In the 1931 canonization decree for St. Albert the Great, Pope Pius XI wrote: “But in Albert the Great the rays of human and divine sciences wondrously come together and form a luminous halo around him. By his most illustrious example he instructs all that between science and faith, truth and goodness, teaching and sanctity there exists no opposition, but rather intimate cohesion.”
The Church does not see hyperbole in the Lord’s statement, “I am the truth.” Rather, she takes him at his word. Jesus really is the truth. And just as the Lord “cannot deny himself,” so truth can never contradict truth. Pope John Paul II says as much in his timely encyclical Fides et Ratio: “God could not deny himself, nor could the truth ever contradict the truth.”
This principle holds firm when applied to any truth whatsoever, whether we speak of geometry and astronomy, physics and faith. There is one Creator of all, and therefore one Truth to which all knowledge must conform. Any seeming contradiction is only that—seeming. It can always be resolved in principle, even if this work lies beyond our own powers.
When we Christians recognize the harmony of all truth, there is no longer any place for fear in intellectual pursuits. Those confident in the one Creator’s sovereignty need not fear any truly scientific discovery, since it can only tell us more about the truth of things. Rather, the Christian can throw himself into study of every sort with liberating confidence, since he has no doubt that honest inquiry will only and always lead him to the truth about himself, the world, and God.
This week, Dominicana presents six Dominicans who exemplified this free, confident pursuit of truth, wherever it may be found. Following the example of St. Albert the Great, these friars studied not only philosophy and theology, but physics, biology, meteorology, mathematics, and much more. They knew there was nothing to fear and much to gain through knowledge both natural and supernatural, and they searched for it tirelessly.
We hope these Dominicans’ examples strengthen your zeal in the pursuit of truth and your confidence in the harmony of faith and reason. Whether our intellectual pursuits involve a lifetime career in the sciences or a jealously guarded hour of weekly reading, may our pursuit be as wise and pure as that of St. Albert and these zealous friars. Let it be said of us, according to our state in life, what Pius XI said of St. Albert: “For this was the supreme and constant purpose of Albert’s whole intellectual life: that whatever true, whatever beautiful, whatever sublime might be found in the wisdom of the peoples, he willed both to learn it, and to offer and entirely consecrate it to the Creator himself, who is the first Truth, the highest Beauty, and essential Perfection.”
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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
