ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

The title of my thoughts is, “St. Thomas Aquinas.”

Today the Catholic Church honors St. Thomas Aquinas - so let me make a few comments about him. He died on March 7^th, 1274. His feast day was switched to January 28^th. I didn’t spot any reason. I assume it’s because his feast gets knocked out at times because it’s usually during Lent. They picked January 28^th, because that’s the date of the publication of his Summa.

He is a gift to the world and to our Church.

He had a great love of Jesus’ Presence in the Eucharist. I assume we do also  being here for one more weekday Mass.

He bridges philosophy and theology - and I assume there will be revivals of Thomas’ writings on and off through the centuries - because of just that.  He can bridge science and theology - a much needed bridge. He said: authority is the weakest argument. Don’t just argue and tell me. Show me!

Those in authority tried to silence him in his time. This happens from time to time in our Church. I don’t know your take on that - but my take is: don’t just condemn, prove. Theologians are silenced from time to time. Then someone says: “Ooops!”

This happened to Dominicans and other theologians at the time of Vatican II. Rahner and Marin Sola and De Lubac and Congar - were silenced.Then surprise, they ended up being part of the formulations of the Documents of Vatican II. And some still bad name them.

This also happened to scripture scholars in the early part of the last century - till Pius XII came out with an encyclical on Scripture - Divino Afflante Spiritu. It opened up the doors and windows of Cagholic Scripture scholarship years before Vatican II. [1]

Pope Benedict 16 has experienced this as well when he was Joseph Ratzinger - Theologian.

Thomas is very practical. We learn through the senses. Don’t we all. The Catholic Church is very much sense based. The churches have statues and stained glass windows. We use candles and water - and oil and gesture.

I love his use of Aristotle and his 5 arguments for the existence of God. He stresses we know by our senses and then we reflect on what we learn with logic and reason - before faith. We can know a lot by reason - and I think this is the way to talk to young people - hoping and praying the gift of faith kicks in - stress on gift - in God’s good time.  For example, we know God exists by looking at the earth and stars - the Grand Canyon and the Big Dipper. We know that God is a Trinity by faith - and revelation.

As I was reading up about Thomas Aquinas this morning. Different articles about his life mentioned places he had been. I pinched myself because I have been to Cologne [1 hour ] - Paris [one day and a morning] - Naples [one day] - Monte Cassino [a couple of hours] - Rome [two times - once for 6 hours - once for a few weeks].  That hit me for some reason - and then I remembered a moment on a train from Rome to Naples with Father John Ruef. He pointed out the window at a stone tower. That’s the place where Thomas Aquinas was held captive for 2 years.

Interesting Saint. Check him out.  Just type into Google, “Saint Thomas Aquinas.”

NOTES

[1]  Cf. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 1990, 72: 20-41.

Picture on top: St. Thomas Aquinas by Fra Bartolomeo