23. The Apostle who was chosen not of men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, to be the teacher of the Gentiles752    Cf. Gal. i. 1., expounds in language as express as he can command the secrets of the heavenly Dispensations. He who had been caught up into the third heaven and had heard unspeakable words753    Cf. 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4., reveals to the perception of human understanding as much as human nature can receive. But he does not forget that there are things which cannot be understood in the moment of hearing. The infirmity of man needs time to review before the true and perfect tribunal of the mind, that which is poured indiscriminately into the ears. Comprehension follows the spoken words more slowly than hearing, for it is the ear which hears, but the reason which understands, though it is God Who reveals the inner meaning to those who seek it. We learn this from the words written among many other exhortations to Timothy, the disciple instructed from a babe in the Holy Scriptures by the glorious faith of his grandmother and mother754    Cf. 2 Tim. i. 5; iii. 15.: Understand what I say, for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things755    2 Tim. ii. 7.. The exhortation to understand is prompted by the difficulty of understanding. But God’s gift of understanding is the reward of faith, for through faith the infirmity of sense is recompensed with the gift of revelation. Timothy, that ‘man of God’ as the Apostle witnesses of him756    1 Tim. v. 11., Paul’s true child in the faith757    Ib. i. 2., is exhorted to understand because the Lord will give him understanding in all things: let us, therefore, knowing that the Lord will grant us understanding in all things, remember that the Apostle exhorts us also to understand.

23. Quaedam esse quae homo statim non capiat.---Coelestium dispensationum arcana Apostolus non ab hominibus, neque per hominem, sed per Jesum Christum electus gentium magister, quanta potest absoluti 390 sermonis significatione demonstrat. Et qui inenarranda usque ad tertium coelum raptus audisset, ea tantum, quorum natura humana capax esset, sensui humanae intelligentiae revelavit: non ignorans tamen quaedam non statim posse atque audiuntur intelligi, quia infirmitas nostra serius in verum atque absolutum mentis judicium ea, quae in aures transfunderentur, acciperet; longiore ad cunctandum mora sensui potius quam auditui derelicta, cum et audisse vocis sit, et intellexisse rationis, 0415C Deo tamen intelligentiae cupidis intelligentiam revelante. Namque ad Timotheum per aviae ac matris gloriosam fidem sacris ab infantia litteris institutum scribens plurima, hoc quoque addidit: Intellige 0416A quae dico, dabit enim tibi Deus in omnibus intellectum (II Tim. II, 7). Admonitio intelligendi ex difficultate intelligentiae est. Intelligentiae vero a Deo donum, fidei munus est, per quam infirmitas sensus gratiam revelationis meretur. Si ergo Timotheus apostolico testimonio homo Dei (l Tim. VI, 11), et legitimus Paulo secundum fidem filius, ut intelligat admonetur, quia ei Dominus intelligentiam in omnibus sit daturus; nos quoque admoneri per Apostolum ad intelligentiam meminerimus, scientes Dominum nobis intelligentiam omnium praestiturum.