The Duty of Growing in Christian Knowledge
by Rev. Francis A. Baker

                                                                                First Sunday in Advent

 

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“The first man knew not wisdom perfectly, no more shall the last find her out.  For her thoughts are vaster than the sea, and her counsels deeper than the great ocean.”  Ecclesiastes 24:38,39


 

I


A

 

I think we Catholics, when we lay claim to the possession of the whole truth – the entire revelation imparted to the world from Christ through the apostles – sometimes forget how small a share of that truth each one of us possesses in particular. 

 

B

 

It is the Church that the Holy Ghost leads into all truth, not individuals.  Each Catholic, who is sufficiently instructed, knows some truth; he knows what is necessary to salvation; but there are many things which he is totally ignorant of, many things concerning which his conceptions are inadequate or distorted.  Now if this be so, it cannot but be useful to remember it, and I will, therefore, this morning, show you  how it must be so, and some of the consequences which flow from it.

 

II

 

A

Each one’s knowledge of truth must be more or less partial and incomplete, because it varies with each one’s capacity for receiving truth.  When God gave man reason, He conferred on him the faculty of receiving truth; but the degree in which this or that man is capable of receiving truth, depends upon the strength and cultivation of his particular reason. 

 

B

 

The eye is the organ of sight, but one man’s eye is stronger and truer that another’s.  Slight variations of color or form, wholly indistinguishable by one man, are detected in a moment by another.  So, one man’s reason is stronger than another’s.  What makes the difference, is, of course, in part the diversity in natural endowments, but it is not altogether due to this cause; it is due in great measure also to cultivation.  Moral dispositions, too, have a great deal to do with it; and in the case of Christian truth, the grace of God also exerts a special influence. 

 

C

 

The degrees in which these various elements are found in particular cases, are so different, that there is an almost infinite gradation in the measure in which men are capable of receiving truth.  No two men can receive it in exactly the same degree.  In all this congregation, where we recite the same Creed and use the same prayers, there are, perhaps, no two of us who mean by them precisely the same thing. 

 

D

 

The intelligence of each one, his past history, his moral dispositions, will determine how far the faith that is in him corresponds to the faith that is without him – the faith as it is  in itself, the object of faith as it is in God.  I can make what I mean plain to you by an illustration. 

 

E

 

Let us suppose a beautiful picture of the crucifixion, for instance, is put up in a public gallery.  Men of every kind enter and pass before it.  There comes a man who has never heard of Christ; he is ignorant and uneducated.  He looks up and sees the representation of extreme human agony, mingled with superhuman dignity and patience.  Some ray enters his mind; he pauses, is startled then passes on. 

 

F

 

Now there comes another, who is an anatomist, and he is arrested by the skill with which the body is proportioned, and the play of the muscles and nerves is exhibited.  Every line is a study to him, and he stops a good deal longer than the first. 

 

G

 

Then there comes an artist, and he sees in the picture something greater even.  He takes in the genius of the conception, the fitness of attitude and expression, the light and shade, the tints of color, the difficulties overcome by art; and he comes and sits before it, day after day, for hours, absorbed in the study of its beauties. 

 

H

 

And another comes who is a poet, and to him it brings back the scene of Calvary.  In a moment he is far way, and the sun is darkened, and the earth quakes, and there is thunder and lightning, and once more the Holy City pours forth its multitude to witness the death of Jesus. 

 

I

 

And then there comes a sinner,  Ah! That story of love and suffering which tells how God so loved the world, and gave his only-begotten Son, that all who believe in Him should not parish, but have everlasting life.  To him, that picture speaks of the horrors of sin, of mercy, of heaven and hell, and thoughts are awakened by it which lead him back to God.  There hangs the picture, unaltered.  It is just what the artist made it, neither more nor less, yet see how different it has been to different beholders.


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III

 

A
 

Now, just so it is with the preaching of the truth.  As we recite the Creed, as we preach to you, Sunday after Sunday, the Creed itself is indeed unchangeable, but it is a different thing to each one of us who preach, and to each one of you who hear, according to your intelligence, your past history, and your present dispositions.  How can it be otherwise? 

 

B

 

Does not the very word, God, mean something different to us from what it does to a saint?  Do not the words Presence of God, mean something different to you and me from what they did to St. Teresa, to whom the soul of man appeared as a castle  with seven chambers, each one more sacred than the others, as you advanced into the interior, until the innermost shrine was reached, where God and the soul were joined together in a manner which human language knows not how to utter? 

