Itching ears

The theme these past few days has been "truth," hasn't it?  Today is a day that some in the church set aside to honor Mark the Evangelist.  It seems very appropriate to me that Saint Mark is associated with scripture relating to the idea of truth.  We are directed this day in scripture to a solemn charge that Paul makes to Timothy to be vigilant against those (maybe all of us at times) who want something different, something beyond what is presented to them as truth through the Gospel.  Those people will have "itching ears" as Saint Paul puts it.

"And they will turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (II Timothy 4:4)

The idea of itching ears is a kind of variation of curiosity.  Curiosity, while valued highly in our scientific and entrepreneurial culture, is not a classic virtue.  The classic virtues are temperance, prudence, justice, and fortitude. Curiosity is not among them. Curiosity*, though, when regulated in the service of some good, is indeed to be praised and encouraged.  "Itching ears" on the other hand implies a lack of regulation, a lack of standards.  This is the condition many young people find themselves in.  I write to you, my children, knowing that your great and healthy young minds will ask many questions and look for many answers.  You will ask and test and try.  The truth will not move.  The truth will be there.  You know, of course, that Truth is a Person.

Please don't try to interpret this text as an admonition against learning.  That is a most incorrect reading in my opinion.  You are to be armed with reasons for what you do and what you believe.  That requires learning.  When our interest in learning stops, we are sorry creatures.  The hard and nuanced lesson in this is that learning is not a free-for-all.  There are great and mighty distinctions between the classic virtues (mentioned above), the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and those things I will call admirable moral characteristics - such as curiosity.  Or they can be admirable - or not.  The difference is whether or not they are informed and governed by the great standards - the virtues, or the standard of standards, the Truth incarnate.




*There is a great opinion piece about curiosity by the contemporary essayist, S. Fish, in the New York Times from about a year and a a half ago.  If you're curious.  Does Curiosity Kill More than the Cat?