? not to learn, that is to say, in order to satisfy vainglory, to indulge curiosity, or any motive like that, but only for our own edification or that of our neighbour. For there are those who wish to learn merely in order that they may know,1 and such curiosity is blamable. There are others who wish to learn for no other reason than that they may be looked upon as learned, which is a ridiculous vanity; and these will not escape the censure which a satiric poet levels against them when he says: 4 To know a thing *is nothing in your eyes, unless some other person is aware of your knowledge 9 (Persius, Satire /, 27). And others, again, desire to learn only that they may make merchandise of their knowledge, for example, in order to gain money or honours; and such trafficking is ignoble. But there are those who desire to learn that they may edify others; that is charity. And, lastly, there are some who wish to learn that they may be themselves edified; and that is prudence.

4. Of all these the two last are the only learners who do not fall into an abuse of knowledge; since they wish to know only that they may do good. Says the Psalmist: A good understanding have all they that do His commandments (Ps. cxi. 10). But let all the others note what is said by the Apostle: To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin (James iv. 17); as if he had said by a metaphor: * To take food, and not to digest it, is injurious to the health. For food badly cooked and ill-digested generates unhealthy humours, and injures the body instead of nourishing it. So also much knowledge stuffed into the memory, which is, as it were, the stomach of the soul, if it is not digested by the fire of charity, and transfused into the limbs, that is, into the actions and habits, so that it is made the means of good actions through the good that is known, shall not that knowledge be counted for sin, like food turned into bad and injurious humours?' Is not sin, in fact, as a bad humour in the soul? and are not bad tendencies and habits as depraved humours? He who knows the good, and does it not, will his conscience not suffer from inflammations and torturing pains? Will it not return in itself a response of condemnation and death, as often as that Divine saying comes into the memory: That servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes? (Luke xii. 47). It is perhaps the cry of such a soul to which the Prophet gives utterance, when he says: My boiucls, my bowels I Jam pained at my very heart ( Jer. iv. 1 9). Except that perhaps the very repetition seems to point to a double sense in the words, and obliges me to look for some other than that I have given. I think that the Prophet may have spoken this in regard to himself, inasmuch as being full of knowledge and of charity, and earnestly desiring to communicate that knowledge, he could find no one who cared to listen to him, and thus his know ledge was, as it were, a burden to him, since he was unable to communicate it. Therefore the pious teacher of the Church laments, both for those who scorned the opportunity of learning their duty, and for those who, knowing it, yet lived evil lives. And on this account he repeats the word.

5. Do you observe with what emphatic truth the 'Apostle asserts that knowledge puffeth up? I wish, then, that the soul should first of all commence by acquiring a knowledge of itself, as is required both by natural order and by that of usefulness. The natural order, because we are to ourselves the first and nearest fact; but also that of usefulness, since the knowledge of ourselves does not puff us up, but rather humbles us, and prepares us for edification. For certainly the spiritual edifice cannot stand except on the firm foundation of humility. Now, the soul can find no motive more effective or more powerful for humility than a thorough knowledge of itself as it really is, only it must be honest in purpose and without guile, and standing in presence of itself, must ignore nothing that it beholds. When it views itself thus in the clear light of truth, it will find itself far different from what it had believed itself to be; and sighing at the sight of its truly miserable state, will it not cry to the Lord with the Psalmist: In Thy truth T/wu hast humbled me? (Ps. cxix. 75, Douay). For how can it be otherwise than humbled, in obtaining this true knowledge of itself, when it beholds itself laden with sins, heavily burdened with its mortal body, involved in earthly cares, infected with the corruption of carnal desires, blind, bent earthwards, weak, entangled with many errors, exposed to a thousand perils, trembling with a thousand fears, struggling with a thousand difficulties, the subject of a thousand suspicions and a thousand distressing necessities, prone to vices, but to virtues slow and backward? How, after that revelation of himself to himself, can he lift up his eyes and walk with head erect? Will he not rather be converted at the sight of so many miseries, at the sharp pang of the 4 thorn which is fastened ' [into it]? (Ps. xxxi. 4, Vulg.). He will be converted, I say, to tears, to sighs and groans; he will be converted to the Lord, and in deep humility will cry to Him: Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee (Ps. xli. 4). And then, when converted unto the Lord, it shall receive consolation, because He is the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation.

6. As for me, as long as I look at myself, I see only one subject after another for bitter regret. But if I look up, and lift up my eyes towards the help of the Divine compassion, the joyful sight of God tempers at once the bitter revelation of myself, and I say to Him: My soul is troubled within me, therefore will I remember Thee (Ps. xlii. 6). Nor is that vision of God of small avail, in which we have experience of His kindness and readiness to be entreated. For He is in truth good and merciful, so much better than we are evil, as to prevail over our ill (Joel ii. 13). His Nature is goodness, and to Him it belongeth to have mercy always and to spare. Through such an experience, and in such an order of events, then, does God make Himself known to us, and to our great benefit; that is to say, after man has become aware of the deplorable condition in which he is, and has cried unto the Lord, the Lord hears and helps him, declaring: I will deliver thee, and thou slialt glorify Me (Ps. 1. 15). Thus, the knowledge of thyself will be a step to the knowledge of God: He will become visible in His image, which is renewed in thee; whilst thou, beholding with confidence as in a glass the glory of the Lord, art changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. iii. 18).

7. But now notice, finally, how each of these kinds of knowledge is necessary to your salvation, so that if you are wanting in one or in the other, you cannot be saved. For if you do not know yourself, you will not have the fear of God in you, and therefore you will have no humility. What ground, then, you can possibly have to hope for salvation, without the fear of God and without humility, you can see for yourself. You have done well to show me by that little murmur that you do not nourish any such vain expectation, or rather that your belief is entirely opposite to it; and therefore we need not linger upon a question which is clear in itself. But listen to what remains— or had we better stop here, on account of those who are weighed down by sleep? I thought that I would include in one sermon what I had promised respecting the two kinds of ignorance, and I would do so, only that I should seem to be excessively lengthy to those whom this sermon wearies and disgusts. For I see some yawning, and others are asleep. Nor is that strange; the Vigils1 of the preceding night (which were, indeed, very long) are their excuse. But what shall I say to those who slept then, and yet are sleeping now all the same? But I do not wish to put them to shame farther; it is sufficient to have mentioned the fact I think that henceforth they will keep awake better, and fear to be again remarked. In that hope I pass over the matter for this time, and in consideration for them will divide what remains to be said, and make an ending, where the end really was not. May the indulgence shown to them bring them to render glory with us to the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is above all, God blessed for ever. Amen.