Lumen Fidei - page 37

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also a knowledge bound to the passage of time,
for words take time to be pronounced, and it is
a knowledge assimilated only along a journey of
discipleship. The experience of hearing can thus
help to bring out more clearly the bond between
knowledge and love.
At times, where knowledge of the truth is
concerned, hearing has been opposed to sight;
it has been claimed that an emphasis on sight
was characteristic of Greek culture. If light
makes possible that contemplation of the whole
to which humanity has always aspired, it would
also seem to leave no space for freedom, since
it comes down from heaven directly to the eye,
without calling for a response. It would also seem
to call for a kind of static contemplation, far re-
moved from the world of history with its joys
and sufferings. From this standpoint, the biblical
understanding of knowledge would be antitheti-
cal to the Greek understanding, inasmuch as the
latter linked knowledge to sight in its attempt to
attain a comprehensive understanding of reality.
This alleged antithesis does not, however,
correspond to the biblical datum. The Old Testa-
ment combined both kinds of knowledge, since
hearing God’s word is accompanied by the desire
assisting it, as well as the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who
moves the heart and converts it to God, and opens the eyes
of the mind and makes it easy for all to accept and believe the
truth. The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts,
so that revelation may be more and more deeply understood”
(Second V atican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitu-
tion on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 5).