March 12, 2023 - "St. Thomas Aquinas"

In June 2010 the late Pope Benedict XVI devoted three Wednesday Angelus addresses on St. Thomas Aquinas.  He recalls an observation from St. John Paul II: “the Church has been justified in consistently proposing St. Thomas as master of thought and a model of right way to do theology” (Fides et Ratio, n. 43). Pope Benedict pointed out St. Thomas Aquinas is cited at least sixty-one times in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  The only ecclesiastical writer who is cited more often is St. Augustine.
 
Thomas was born between 1224 and 1225 in the castle that his wealthy noble family owned at Roccasecca near Aquino, not far from the famous Abbey of Montecassino where his parents sent him to receive the first elements of his education.  A few years later he moved to Naples, then the Kingdom of Sicily, where Frederick II had founded a prestigious university where the thinking of the Greek philosophy of Aristotle was taught without the limitations imposed elsewhere.  Thomas was introduced to Aristotle’s philosophy and immediately recognized its value.  While he was studying in Naples, Thomas got to know the Dominicans.  His family was furious when they learned that he planned to join the Dominicans.  The family plan was that Thomas was going to enter the Benedictines at Montecassino and eventually become the Abbot there.  He was obliged to leave the convent and spent some time at home.
 
In 1245, by which time he had come of age, he was able to continue on the path of his response to God’s call.  He was sent to Paris to study theology under the guidance of another saint, Albert the Great.  They learned to esteem and to love each other to the point that Albert even wanted his disciple to follow him to Cologne, where Albert had been sent by the Superiors of the Order to found a theological stadium. Thomas then once again came into contact with all Aristotle’s works and his Arab commentators that Albert described and explained.
 
Thomas Aquinas, at the school of Albert the Great, did something of fundamental importance for the history of philosophy and theology.  Thomas made a thorough study of Aristotle and his interpreters, obtaining for himself new Latin translations of the original Greek texts.  As a result Thomas no longer relied solely on the Arab commentators but was able to read the original texts for himself. Thomas showed that a natural harmony exists between Christian faith and reason.  This was a great achievement of Thomas who showed that faith and reason go hand in hand at a time when it seemed the faith would have to give in to reason.  Thomas created a new synthesis which formed the culture of the centuries to come.
 
Because of his excellent intellectual gifts Thomas was summoned to Paris to be professor of theology on the Dominican chair.  Here he began his literary production which continued until his death.  Thomas did not stay long or permanently in Paris.  In 1259 he took part in the General Chapter of the Dominicans in Valenciennes where he was a member of a commission that established the Order’s program of studies. 
 
From 1261 to 1265, Thomas was at Orvieto.  Pope Urban IV, who held him in high esteem, commissioned him to write liturgical texts for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.  In 1269 Thomas was recalled to Paris for a second set of lectures.  Although his interpretation of Aristotle was not accepted by all, even his adversaries admitted that his teaching on the subject was superior to that of others working in the field and indeed served as a corrective for the dubious interpretations of others teaching on Aristotle’s philosophy at the time.  His Dominican Superiors then reassigned him to Naples to be available to King Charles I who was planning to reorganize university studies there.
 
The last months of Thomas’s earthly life remain surrounded by a mysterious atmosphere.  In December 1273, he summoned his friend and secretary Brother Reginald to inform Reginald of his decision to discontinue all work because he had realized, during celebration of Mass subsequent to a supernatural revelation, that everything he had written until then “was worthless.”  A few months later Thomas died while on his way to Lyons to take part in the Ecumenical Council convoked by Pope Gregory X.
 
Pope Benedict XVI says that the life and teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas could be summed up in an episode passed down by his ancient biographers.  When Thomas was praying before the Crucifix in the early morning in the chapel of St. Nicholas in Naples, the church sacristan overheard a conversation.  Thomas was anxiously asking whether what he had written on the mysteries of the Christian faith was correct.  And the Crucified One answered him: “You have spoken well of me, Thomas.  What is your reward to be?” Pope Benedict states that the answer Thomas gave him was what we too, friends and disciples of Jesus, always want to tell him: “Nothing but Yourself, Lord!”
 
Thomas Aquinas was canonized in 1323 and named a Doctor of the Church in 1568.
 
Until next week,
Fr. John