Lex Domini immaculata, convertens animas; testimonium Domini fidele, sapientiam præstans parvulis.The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls: the testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones.
~Psalm 18:8
I have been thinking on this idea recently, especially with the recent celebration of St. Thérèse of Lisieux of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, that is, the Little Flower.
(Note I owe a lot to the fantastic talk given at the Center for Ethics and Culture Fall Conference in 2010 by Rev. Peter Saawald...every good Thomist should hear that talk and I have it if you are interested)
Our Lord will give wisdom to the little ones...and it is Wisdom, after all that we seek.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Our Lord commands us: "Amen dico vobis, nisi conversi fueritis, et efficiamini sicut parvuli, non intrabitis in regnum cælorum. Quicumque ergo humiliaverit se sicut parvulus iste, hic est major in regno cælorum. Et qui susceperit unum parvulum talem in nomine meo, me suscipit."
"amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receives me."
Matt. 18: 3-5
What, then, does it mean to be a child. Well the Christ Child as the example might be useful.
In Luke 2 we read: " Et factum est, post triduum invenerunt illum in templo sedentem in medio doctorum, audientem illos, et interrogantem eos. Stupebant autem omnes qui eum audiebant, super prudentia et responsis ejus. Et videntes admirati sunt."
"And it came to pass, that, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. And seeing him, they wondered."
I think there are three important things to note here: 1) Christ listened, 2) asked questions, that is, he disputed with the Elders, 3) and they were left in wonder. In a sense, one could say that Christ in the Temple is the culmination of His Divine Childhood
So what does this mean for us. I think we must take St. Thomas Aquinas as our model, especially as regards the Intellectual Life and growth in Wisdom. The way I see it, The Angelic Doctor was a Dumb Ox, child-like always before Truth. When called to debate the unicity of substantial forms in 1270, as Bartholomew notes, St. Thomas, amidst the Church officials, remained calm and collected, much like Christ in the Temple, asking questions and interrogating and doctrines for the truth.
In fact, Jacques Maritain notes this when he writes that "And in truth they had reason enough to be disconcerted, for he was not one of them, he bad the origin of his wisdom in a source higher than theirs, in the very pure silence which is the father of preaching. Nisi efficiamini sicut parvuli. With all his learning, this great theologian, whose confession, according to the testimony of Friar Reginald, was like that of a child of five, stood in the midst of them, in his simplicity-which was not disarmed, certainly, but candid, natural (ex Deo nata) and unstudied, humble and severe as innocence-the likeness and configuration of the Child Jesus among the doctors." - Maritain, St. Thomas Aquinas. You can read it here
I will forever be sad at knowing that, at his death, Maritain wished his heart (very French) to be kept at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at ND...Hesburgh turned it away >:|
Aquinas tells us, in the very first article of the Summa, that he is not to be treated as the Dogmatic Source of Knoweldge as he is treated today. He is one speaker in the Dialogue of Western Civilization; philosophy. He is careful to always cite his sources, the source of his authority from the authority from those that have become before him.
(it might be interesting to note that he wrote the Summa for 'young friars' beginning their studies in Theology)
Rather, Aquinas as our model is the Scholastic Method which he embodies; rooted in his integration of Athens and Jerusalem. As Cardinal Newman, who worked to defend the power of reason against those intellectuals of his day who challenged its efficacy in matters of faith, notes that "While we are men, we cannot help, to a great extent, being Aristotelians, for the great Master does but analyze the thoughts, feelings, views, and opinions of human kind. He has told us the meaning of our own words and ideas, before we were born. In many subject-matters, to think correctly, is to think like Aristotle; and we are his disciples whether we will or no, though we may not know it." (Idea of the University, Discourse V). That is, we all hold a necessary openness to reality.
And in this sense, Aquinas was an Aristotelian...he was intellectually humble. He always sought the truth; that can be said of his whole life. When finding him after being locked in the tower, they see he had progressed in knowledge as if he were at a university the whole time.
Most importantly, however, is that he consulted and interrogated the ancients, as the Christ did in the Temple. Why do children tend to tire us out with a barrage of questions...they are looking for answers and truth: "why, why why why why???"
