Is There Anything Wrong with Being Too Curious?

Book 3, Chapter 58: Of Deeper Matters, and God’s Hidden Judgments which are not to be Inquired into.

A Great Cloud of Witnesses

Chapter Focus: Thomas cautions us in each book on looking into God’s ways. It’s not that we cannot use our reason or rationale, but that we should take care not to obsess over a gift from God, or a judgment of God, or try to make sense of a divine matter. These are beyond human understanding. Or, we take something holy and pollute it with our feeble attempts at pursuing holiness in the wrong way. For example, think how silly it is to argue about whether one Saint is more holy or meritorious than another. While we attempt a certain sort of loyalty to our favorite saint, the truth is, such vehemence would probably embarrass that saint we are promoting. God, Thomas reminds us, “is not the God of confusion but the God of peace.”

Instead of such useless pursuits, Thomas suggests that we instead praise God for all the wonders and gifts and for the witness of His Saints. Instead of arguing which saint is better, we would be better to imitate the saints’ humility. We should be like them in trying to be found in God’s Kingdom, even if we are the least deserving person. Thomas’ final admonition is to walk in the truth so that the kingdom of God may be ours (Matt 5:3).

Key Quote: It is a great thing to be even the least in Heaven, where all are great, because all shall be called, and shall be the children of God (Matt 5:9).

Question: Is it difficult for me to accept God’s gifts as they are presented to me?

Chapter 58, In Short.

1. Do not get caught up in disputes about the matters and judgments of God.
2. Do not waste time disputing the merits of the Saints, since such questions result in strife.
3. God foreknew the beloved ones from everlasting and chose them out of the world.
4. God acknowledges the first and the last and embraces all with an inestimable love.
5. The Saints love God above themselves and their own merits.
6. Those who are so little enlightened rarely learn to love any one with perfect spiritual love.
7. Make it your business that you seek to be found in the Kingdom of God, even if you are the least.
8. The higher the Saints are exalted in glory, the humbler they are, and the nearer to God.
9. It is a great thing to be even the least in Heaven.
10. Rejoice you that are humble and poor: if you walk in the truth, the kingdom of God is yours.

The Text of Chapter 58: Of Deeper Matters, and Refraining from Inquiry into God’s Hidden Judgments.

The Voice of Christ:
“My Child, beware that you do not get caught up in disputes about the high and hidden matters and judgments of God. Such as, ‘why is this person left, and that one is taken into so great favor?’ or ‘why is this one is so greatly afflicted, and that one so highly exalted?’ These things pass all your power of judging. Neither reasoning or disputation have power to search out such divine judgments. When therefore the enemy (the devil) suggests these things to you, or when any curious people ask you such questions, answer with that word of the Prophet, ‘Just are You, O Lord, and true is Your judgment (Ps 119:137), and similarly, ‘The judgments of the Lord are true, and rejoicing the heart (Ps 19:9).’ My judgments are to be feared, not to be disputed on, because they are incomprehensible to human understanding.

2. “And do not waste your time inquiring or disputing the merits of the Saints, such as which one is holier than another, or which is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven. Such questions often turn into useless strife and contentions: these also nourish pride and vain glory. And this is where envy and dissensions arise among you such that one person arrogantly tries to exalt one Saint and another person another Saint. But to wish to know and search out such things bears no fruit but instead displeases the Saints; for I am not the God of confusion but the God of peace (1 Cor 14:33); which peace consists more in true humility than in self-exaltation.

3. “Some are drawn by zeal of love to greater affection to this Saint or that one. This is human affection rather than divine affection. I am He Who made all the Saints: I gave them grace, I brought them glory, I know the merits of every one, I presented them with the blessings of My goodness (Ps 21:3). I foreknew My beloved ones from everlasting, I chose them out of the world (Jn 15:19), they did not choose Me (Jn 15:6). I called them by My grace, drew them by My mercy. I led them on through many temptations. I poured mighty consolations upon them, I gave them perseverance, I crowned their patience.

4. “I acknowledge the first and the last – I embrace all with an inestimable love. I am to be praised in all My Saints. I am to be blessed above all things, and to be honored in every one whom I have so gloriously exalted and predestined, without any preceding merits of their own. Therefore, anyone that despises one of the least of My people, honors not the great; because I made both small and great (Wis 6:7). And whoever speaks against any of My Saints speaks against Me, and against all others in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

They are all one through the bond of charity. They think the same thing, will the same thing, and all are united in love one to another (Jn 17:21).

5. “And yet (which is far better) they love Me above themselves and their own merits. For being caught up above themselves, and drawn beyond self-love, they are fully absorbed in the love of Me, in Whom they rest in perfect enjoyment. There is nothing which can turn them away or press them down; for being full of Eternal Truth, they burn with the fire of inextinguishable charity.

Therefore let all those carnal and natural people hold their peace concerning the state of the Saints, for they know nothing except to love their own personal enjoyment. They add and detract according to their own inclination, not as it pleases the Eternal Truth.

6. “In many this is ignorance, chiefly is it so in those who are so little enlightened that they rarely learn to love any one with a perfect spiritual love. They are still drawn too much by natural affection and human friendship to these people or to those people: and as they think of themselves in lower matters, they also formulate imaginations of heavenly things. But there is an immeasurable difference between those things which are imperfectly imagined, and those things which an enlightened disciple beholds through supernatural revelation.

7. “Take heed, therefore, My child, that you do not treat with curiosity those things which surpass your knowledge. Rather, make this your business and give attention to it, namely, that you seek to be found, even though you may be the least in the Kingdom of God. And if any one should know those who were more holy than others, or who were held greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven; what profit should that knowledge benefit him, unless through this knowledge he should humble himself before Me, and should rise up to give greater praise to My name? The one who considers the greatness of his own sins and the smallness of his virtues, and how far removed he is from the perfection of the Saints, achieves far more acceptably in the sight of God, than those who dispute about their greatness or littleness.

8. “They are altogether well content, if you would learn to be content, and to refrain from vain babbling. They glory not in their own merits, seeing they ascribe nothing of goodness to themselves, but all to Me, seeing that I of My infinite charity have given them all things. They are filled with so great love of the Divinity, and with such overflowing joy, that no glory is lacking to them, neither can any happiness be lacking. All the Saints, the higher they are exalted in glory, the humbler are they in themselves, and the nearer and dearer are they unto Me. And so you have it written that they cast their crowns before God and fell on their faces before the Lamb, and worshiped Him that lives for ever and ever (Rev 4:10,14).

9. “Many ask who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, who know not whether they shall be worthy to be counted among the least (Mk 9:35-37. It is a great thing to be even the least in Heaven, where all are great, because all shall be called, and shall be the children of God (Matt 5:9). The least shall be as a thousand, but the hundred year old sinner shall be accursed (Is 65:20). For when the disciples asks who should be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, they received no other answer than this, ‘Except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. But whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same shall be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt 18:3).”

10. Woe to them who refuse to humble themselves willingly with the little children; for the low gate of the kingdom of Heaven will not allow them to enter in (Mk 9:35-37). Woe also to those who are rich, who have their consolation here, because while the poor enter into the kingdom of God, they shall stand outside lamenting (Lk 6:24). Rejoice you that are humble and poor: if you walk in the truth, the kingdom of God is yours (Matt 5:3).