"Hasty Judgment"

Someone sent around a picture recently of (probably) a protestant sitting at a table with about 10 to 12 books laid out in front of him. They appeared to be a few bibles and other study materials (likely lexicons, concordances, linguistic keys, etc.). A few remarked at the obsessive nature of modern evangelical bible study; I felt an inner pain when I looked at the picture. Inner pain, because I have been there. I still have stacks of books on and around my bookshelves in my office; monuments to the idea that if I just looked hard enough I would find all the answers of what God said (ignoring the fact that God's word told me not to lean on my own understanding of God's word!).

There is this fantastic passage in the book of Sirach (3:17-24)--which is one of the books that was exiled from protestant bibles a few hundred years ago. I quote it here:

My son, perform your tasks in meekness; then you will be loved by those whom God accepts. The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord. For great is the might of the Lord; he is glorified by the humble. Seek not what is too difficult for you, nor investigate what is beyond your power. Reflect upon what has been assigned to you, for you do not need what is hidden. Do not meddle in what is beyond your tasks, for matters too great for human understanding have been shown you. For their hasty judgment has led many astray, and wrong opinion has caused their thoughts to slip.

I wonder what would have happened to my heart had this been included in the versions of the bible that I read from back then? Notice what it says to the student of the Scriptures: be humble, because there are things that are beyond your power to understand. The author tells each of us to accept what we can know, and not try to go beyond that. That runs completely against the grain of modern scientific thinking. The desire of modern man to "know more" is not always a healthy thing. According to Sirach, this desire is prideful and causes us to head down the wrong path.

Let us, as Catholics, make sure that we do not presume this only applies to protestants. It applies to us as well. When God speaks to His Church He reveals many things to us, but that does not mean that we should assume that it is our place either to understand all of it, or to decide on difficult issues that are not our responsibility to know (i.e. "you do not need what is hidden"). Yes, we are supposed to learn, but we are supposed to be humble in our learning and know that some things are "above our paygrade".

Some questions about theology and practice are properly in the responsibility of the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him. Some of those things we can speculate about, but we should never imagine that we are able just to try a little harder and we will answer those questions (they may in fact be entirely out of our authority to determine). Whenever we get into those realms of difficult things (i.e. "what did the Pope mean by that confusing statement?" or "is that marriage valid or not?"), we must approach them with humility.

If we fall into the obsessive desire to know things, that leads to the presumption that we can know if we just try hard enough (like what the gentleman was apparently doing in the picture I referred to above). Once pride blinds us in this way, we will end up making determinations that are wrong ("hasty judgments") because we cannot see our own limitations. This is the exact root of most heresies, and is rarely seen by those who wander down the path of selfish study.

Insisting we have found the answer to a question that the Church has not yet made a declaration on, is presuming that we know more than the very organization that God created for revealing His truth! Trying to understand for the sake of spiritual growth is one thing; trying to decide on eternal realities (and presuming that we can actually do so) is hubris. Let us learn how to say, once in a while with humility, "I am meddling in what is beyond me", and trust that God will teach us what we need to know.