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Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández
Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
“Do Not Ask the Light, but the Fire”
Opening Meditation of the Plenary Session
of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
27 January 2026
Recently, while in prayer, I have felt a strong call to intellectual humility,
recalling those ancient words: “ubi humilitas, ibi sapientia” (“where
there is humility, there is wisdom”). So, I would like to begin our meeting, in
this context of prayer, with an invitation to intellectual humility.
God has given human beings the capacity for thought, a capacity with universal
scope: one can think about the world, about history, and about our origins; one
can even think about God. However, this universal capacity for thought does not
mean that humans possess the capacity for exhaustive knowledge or a
comprehensive perception of reality. Even with the help of the most powerful
technologies imaginable, it is impossible for a human mind to be aware of
reality in its totality and in every one of its aspects. This is possible only
for God.
The problem is that, for this reason, we cannot have a complete understanding of
even a small part of this world, since that same part can be understood fully
only in the light of the totality in which it is integrated, for everything is
connected.
Consequently, we are incapable of interpreting all the meanings and nuances of a
reality, a person, a historical moment, or a truth.
Thomas Aquinas explained that the inexhaustible richness of God is expressed
better in the richness of the whole, whose variety comes “from the intention of
the first agent,” in such a way that “what was wanting to one in the
representation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another.” If,
instead, there were just one creature—even if it were supremely perfect—this would be a loss because the goodness of God “could not be represented
fittingly by any one creature” (ST I, q. 47, a. 1; a. 2, ad 1; a. 3). For
this very reason, Pope Francis explains, “we need to grasp the variety of things
in their multiple relationships. We understand better the importance and meaning
of each creature if we contemplate it within the entirety of God’s plan” (Laudato
Si’, par. 86).
Saint John of the Cross expressed this idea in other words when he exclaimed:
“[Let us enter] into the thicket of your splendid works […] whose multitude and
variety are such that we can use the term ‘thicket.’ In these works and
judgments, there is abundant wisdom, so full of mysteries, […] so deep and
immense that no matter how much the soul knows, she can always enter it further;
it is vast and its riches incomprehensible” (Spiritual Canticle 36.10).
The more science and technology advance, the more we must keep alive the
awareness of our limits and our need for God, so as not to fall into a terrible
deception—indeed, the very same one that led to the excesses of the Inquisition,
the world wars, the Shoah, and the massacres in Gaza: all of which rely
on fallacious arguments for their justification.
The problem is that the same can happen in each of our lives. In fact, we repeat
that deception by living too securely in what we think we know.
This calls us to recognize two things:
1. That in order to understand anything fully, we
must allow ourselves to be illuminated by God. We must invoke him, pray and
listen to him, and let ourselves be guided by him amidst the shadows. Faith
assures us that we can truly do this and that God can truly enlighten us so that
we might see more clearly. We trust in him (credere Deo).
2. That we must reflect, think, and analyze
reality, but while also listening to others, welcoming their perspectives—which
allows us to perceive other aspects of that same reality—and opening ourselves
to other points of view. For this reason, it benefits us to pay attention to the
“peripheries,” where things are seen differently.
Along these lines, Pope Leo XIV recently affirmed that “no one possesses the
whole truth; we must all humbly seek it and seek it together.” Consequently, he
proposed “a Church that does not close in on itself, but remains attentive to
God so that it can similarly listen to everyone” (Homily for the Mass of the
Jubilee of the Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies, 26 October 2025).
Naturally, this applies all the more to the truths of the faith. Today, a
theologian normally possesses knowledge limited to a single theological
discipline or an isolated topic, whereas the mysteries of faith are interwoven
in a rich hierarchy, in which the whole is especially illuminated by those
central truths that constitute the heart of the Gospel.
Certainly, in a place such as this, where we have the possibility of giving
authoritative answers, of writing documents that become part of the Ordinary
Magisterium, and even of correcting and condemning, the risk of losing the
breath of our perspective is greater. But the issue is even more serious since
today, on any blog, anyone—even without having studied much theology—can express
his or her opinion and condemn others as if speaking ex cathedra. That is
why we must recover, throughout the whole Church, that healthy realism proposed
by the Church’s great sages and mystics.
What has been said about the limits of our mind applies to the whole of reality,
both natural and supernatural, but above all to the profound depths of God.
Therefore, I would like to conclude with a few words from Saint Bonaventure.
In the Itinerarium mentis in Deum, Bonaventure asked to whom we should
address the great questions of life. He then answered, “not [to] the light but
[to] the fire that enflames all things and carries them away […]. This fire is
God, and his furnace is in Jerusalem; and Christ enkindles it in the heat of his
burning passion” (Itin. VII, 6).
And at the end of his study on the knowledge of Christ, Bonaventure maintained
that, on this path, “negations are more appropriate than affirmations, and
superlatives more appropriate than positive predications. And if it is to be
experienced, interior silence is more helpful than external speech. Therefore,
let us stop speaking, and let us pray to the Lord that we may be granted the
experience of that about which we have spoken” (De scientia Christi VII,
ad ob. 21).
So, I would like to invite us to do exactly this. Let us ask for this gift in a
moment of silence.
Víctor Card. Fernández
Prefect
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