Jan 28 Thomas Aquinas entry 2

Thom and Jack
Good Morning, I love you


January 28

Thomas Aquinas b. 1225 d. 1274 c. 1323
(con’t)

[101122, 1847] November 22nd. A day that will live forever embedded in my heart and mind. I remember where I was when I heard that President Kennedy was shot. I remember waiting in class for word as to his well being – girls cried, boys cried, women cried, men cried. We all prayed in our own way. Nothing productive was going to happen until we knew – and not likely to happen afterwards either. The announcement came over the PA system. Our principal. He was crying, too. He read the news release that he’d just heard over the radio. Our hero, shot dead. For us, few, Catholics, our saintly president, our 1,000 days of hope for final recognition of our equality, shot dead. There was sorrow. There was fury. [but we did not use this as an excuse to riot in the streets like what happened in April 1968.] Camelot shattered. A day to be sure to go to Mass: to pray for sanity in our world: to pray for peace: to pray that our heroes of our youth – the three Johns in Greeley’s novels (Kennedy, Unitis, and XXIIIrd) – will inspire us to our own greatness….. but I digress….

Some time between 1240 and August, 1243, Thomas Aquinas received the habit of the Order of St. Dominic. Thus began a three year struggle for the heart, mind, and service of this extraordinary young man.

Thomas Aquinas’ father, the Count of Aquino, had plans for his son. Rightfully so. His right as father. His right as Count. His right as the person to whom the community, never mind his family, turned to discern and deliver upon what is rightfully theirs. They’d raised this boy. They had great expectations for this young man. He had a responsibility to them all, most importantly to his father and his mother, Theodora. Honor thy father and thy mother applies to every son at every age, especially at the choice points in life that will (apparently) determine the destiny of the family as well as the individual.

John of St. Julian, a noted Dominican preacher of the convent of Naples, took Thomas Aquinas under his wing. The city wondered that such a noble young man should don the garb of poor friar. His mother, with mingled feelings of joy and sorrow, hastened to Naples to see her son. The Dominicans, fearing she would take him away, sent him to Rome, his ultimate destination being Paris or Cologne.

It is a heady proposition to have the Church and the Count and the City to be aspiring for your services – for your heart and soul. In the best of all possible worlds, with due deference to Leibnitz, all those pulls on your heart strings will be in the same direction. Alas, it is frequently not so. How is an eighteen year old young man to decide? How do you discern your vocation, how do you find the will of Our Father in the midst of conflicting demands on you from people declaring that they, they alone, have your best interest in heart?

Go first to the original covenant: the first promises you made – made for you at baptism and reaffirmed by you at confirmation. No decision you make can be God’s will if it violates these first principles: the commandments, the beatitudes, the responsibility to Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Or, for an eighteen year old youth, honor your father and your mother when every fiber of your being is seeking identity which is first sought in the “I’m not you” attitude of the adolescent. Just like Jesus must have felt at Gethsemane – Man, if only I could get out of this! But not my will, your will be done – the adolescent boy screams ‘leave me alone’, I’m my own man! And then a wisp of maturity awakens the new man to the reality that ‘I am both me and my family.’

Theodora sent Thomas's brothers, who were soldiers under the Emperor Frederick, to bring the boy home so they could talk some sense into him. They confined Thomas Aquinas in the fortress of San Giovanni at Rocca Secca. For two years his parents, brothers, and sisters endeavored by various means to destroy his vocation, as the holy bioblurb put it. They genuinely, I bet, wanted to put some sense into that brilliant head of his. Family, legacy, the well-being of their community were at stake. He owed it to them! So much was at stake, the extreme measures were warranted. Wouldn’t it be something if so many important people fought over your vocation? Look more closely. They are. All declaring that they have your best interests at heart. How will you decide, every day, to discern and do the will of Our Father?

The brothers sent a hooker, well a courtesan, to persuade this pure-minded novice that his vocation lay in service to family and home front. Thomas Aquinas drove the temptress from his room with a brand which he snatched from the fire. St. Thomas revealed late in life the secret of a remarkable favor received at this time. When the temptress had been driven from his chamber, he knelt and most earnestly implored God to grant him integrity of mind and body. He fell into a gentle sleep, and, as he slept, two angels appeared to assure him that his prayer had been heard. They then girded him about with a white girdle, saying: "We gird thee with the girdle of perpetual virginity." And from that day forward he never experienced the slightest motions of concupiscence.

We are not smart enough to imagine all the ways our best friend, The Evil One, will tempt us to embrace the greatness of this world and take our eye off of pursuing God’s will. But we know it will come to us in ways more and less subtle than the efforts Thomas Aquinas’ family made. And we will overcome the persistent temptations over and over again. The saint’s prayer – the integrity of body and spirit – should be our daily prayer, especially when we win a victory over TEO, large or small. Paul warns us that life is a continuous struggle between our body and spirit. Pray to St Thomas for the integrity of your body and spirit.

Put yourself in Thomas Aquinas’ place at the beginning of his house arrest. Stand in the great hall with his parents and his brothers. Each one of these people, and the many more with a vested interest in the outcome, was committed to doing what it would take for as long as it takes. What would you predict will happen? How long do you think it will take to get to the next stage in Thomas Aquinas’ life? And what, pray tell, was God thinking when he allowed this fiasco to take place? For what purpose did Thomas Aquinas and his family, the Dominicans and the pope, have to go through this saga?

Thomas Aquinas’ sisters got him some books – e.g., the Holy Scriptures, Aristotle's Metaphysics, and the "Sentences" of Peter Lombard. For whatever periods in life you are holed up, for whatever circumstance, be sure you have some good books with you, classics would be the best, in the original if you can.

After almost two years, Thomas was given his freedom to choose his vocation. Maybe his mother finally relented. Maybe his brothers feared the threats of the Pope (a Dominican, by the way) and the Emperor (who was subservient to the Pope). The Dominicans discovered that in this captivity, Thomas Aquinas had made as much progress as if he had been with them all along in their novitiate. Go figure.

I love you
Dad
1939