 

C

 

Do you not see that the doctrine of the Incarnation is something very different to us from what it was to St. Athanasius, who spent his whole life in conflict for it, who endured years of exile and calumny, the estrangement of friends, the suspicion even of good men, rather than falter the least in fidelity to that verity on which his soul had fed? 

 

D

 

Or the Real Presence – is that not a different thing to the crowd who come to church and kneel from custom, but hardly remember why, from what it was to St. Thomas, who composed in honor of it the wonderfully hymns “Pange Lingua and Lauda Zion, or to St. Francis Xavier, who spent nights in prayer, prostrate upon the platform of the altar? 

 

E

 

Why, St. Thomas, who has so written of the Christian faith that the Church has named him the angelical doctor, threw down his pen in hopelessness of being able to express the high knowledge of divine things which filled his soul.  And St. Paul confesses, in writing to the Hebrews, that even in that primitive community, taught by apostles and living in a perpetual call to martyrdom, there were some points of Christian truth which he found himself unable to utter, “because you are become weak to hear.”  (Hebrews 5:11)

 

F

 

I know that you are Catholics, that you have the Apostles’ Creed by heart, that you believe in one God in Three Persons, in the Incarnation and Death of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, and in the two eternities before us; but neither you nor I know what all this implies.  Our knowledge is very imperfect: we are but babes in Christ, lisping and stammering the Divine alphabet – children, wetting our feet in the waves which dash on the shore of the boundless ocean of truth.

 

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IV

 

A
 

It is good for us, as I have already said, to remember this, for it gives us at once the true method of forming an estimate of Christianity.  A tree is known by its fruit, but it is by its best fruit.  If you have a tree in your garden bearing only a small quantity of very delicious fruit, you prize it highly and take great care of it, though many of the blossoms fall off, and a great deal of the fruit never ripens. 

 

B

 

So you must judge of the Catholic Church, by its best and most perfect fruit, that is, by the men of great wisdom and great virtue whom it produces, and not by its imperfect members.  Who is likely to be the best exponent and the truest specimen of his religion, a man of prayer and study, deeply versed in the Holy Scriptures and sacred learning, or one of small capacity, little learning, and little prayer? 

 

C

 

Eventually, the former; and yet how often do men take the contrary way of judging of the teaching and spirit of the Church.  They visit some Catholic country, they see some instance of popular error, ignorance, or disorder, and they say: “This is Catholicity.”  Or, at home, they see or hear a Catholic do or say something which gives them offence, and they exclaim: “That is your doctrine!  “That is your religion!” 

 

D

 

Now, supposing the offence they take to be justly taken, which is not always the case, what does it prove?  It may prove that the rulers of the Church have not done their duty; but it may prove just the contrary, that they have done their duty – that in spite of the obstacles of ignorance and rudeness, they have succeeded in imparting to some darkened souls enough knowledge to lead them to God, though it be the very least that is sufficient for that purpose. 

 

E

 

But it does not show what the doctrine of the Church really is as intelligently understood.  To find out this, you must look at men who are in the most favorable circumstances for understanding it, and they are the saints of God:  St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. Francis of Sales, St. Teresa, St. Vincent of Paul.

 

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V

 

A 

 

O my brethren! How can men turn away from Catholicity?  I understand how they can turn from it as you and I express it; how we can fail to remove their difficulties, or even put new perplexity in their way.  But how can they turn away from Catholicity as it is expressed by the great saints of the Church? 

 

B

 

What a divine religion!  What majesty, what sweetness, what wisdom, what power!  How it commands the homage of the world!  What a universal testimony it has in its favor, after all!  Do you know, my brethren, I believe men are far more in favor of Catholicity than we suspect.  I believe half the difficulties they find in our religion are not in our religion at all, but in us; in our ignorance, in our prejudices, in our short-sightedness and narrow-heartedness. 

 

C

 

What renders the world without excuse is the line of saints, the true witnesses to the genius and spirit of the Catholic religion.  And yet, even the saints themselves are not the perfect exponents of the faith, for even the saints were not altogether free from ignorance and error. 

 

D

 

To understand fully the nobleness of the Christian faith, we should need the help of inspiration itself.  Did it never occur to you, my brethren, that the expressions of the prophets and apostles in reference to the light and grace brought by Jesus Christ into the world, were extravagant? 