In a letter to a Brother John seeking the Angelic Doctor's advice on study, we read:
| A Letter of Saint Thomas Aquinas to Brother John |
|---|
| Because you have asked me, my brother John, most dear to me in Christ, how to set about aquiring the treasure of knowledge, this is the advice I pass on to you: that you should choose to enter by the small rivers, and not go right away into the sea, because you should move from easy things to difficult things. | Quia quaesisti a me, in Christo mihi carissime frater Joannes, quomodo oportet incedere in thesauro scientiae acquirendo, tale a me tibi super hoc traditur consilium; ut per rivulos, et non statim in mare, eligas introire; quia per facilia ad difficilia oportet devenire. |
| Such is therefore my advice on your way of life: | Huiusmodi est ergo monitio mea de vita tua: |
| I suggest you be slow to speak, and slow to go to the room where people chat. | Tardiloquum te esse iubeo, et tarde ad locutorium accendentem; | |
| Embrace purity of conscience; do not stop making time for prayer. | Conscientiae puritatem amplecti; Orationi vacare non desinas; |
| Love to be in your room frequently, if you wish to be lead to the wine celler | Cellam frequenter diligas, si vis in cellam vinariam introduci; |
| Show yourself to be likable to all, or at least try; but do not show yourself as too familiar with anyone; because too much familiarity breeds contempt and will slow you in your studies; and don't get involved in any way in the deeds and words of worldly people. | Omnibus amabilem te exhibeas, vel exhibere studias; sed nemini familiarem te multum ostendas; quia nimia familiaritas parit contemptum et retardationis materiam a studio administrat; Et de factis et verbis saecularium nullatenus te intromittas; |
| Above all, avoid idle conversation; do not forget to follow the steps of holy and approved men. | Discursum super omnia fugias; Sanctorum et proborum virorum imitari vestigia non omittas. |
| Never mind who says what, but commit to memory what is said that is true: work to understand what you read, and make yourself sure of doubtful points. | Non respicias a quo, sed quod sane dicatur memoriae recommenda: Ea quae legis fac ut intelligas, de dubiis te certificans. |
| put whatever your can into the cupboard of your mind as if you were trying to fill a cup. | Et quidquid poteris, in armariolo mentis reponere satage sicut cupiens vas implere; | |
| "Seek not the things that a higher than you" | "Altiora te ne quaeras". |
| Follow the steps of blessed Dominic, who produced useful and marvelous shoots, flowers and fruits in the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts for as long as life was his companion. | Illius beati Dominici sequere vestigia, qui frondes, flores et fructus, utiles ac mirabiles, in vinea Domini Sabaoth, dum vitam comitem habuit, protulit ac produxit. |
| If you follow these things, you will attain to whatever you desire. Farewell. | Haec si secutus fueris, ad id attingere poteris, quidquid affectas. Vale |
Non respicias a quo, sed quod sane dicatur memoriae recommenda: Ea quae legis fac ut intelligas, de dubiis te certificans.
Never mind who says what, but commit to memory what is said that is true: work to understand what you read, and make yourself sure of doubtful points.
There is another aspect I think is important here...the role of leisure which I will hopefully address in a minute.
We must then be child-like in our study...not childish. An intellectual pride...which myself and most of my friends tend to suffer from at times (not to be confused with confidence - Aquinas and Christ both did shoot down faulty arguments)... results in something most catastrophic; it becomes impossible for man to see the magnificence of man and the cosmos. When a child sees something new, it is new, exciting, and WONDERFUL. Wonder is important. It is one of my favorite themes. Augustine argues that the role of the miracle is to invoke wonder and awe. “God who made the visible marvels of heaven and earth does not disdain to work visible miracles in heaven and earth, by which he arouses the soul.” (City of God, Bk.X,Ch.12) The word miracle stems from the Latin miraculum derived from mirari which means “to wonder.” Furthermore, in Spanish, the verb mirar means “to look.” These stems indicate that visible miracles are meant to strike wonder into the viewer. “The human race should be chilled by the customariness of the very things whose novelty had inspired them." (Augustine, On True Religion). Yet, “miracles of the visible world have lost their value for us because we see them continually” (Bk.X,Ch.12), despite the fact that “man is a greater miracle than any miracle effected by man’s agency.” (Bk.X,Ch.12).
One of Aquinas' ways is very much an awe-inspired cosmological argument. Socrates argues that wonder is the very root of philosophy. “The sense of wonder is the mark of the philosopher. Philosophy indeed has no other origin…”
-Plato, Socrates, Theaetetus, 155d2-3
Aristotle's method, as we already discussed, involves a natural wonder and awe before man and creation. Fyodor Dostoevsky notes that "Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man.
~Dostoevsky, Personal correspondence (1839)
And as Thomas Traherne says in his poem "Wonder,"
"...All that I saw a wonder did appear,
Amazement was my bliss..."
And wonder is precisely where Christ left the elders in the Temple in Luke 2.
Wonder is the beginning of philosophy, its lasting source, and its emminent end.
(I realize now that I will not address leisure tonight...instead I refer you to the great book by Josef Pieper titled "Leisure, the Basis of Culture"...All i will say that too much leisure, and not enough leisure, Aquinas would regard as a sin and it seems that both find a root in a child-ishness rather than a child-likeness)
This is, precisely, the most poetic reading of the end of the Dumb Ox's life:
On 6 December 1273 Thomas was celebrating the Mass of St. Nicholas when, according to some, he heard Christ speak to him. Christ asked him what he desired, being pleased with his meritorious life. Thomas replied "Only you Lord. Only you." After this exchange something happened, but Thomas never spoke of it or wrote it down. Because of what he saw, he abandoned his routine and refused to dictate to his socius Reginald of Piperno. When Reginald begged him to get back to work, Thomas replied: "Reginald, I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me." (mihi videtur ut palea).
This is not to be said that what he wrote was worthless...there is however, the constant intellectual humility being shown. He was in the middle of writing the third part of his Summa...which would have completed it. It seems fitting, though, that after attempting to write a sum of Theology, starting and God and working back to God that he arrive at the Blessed Sacrament and all else remains a mystery.
Anyways, I also recommend Josef Pieper's "The Silence of Thomas" --- it is fantastic. Let us model ourselves in a child-likeness after the Dumb Ox who, as we see in preserved manuscriptes, wrote Ave Maria all over the margins of his Summa Contra Gentiles implying a constant invocation of Our Lady, exemplifies this virtue before God and Wisdom.
(I really really really really want a hat like this)
