Word to the Wise
Saturday, January 29, 2011 - St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P. - Priest and Doctor of the Church
[Wisdom 7:7-10, 15-16 and John 17:11b-19]Therefore I prayed, and prudence was given to me; I pleaded, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me. [Wisdom]<br /> Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. [John]
Dominicans around the world celebrate today the feast of one of the most distinguished friars ever to wear the Dominican habit: St. Thomas Aquinas! The Dominican liturgical calendar gives as scriptural selections for this day selections that are different from the "Roman" calendar and more appropriate for the feast. All that St. Thomas wrote and spoke reflects the profound wisdom and passion for the truth that God gave him at his birth. That passion, especially, for the Truth reflected his fidelity to his Dominican vocation because our Order has as one of its mottoes the single word: VERITAS (Latin for Truth). Furthermore, anyone wishing to understand the importance of "prudence" in the everyday life of a Christian can go to the SUMMA THEOLOGIAE written by St. Thomas Aquinas and come to a profound appreciation not only for this guiding virtue but for the intelligence and wisdom of our Dominican brother.
A quick reading of the footnotes in the Cathechism of the Catholic Church will reveal the enormous influence that St. Thomas Aquinas has had and continues to have in the theology of the Western Church. It is hard to believe that shortly after Thomas' death (He lived 1221-1274), his works were publicly burned in Parish and condemned at Oxford in England (by a Dominican bishop no less!). His intellectual courage in adapting the philosophical works of the "pagan Greek" Aristotle as a framework for Christian theology brought him severe criticism and condemnation, no less! His SUMMA THEOLOGIAE, just to mention his most influential theological work, and SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES form the basis of much of Catholic theological reflection. Anyone brave enough to read all of Pope John Paul II's reflections on "the theology of the body" will soon learn of his debt to St. Thomas Aquinas!
On a less scholarly but no less influential level, all of us who sing the hymns (in Latin or in English), O SALUTARIS HOSTIA and TANTUM ERGO, at Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament, are singing hymns written by St. Thomas Aquinas!
A heritage of wisdom, prudence and truth await all who venture to read his writings, but even if we are unable to do that we are impacted every day in our Church by his works. I pray that his intercession will be our guide in seeking those virtues! AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
88 ms
4
