SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my sermon  is, St. Thomas Aquinas. In this sermon I just want to give 10 comments about St. Thomas Aquinas - hopefully interesting ones.  So this is what I came up with from my homework last night in preparing this short 2 page talk.

1) Today - January 28^th, we celebrate the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. It’s not the anniversary of his death, but the date of the publication of his Summa. He died March 7^th, 1274 - about 49 of age.

2) He was a quiet Italian boy whose parents planned on him being a Benedictine - an abbot - probably in Monte Cassino.  Nope! He ends up a Dominican - with parents dead against that idea. He studies in Naples, Paris, Germany and teaches in Paris and Rome, etc.

3) During his last few days of life he could be seen on a donkey heading for the Second Council of Lyons. He bangs his head on the branch of a fallen tree - gets brutally sick and dies a short time later. I like that scene. It sort of follows the same path as Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem Palm Sunday - and then dies the following Friday.

4) He wrote 2 massive works - two Summa’s - or Summaries of what he was thinking and what he was teaching. First the Summa Contra Gentiles [1265-1264] and  then the Summa Theologica (1265-1274).  

5) His method was very thorough: state a question as clear as possible.  Then present the opposing positions - each with the best arguments. Then pick the arguments apart before you present what you believe to be the truth along with the best possible arguments.

6) Some say the best book on Aquinas is called, St. Thomas Aquinas - The Dumb Ox  by G.K. Chesterton.  I’ve read the following: as  biography it’s weak; as to research, it’s also weak. However,  because Chesterton was a huge genius, he captures the essence of Aquinas, Next, for some,  the book can be a tough read. Yet, for some who read it, it becomes the best book on Aquinas and the best book of their life. It has helped lead various folks into the Catholic Church.

7) Staying with Chesterton, I like the comparison between him and Aquinas. Supposedly,  Aquinas was a big man. How big, how fat, we don’t know. Chesterton was also a big man. That we know.  G.K. Chesterton wrote, "St. Thomas was a huge heavy bull of a man, fat and slow and quiet; very mild and magnanimous but not very sociable; shy, even apart from the humility of holiness; and abstracted, even apart from his occasional and carefully concealed experiences of trance or ecstasy.” When Chesterton died, his coffin was too big to be carried through the door, so he  had to be lowered from the window like a piano. When they were trying to help Aquinas to escape from his own home and get to the Dominicans, supposedly he too was lowered out of window - but in a basket and to freedom.

8) Chesterton liked food. As a teacher and theologian, Aquinas loved to go from the stuff right in front of us - the stuff on the table - the stuff that we know from our senses. and have them bring us to God. His 5 proofs of God - go from the known to the unknown. See the earth moving, someone had to get it started. That Prime Mover is God. See a chair, know there is a chair maker. I read that the key Latin saying and principle that Thomas Aquinas used is: "Nihil est in intellectu quod non fuerit prius in sensu." (Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses). What we see, hear, taste and touch, cab move from the eyes - from the senses -  to the mind - to theology - to God. Speaking of people, how else would God come to us,  but  as a baby, Speaking of food, how else would God feed us, but by bread and wine. Jesus comes as the answer to human hunger and thirst for God.

9) Expect conflict in life! If we speak up,  if we think and then publish our thoughts, if we innovate, expect criticism. St. Thomas had some of his stuff condemned and blackballed. That’s part and parcel of the history of theology in the Catholic Church. It takes time and study - to come to the truth. This was the history of many theologians in the Catholic Church. Life: expect problems, struggles and controversy.

10) Conclusion:  In the long run St. Thomas Aquinas said, “In comparison to God, everything I wrote seems like straw.” Translation for me: Don’t take oneself so seriously.  Be able to laugh at life.