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Faith is our Sure and Necessary Guide

Address by Senior Speaker, Mr. David Grothoff

(Summer 2007 Newsletter)

David Grothoff of Jefferson City, Missouri, was elected by his classmates to speak on their behalf at Commencement. Mr. Grothoff came to the College with a B.S. in mechanical engineering already in hand and is now working as an engineer for a large home development company in Southern California. He intends in the not-too-distant-future to pursue a doctoral program at the University of Notre Dame in the philosophy of science, focusing especially on medieval thought. He is pictured above with the 2007 Commencement Speaker, His Excellency the Most Reverend Albert Malcolm Ranjith.

Your Excellency, Reverend Fathers, President Dillon, members of the Board of Governors, faculty and staff, parents, loved ones, and my brothers and sisters of the Class of 2007:

The Need for a Teacher

When we arrived at Thomas Aquinas College as freshmen, our wonder was first aroused by reading the Platonic dialogues, in which Socrates, often to our amusement, dismantled his opponents' arguments, all the while claiming to know nothing. We, the readers, became ourselves convinced that what we thought we knew was not knowledge but opinion. He points out a difficulty in the pursuit of wisdom: how can one who doesn't already know something know how to find what he is looking for or recognize it when he finds it? This difficulty points to the need for a teacher, someone who already has the knowledge we seek, or has it in a clearer way than we do, who can, if we humbly submit to his guidance, help us order our thought and safely navigate the streams leading to wisdom.

We read Aristotle, who, with remarkable piety, considers carefully even the seemingly most absurd positions of the Pre-Socratics, and learns from them. Furthermore, he modestly accepts the limitations of his own reason, and follows a natural course of learning, even when he recognizes that the human mode is not the most perfect.

How futile, in comparison, were the attempts of those modern philosophers who made themselves the first principles and primary objects of their knowledge. Without realizing it, they, too, were indebted to others, if for no other reason than they could not have formulated their doctrine so clearly had it not been in reaction to their teachers.

Practically every author of the whole curriculum leads us to see that we are not the primary authors of truth. Even those who would disagree with that claim ultimately testify to it by the fruitlessness of their efforts. We progress toward fulfilling our natural yearning to know by receiving truth from outside of ourselves, both from nature directly and intermediately through teachers.

Faith Is the Gateway to Certain Knowledge

Our thirst for wisdom, however, cannot be satisfied with mere knowledge of natural things; we desire to know first causes in themselves. When we see how limited we are in understanding the first cause, we see also how necessary it is that we humble ourselves and submit to God's Revelation, as passed on through Tradition and interpreted by the God-given authority of the Apostles and their successors. Faith is the gateway to certain knowledge about the highest things, knowledge which is most ennobling and most desirable in itself. But faith cannot spring up from our own nature; it must be received humbly as a free gift from God.

Even concerning those things which men can know naturally, we must realize our limitations and accept Faith as a sure and necessary guide. From the disagreements of philosophers, we see how difficult and murky are the paths of the human mind darkened by original sin. In fact, these difficulties have driven many to skepticism, giving up on the whole project of intellectual activity. If we submit humbly to Faith as a sure judge, however, it corrects errors into which we are prone to fall, and it allows us to partake of the knowledge of the One who can neither deceive nor be deceived. Thus we can proceed more confidently.

Furthermore, because Faith allows us to have a science concerning our final end and supreme happiness, we can more clearly see the proper role of the lower sciences as handmaidens to Sacred Theology. The Christian studies all things, even the lowest, because knowledge is good in itself; but he studies them even more so because they aid in understanding God, the Author of nature and ultimate fulfillment of man's desires.

St. Thomas Aquinas, a Master

Neither have God and His Church left us without human guides in whom we can trust. Socrates raised the question of how we, the learners, are qualified to select good teachers. Holy Mother Church has supplied her children with teachers who hold principles from the Faith and have successfully applied those principles to make progress in wisdom. Thus, we recognize the authority of the Doctors of the Church, pre-eminently St. Thomas, who, though not infallible, is a master to whom we can safely entrust ourselves. With these supports given us, we become more confident, and are not afraid to look for truth wherever it may be found, without ever losing sight of the fact that not all truths have the same certainty and not all teachers are equal.

