An honest person is a humble person, since honesty compels the soul to confess the truth that it is profoundly ignorant, incapable of understanding even the simplest matters of life, and entirely powerless to heal itself… People argue over words, concepts, and abstractions, inflating their opinions above even the Reality they purport to define, but the humble soul acknowledges that he doesn’t really know much about anything… And if “all the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly,” then how is it that people get puffed up and proud regarding their supposed knowledge of God Himself? Far better to approach God in deep reverence, wonder, love, and childlike trust than to profess a theology based on pride and illusions…
To a visitor who described himself as a seeker after Truth the sage said, “If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.” “I know,” said the man, “an overwhelming passion for it.” “No,” the sage replied, “rather an unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.”
Thomas Aquinas’ most significant work was his Summa theologiae or ‘Summary of Theology,’ a massive book that attempted to “systematize” all of Christian theology. He worked on it for many years, but when he was nearly finished he underwent a spiritual experience that, as he himself explained, made everything he had written “seem like straw.” He thereafter gave up writing about “theology” after he encountered the Reality itself. You may perfect doctrine and exist untruthfully, whereas you might not have perfect doctrine, but exist truthfully. The devil knows how to quote Scripture, and often does so, but is a devil still.
Hebrew Lesson:
Proverbs 4:18 Hebrew Reading:
- Proverbs 4:18 page (pdf)
Of course truth is important, and we ask for God’s revelation by the power of the Holy Spirit, but this means knowing from a place of real humility… We must follow the path of peace, even if that requires that we “overlook” some of our doctrinal convictions for the sake of love. I don’t mean we should throw away our principles, God forbid, but we rather hold them with an inward passion that is at the same time willing to be overlooked, to suffer, to be misunderstood, and even to be mistreated by others. The key here is not be indulge in self-pity or resentment, which does no good. And above all we ask God for divine wisdom. God is faithful and true; if we ask Him for bread, he won’t give us a stone (Luke 11:11).