Which is better, contemplation or action?

            Not all things which know can compare. Animals know, but they don’t know like man knows. Man knows a thing not only with his senses, in a singular way  but in a universal way. This is why he is able to name things, to speak, to establish society and government, and to tell jokes. We compare subject to predicate to see whether they fit; we compare aspects of one thing to see if it is like another before we attribute a name to it; we compare what our senses tell us to what our intellect knows; we compare reality to our words and to our thoughts in order to know the truth. Comparison is a necessary act of the human intellect.

            But we also compare moral things: whether one thing is good or not, whether one good thing is better than another, whether one bad thing is more evil than another, and among options, which should one do.

            Comparison is also important when discerning one’s vocation in life. And so many families try to discern how much contemplation and action to mix in their lives, how much prayer, how often to attend weekday Mass, what types of apostolates, and how to mix both professional and household duties with their Christian inclination to pray.

            Also, young people are wondering whether to dedicate their lives to action or contemplation, especially if they are deliberating whether to enter a religious order or the state of the priesthood.

            I offer a summary answer to this question after a reflection on two passages, one from St. Gregory the Great (Moralia in Job, 6.38.59-62) and another from St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae, IIaIIae, q.182, a.1-4). St. Gregory writes, “Anyone who is perfect is first joined to the fruitfulness of the active life and is later couples to the rest of the contemplative life… While the merits of the active life are great, those of the contemplative life are preferable.”

            This is the most concise and pithy summary of the question I have found to date, and is worth hours and days of prayer. St. Thomas offers a far more in-depth analysis of these things. He also adds that the best Catholic life is a mix of both contemplation – which leads us to perfection in the love of God above all things – and action – which leads us to perfection in the love of our neighbor as ourselves.

            Worth noting, in these words of St. Gregory, are several aspects. First, both merits are good. Second, one may spend more time in action and less in contemplation. Second, he makes a qualitative distinction between the two types of merit, which is highly interesting (merit of contemplation is “better,” note, not “more” than the merit of action).

            Aristotle points out, “All men by nature desire to know.” So the act of knowing is the supreme synthesis of action and contemplation, and also of intellect and will; and when this is the knowledge of God, nothing more perfect can be done on earth.

            Pope St. Gregory the Great further makes eight comparisons, each on the pattern of action / contemplation: abundance / tomb (cf. Job 5:26); exercise of virtue / quiet; preaching / hearing (cf. Luke 8:39); work / restoration; Leah / Rachel (cf. Gen 29:26); Martha / Mary (cf. Luke 10:41); hands / wings (cf. Ezek. 10:8); death to the world / secret of light (cf. Ps 31:20).

            So both action and contemplation are necessary. But God created us to contemplate him, and in heaven, this is the perfection of all the saints. Those young people who wish to dedicate themselves to contemplation should do so, and feel encouraged to do so, in contemplative religious orders, full of silence and prayer and penance; and the whole Church would do wise in supporting them in this state of life. Families are wise who wish to include the contemplation of prayer and sacraments, together with regular periods or even habitual silence in the home, in the midst of their endless stream of activities. Yet none should reproach or despise action, for it is in work by which contemplation is made possible and attained, and in action by which many other souls may be helped to attain spiritual contemplation.