This is the manner in which we have proceeded over the past four years: receptive to nature as we find it, we submit ourselves to the difficult and slow human mode of learning; humbling ourselves, we seek help and guidance from the great authors, from our tutors, and from our classmates; under the light of Faith, we seek to satisfy our wonder. It is fitting, then, that we chose as our class quote the declaration of St. Anselm: "I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand."

Gratitude

We do well, at the end of our studies here, to reflect on the contributions we have received in our intellectual formation, and give thanks to those here who have contributed them. First of all to God, who made us like Himself so that we can know and love Him, and Who enlightens us with revelation; to the Apostolic teachers of the Faith, represented here today by His Excellency Archbishop Ranjith; the tutors, who through their experience and intelligence were immediate principles of our learning; the chaplains, who nourished us with the sacraments and spiritual guidance (and we remember especially Fr. Borden, whose contribution to the College is only now, in his absence, being fully realized and appreciated); the benefactors and staff of the College, whose generosity and hard work make it possible for us to spend leisure time contemplating the highest things; and in an eminent and fundamental way, our parents, who not only gave us life, but also were our first educators in the order of nature and in the order of faith.

Our Two-Fold Duty

Having received so much, we have now a two-fold duty: as Pope Leo XIII says in his encyclical letter Rerum Novarum, "Whoever has received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal blessings, whether they be external and material, or gifts of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God's providence, for the benefit of others."

First, having received gifts of the mind, we have a duty to use them to perfect ourselves. Let us remember that the education here is a good beginning, but still just a beginning. We are about to be admitted to the community of those who know, but only to the degree of bachelor of arts. We will not all formally devote ourselves to the intellectual life after we leave here. But, following the Pope's exhortation, let us never stop progressing, using the foundations we have received here to perfect ourselves; let us never stop wondering and asking questions; let us never stop deepening our understanding of nature and our love of wisdom and beauty; and, above all, let us never stop being nourished at the fount of Holy Mother Church's doctrine and sacraments. The liberal arts and all natural knowledge are never used more excellently than when employed to understand God's revelation. Even if some of us should seldom study the great books again, we should all at least use what we have learned here to grow continually in our understanding and appreciation for Holy Scripture.

Second, the Pope reminds us that we, as stewards of God's providence, are to use our intellectual goods for the benefit of others. Contemplation is indeed a noble activity of man. Because it is desirable in itself, and not for some further end, contemplative activity is higher than practical. Nevertheless, St. Thomas points out that contemplation reaches its highest perfection in teaching. "Even as it is better to enlighten than merely to shine," says the Angelic Doctor, "so is it better to give to others the fruits of one's contemplation than merely to contemplate."

Knowledge, Humility, and Charity

If humility is necessary to make progress in an individual's intellectual life, how much more so is humility necessary to teach others. For we must remember from where the truth is derived. The truth is not your possession nor mine, but is by nature a common good. And, again, it must be remembered how little it is that we know, and how much we can learn from those we encounter. Neither can we ignore or look down upon those whom we can help intellectually or spiritually; the goal is a friendship where truth is held in common.

In our time here, we have attempted to defer to one another and form intellectual friendships in our pursuit of wisdom. As friendship is also a perfection of the intellectual life, let us maintain the friendships we have made. As the Apostle writes to the Corinthians, "Knowledge breeds self-conceit, but charity edifies." Knowledge, if appropriated to oneself, tends to pride; but knowledge received in humility, and with the same humility shared with others, tends to the building up of the Body of Christ.

As we leave here, on our Commencement Day, in the spirit of the Resurrected Christ, we repeat honestly and humbly the declaration of St. Francis of Assisi toward the end of his earthly life: "We have accomplished very little, brothers; let us begin again, anew."

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

-- Qtrly Newsletter, Summer 2007