Vigils Reading – St Thomas Aquinas

GATHER YOURSELF IN WISDOM

From a commentary by St Thomas Aquinas

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[In the book of Ecclesiasticus it says] “Run ahead into your house and

gather yourself there and play there and pursue your thoughts.”

The advantage which the study of wisdom has is that it is to a greater

degree self-sufficient in pursuing its business. When we are engaged in outward

activities we need many things to help us, but in the contemplation of wisdom

we work all the more effectively, the more we dwell alone with ourselves.

So…the wise Man calls us back to ourselves: “Run ahead into your own

house,

” that is, be anxious to return from external things to your own mind,

before anything else gets hold of it and any other anxiety distracts it. That is why

it says in Wisdom, “I will enter my house and rest with her”…

The first requirement, then for the contemplation of wisdom is that we

should take complete possession of our minds before anything else does, so that

we can fill the whole house with the contemplation of wisdom. But it is also

necessary that we ourselves should be fully present there, concentrating in such

a way that our aim is not diverted to other matters. Accordingly the text goes on,

“And gather yourself there,

” that is, draw together your whole intention. And

when our interior house is entirely emptied like this and we are fully present

there in our intention, the text tells us what we should do; “And play there.

”

There are two features of play which make it appropriate to compare the

contemplation of wisdom to playing. First, we enjoy playing, and there is the

greatest enjoyment of all to be had in the contemplation of wisdom. As Wisdom

says in Ecclesiasticus, “My spirit is sweeter than honey.”

Secondly, playing has no purpose beyond itself; what we do in play is done

for its own sake. And the same applies to the pleasure of wisdom. If we are

enjoying thinking about the things we long for or the things we are proposing to

do, this kind of enjoyment looks beyond itself to something else which we are

eager to attain.

If we fail to attain it or if there is a delay in attaining it, our pleasure is

mingled with a proportionate distress… But the contemplation of wisdom

contains within itself the cause of its own enjoyment, and so it is not exposed to

the kind of anxiety that goes with waiting for something which we lack… “Her

company is without bitterness” (the company of wisdom)… “and there is no

boredom in living with her.”

It is for this reason that divine Wisdom compares her enjoyment to

playing… “I enjoyed myself every single day, playing before him,” each “single

day” meaning the consideration of some different truth. So… “Pursue your

thoughts,” the thoughts… by means of which we obtain knowledge of the truth.