Jan 28 Thomas Aquinas entry 4

Thom and Jack
Good morning, I love you

Happy Thanksgiving, 2010

I connected with Grandpa today and my brother. I wish you would do the same – there are familial duties for your good and the good of the family.

Eucharist, in the Greek, means thanksgiving. One of my third grade students asked – how do they come up with names for things like that? When the early Catholics gathered together to remember Jesus in the breaking of the bread, hearing the Word, singing their praises, they were simply thankful. It seems to me that thankfulness is the easiest reaction to life. The fact that we exist. The gifts God gives us. All that is good. How can our first and lasting reaction to being be other than thankful? I hope you found your way to Eucharist today as well.

January 28

Thomas Aquinas b. 1225 d. 1274 c. 1323
(con’t. entry 4)



[101125, 2336] In spite of petty academic bickering between the University of Paris and the Mendicant orders, Thomas Aquinas obtained his Doctorate October 25, 1257. St Bonaventure received his doctorate at the same time. It matters what school you go to because that decision determines who will be your classmates. It matters who your classmates are – the smarter and holier they are, the more likely you will gain knowledge and learn goodness from them. Be wisely discerning in your selection of schools for yourself and your children; be careful about choosing where to train, where to work, with whom to associate.


The theme for Thomas Aquinas’ doctorate in theology was "The Majesty of Christ". His text, "Thou waterest the hills from thy upper rooms: the earth shall be filled with the fruit of thy works" (Psalm 103:13). One line into a thesis? The Bible is a source of many one liners and many theses. Take fifteen minutes each day. Read a line or a passage from the Bible. Savor it. Make it a line in the thesis that is your life.

From this time St. Thomas's life may be summed up in a few words: praying, preaching, teaching, writing, journeying. Everyone wanted a piece of him. And there was a lot of him to go around. He traveled all of Europe to teach at universities and to serve his Order, to serve the Pope, to serve the Church. Thomas Aquinas was always teaching and writing, living on earth with one passion, an ardent zeal for the explanation and defense of Christian truth.

Note praying comes first. Praying always comes first or else what follows is not going to be good enough. Thomas Aquinas was first and always a holy man, a pious man, a religious man. He was a priest: a servant leader for God’s people and our faith. Pray Always. In order to learn how to pray always we have to pray at specific times – like every morning and every evening, like grace before and after meals, like a brief pause at noon for an angelus or a quick examination of conscience.

Of course he was preaching, why do you think he joined the Order of Preachers? It was one of his charisms. It was essential to his vocation. A gift that he passed forward. What comes second on your list? How do you discern your vocation? How do you share your charism; and perfect it? What is it you do in service to God and His people?

We all have a duty to teach. We have gifts that we have an obligation to pass on. That is teaching. Gifts of faith, hope, and love to begin with. What has God given you? How do you pass it forward?

Writing may not be your forte. It could have been, it still could become a strength. Regardless of how well you write, you should be writing routinely. To your parents and Grandfather. For yourself in a spiritual journal. Even your own bioblurb for your children.

Journey. I don’t like this word as a verb: especially in the context of our spiritual journey. But I digress. Getting around Europe in the thirteenth century was not limos and private jets. One of the advantage of the modes of travel was that along the way Thomas Aquinas also got to preach and teach – not to mention that he did so daily by his modus vivandi.

In 1265, Clement IV was prepared to name Thomas Aquinas Archbishop of Naples. Had the saint not talked the pope out of this assignment, we probably would not have gotten the Summa: nor many of the other theological and religious contributions Thomas Aquinas passed on to us. However, we cannot say that what we got was better than what we would have gotten from a holy, brilliant pastor of a major see. Who knows, he may have gone on to be pope.

In 1259, Thomas Aquinas collaborated with Albertus Magnus and Peter of Tarentasia (afterwards Pope Innocent V. The Dominicans had a run on the papacy in the 13th c. And they preferred to be innocent? In preparation for the inquisition?) in formulating a system of studies which is substantially preserved to this day in the studia generalia of the Dominican Order. The three of them in room together, collaborating, successfully delivering a practical product. The Holy Spirit must have been in seventh heaven herself.

Thomas Aquinas was frequently in ecstasy. He turned his mind and soul to God completely and God responded in kind. Ecstasy is a spiritual orgasm but can last and last. I suppose it works in some ways similar to an orgasm. (I’ve had one but not that I recall the other.) Condition your soul like an athlete develops his body. Then, in your greatest exertion of giving your love to God, you will have an opportunity for ecstasy too.

Towards the end of his life the ecstasies became more frequent. On one occasion, at Naples in 1273, after he had completed his treatise on the Eucharist, three of the brethren saw him lifted in ecstasy, and they heard a voice proceeding from the crucifix on the altar, saying "Thou hast written well of me, Thomas; what reward wilt thou have?" Thomas replied, "None other than Thyself, Lord".

Imagine the scene. Be one of the three observant brethren. Be the speaking crucifix (or burning bush). Be Thomas. This is what it is supposed to mean to receive the Eucharist, to have Jesus, body and soul, consumed by you, consuming you. (I recommend Thomas Merton’s book on the Eucharist. It’s around here somewhere.)


On 6 December, 1273, Thomas Aquinas laid aside his pen and would write no more. That day he experienced an unusually long ecstasy during Mass; what was revealed to him we can only surmise from his reply to Father Reginald, who urged him to continue his writings: "I can do no more. Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears to be of little value". Compared to our love of Jesus and His of us, everything appears to be of little value. And still, we are called to work, to share our visions, to pass it forward. How dare I criticize Thomas Aquinas for putting down his pen and serving God in the way his vocation called for?! We should be respectful of other people’s discernment of their vocation and how to live it. (And have our own expectations and preferences – so long as every prayer includes: “thy will be done.”

Gregory X convoked a general council to open at Lyons on 1 May, 1274. He invited St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure to take part in the deliberations. Thomas Aquinas tried to obey, setting out on foot in January, 1274, but strength failed him; he fell to the ground near Terracina, whence he was conducted to the Castle of Maienza, the home of his niece the Countess Francesca Ceccano. The Cistercian monks of Fossa Nuova pressed him to accept their hospitality, and he was conveyed to their monastery. At the urgent request of the monks he dictated a brief commentary on the Canticle of Canticles. (What a way to go!)

The end was near; extreme unction was administered. When the Sacred Viaticum was brought into the room he pronounced the following act of faith:

“If in this world there be any knowledge of this sacrament stronger than that of faith, I wish now to use it in affirming that I firmly believe and know as certain that Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, is in this Sacrament . . . I receive Thee, the price of my redemption, for Whose love I have watched, studied, and labored. Thee have I preached; Thee have I taught. Never have I said anything against Thee: if anything was not well said, that is to be attributed to my ignorance. Neither do I wish to be obstinate in my opinions, but if I have written anything erroneous concerning this sacrament or other matters, I submit all to the judgment and correction of the Holy Roman Church, in whose obedience I now pass from this life.” Would that we all have the opportunity to profess our act of faith on our death bed. I believe, help my unbelief.

Thomas Aquinas died on 7 March, 1274. Numerous miracles attested his sanctity, and he was canonized by John XXII, 18 July, 1323.

I love you,
Dad
101126, 0023 (entry 4)