Joy of Contemplating the Truth
ONE
Things that bring true fulfillment we should do; things that leaves us empty, angry and full of anxiety, we should stop doing. The mind was made for truth like the stomach was made for food. And since the mind is higher than the stomach, the pleasure and satisfaction of knowing the truth should be higher than the satisfaction of having a full belly. Knowing the truth, grasping reality, seeing the big ideas that put everything in a new light – now there’s food for the soul! Think about the last time a talk or a book or even a movie “blew your mind.” Probably it wove together large pieces of your experience – stuff that you knew already – and connected them to some larger principle in a way that brought it all together. We gain our knowledge piecemeal, and when we’re able to put the pieces together into a coherent picture, it’s enormously gratifying, one of the most fulfilling experiences.
On the other hand, the countless contradictory statements and bits of information we receive in the news, blogs and podcasts (sport stats, random dates, bits of gossip) are not satisfying, they are like bad appetizers and no main course. My mind is hungry for truth but all I get from the news are bits and pieces of garbage. The news gives us a counterfeit to the truth. To be well informed is a counterfeit to real wisdom. We don’t need a bunch of worthless pieces of information, we need wisdom that comes from contemplating a few true ideas that help us grasp reality and live well – so I am on a complete news detox and fast – why – because its is not satisfying, it makes me angry, and gives most people PTSD.
TWO
St Thomas Aquinas enumerates a variety of remedies for pain and sorrow. But no other remedy receives so strong an endorsement as does the contemplation of truth: “The greatest of all pleasures consists in the contemplation of truth…And therefore in the midst of tribulations men rejoice in the contemplation of Divine things and of future Happiness.”[1] But it’s pretty hard to convince people today that contemplation of truth is pleasurable, let alone that it’s the greatest pleasure there is. Nonetheless, it’s a fact, evident from both the act of contemplation and the content of contemplation.
The act of contemplating the truth just means conforming our minds to the way things are. The hand adjusts its shape differently depending on whether it’s grasping a baseball bat, a pencil, or a penny. Likewise, the mind grasps truth when it shapes itself around some reality or some fact. When the intellect latches on to something outside itself and then fits that thing like a glove, it has scored some truth. Take for example Colossians Chapter 3 “Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one Body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Now that fits like a glove and satisfies the hunger for truth – that is worth digesting!
THREE
The desire for knowledge is a constant feature of human life, and the information age has developed countless options for intellectual pleasure in the form of news, blogs, Siri, Wikipedia, TED talks, podcasts, etc. People go to these sources to fight boredom –
but boredom can only be fought with pleasure. Which means knowing things is pleasurable. Knowledge is “stimulating,” entertaining, interesting. It’s delightful just to know. The problem, of course, is that the news is an incredibly unreliable way of getting knowledge, truth and a grasp of reality. Another tragic example can be taken from the people who love to feel “well-informed” because they watch an hour or so of news every night. News stations are expert at providing clever substitutes for actual wisdom. Not only do they sensationalize disconnected bytes of information, but they even provide an overarching structure for interpreting everything (e.g., for one news provider, everything can be explained by the principle “conservatives are selfish and evil,” and for another news provider, everything can be explained by the principle, “liberals are stupid and evil”). Thus news-junkies can come to think that they’re aware of and understand everything worth knowing – even if they’ve literally never spent one minute’s energy on rigorous consideration or honest research regarding ultimate truth.
FOUR
This isn’t a new phenomenon. Hilaire Belloc, writing in the twenties, lamented the popular press’ exacerbation of “the modern mind’s” degeneracy:
The “Modern Mind” dislikes thinking: the popular Press increases that sloth by providing sensational substitutes. Disliking thought, the “Modern Mind” dislikes close attention, and indeed any sustained effort; the popular Press increases the debility by an orgy of pictures and headlines. The “Modern Mind” ascribes a false authority to reiteration; the popular Press serves it with ceaseless iteration... In all these ways and twenty others the popular Press as we have it today thrusts the “Modern Mind” lower than it would otherwise have fallen, swells its imbecility and confirms it in its incapacity for civilization and therefore for the faith.[2]
FIVE
Eating is very pleasurable, and it’s meant to be, but people frequently destroy their physical health by being undisciplined in what they eat and how they eat it. So too knowledge is very pleasurable, and it’s meant to be, but people are destroying their mental health by being undisciplined in what they think about and how they think about it. Intemperance with the truth – overindulgence in getting your “facts” from the news – will make you angry, or despondent, or fearful, or envious. But a life of contemplation, that is, a commitment to sustained meditation on the Truth about who God is and what He has done for us, brings peace and joy like nothing else can.
[1] ST I-II, q. 38, a. 5.
[2] Hilaire Belloc, Survivals and New Arrivals (Aeterna Press, 2016), 102.