 

E

 

Behold, I will lay the stones in order, and will lay your foundations with sapphires, and I will make your  bulwarks of jasper: and your gates of graven stones, and all your borders of desirable stones.  All your children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of your children.”  “You shall no more have the sun for your light by day, neither shall the brightness of the moon enlighten you: but the Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and your God for your glory.”  (Isaiah 54:11-13, 50:10)

 

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VI

 

A

Does the Catholic Church, as you understand it, come up to these descriptions?  Is Catholic truth, as you appropriate it, so high and glorious a thing as this?  No!  And the reason is, that you are straitened in yourselves.  Your conceptions are so low, your knowledge of the truth is so partial and limited, that you do not recognize the description when the Holy Ghost presents that truth as it is in itself, as it is seen and known by God.

 

VII

 

A

This thought leads us naturally to another; namely, that it is the duty of each one of us to extend his knowledge of Christian truth as far as possible.  There is a story told of a foreign gentleman visiting Rome, who went one day to St. Peter’s Church, and, after entering the vestibule, admired its noble proportions, and returned home fully satisfied that he had seen the church itself, which he had not even entered.  So it is with many persons who never pass beyond the vestibule of Christian knowledge. 

 

B

 

They never enter the inner temple, or catch even a glimpse of its vast heights and its dim distances, its receding aisles, its intricate arches, its glory, its richness, and its mystery.  O misery of ignorance! Which has ever been the heaviest curse of our race.  O Morning Star, harbinger of eternal truth, and Sun of Justice, when will you come to enlighten those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death! 

 

C

 

Alas! This is our grief, that the true Light is come into the world, but our sight is darkened so that we cannot see it.  Truths, the thought of which rapt the apostles into ecstasy, truths which the angels desire to look into, are published in our hearing, and awaken no aspiration, no stirring in our hearts.  We go away, to eat and drink, and work, and play. 

 

D

 

O brethren! burst for yourselves these bonds of ignorance.  Do not say, I am not learned, I am not acute or profound, I cannot help to understand much.  Remember that there were some servants to whom one talent was given, who were called to account as well as those who had ten. 

 

E

 

Do what you can.  A pure heart, a blameless life, and prayer, are great enlighteners.  Read, listen, meditate, obey.  Ask of God to enlarge your knowledge, and to teach you what it means to say you believe in Him.  Ask of Jesus Christ to teach you what it means to say that He was made man and died for us on the cross; what it is to receive His body and blood; what is the meaning of heaven and hell.  Awake you who sleep, Christ shall give you light!  He will make you understand more and more what it is to be a Christian. 

 

G

 

Often have I seen fulfillment of this promise.  I have been at the bedside of poor people, who would be called rude and illiterate, but to whose pure hearts and earnest prayers God had imparted so clear a knowledge of the faith, that I have felt in their humble rooms like Jacob when he awoke from sleep and said: “Indeed the Lord is in this place.” (Genesis 28:16)

 

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VIII

 

A

Men are talking about a Church of the future.  They say the old Church is decrepit, her theology is obsolete, she stimulates thought no more.  But we know better.  The Church of the future is the Church of the past.  That Church is ever ancient and ever new.  Her truth is not exhausted.  Men know not the half nor the hundredth part of her hidden wisdom. 

 

B

 

O the victory! When men shall understand this - when they shall come confessing to the Holy Church, as the Queen of Saba did to Solomon: “The report is true, which I heard in my own country, concerning  your words and concerning your wisdom.  And I did not believe them that told me, till I came myself and saw with my own eyes, and have found that the half has not been told me: your wisdom and your works exceed the fame which I heard.  Blessed are your men, and blessed are your servants who stand before you always, and hear your wisdom.” (1 Kings 10:6-8)

 

IX

 

A

Yes! The history of the Church is not accomplished, her triumphs are not yet all written.  Why does she, Advent after Advent, publish again the glowing predictions of the evangelical prophet, but because she knows that they await a still more magnificent fulfillment? 

 

B

 

Take courage – the cloud that rests on the people shall be lifted off, and the burden taken away.  The Ancient Church “shall no more be called forsaken, nor her land desolate.” (Isaiah 62:4)  “Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.  And the Gentiles shall walk in your light, and  kings  in  the  brightness  of  your rising.  Then shall you see and abound, and your heart shall wonder and be enlarged.  And the children of them that afflict you shall come bowing down  to  you, and  all  that slandered you shall worship the steps of your feet, and shall call you the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 40:1-14)

 

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