Word to the Wise
Saturday, January 28, 2017 - Saturday in the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 11:1-2, 8-19 and Mark 4:35-41]"Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?" [Mark]
JANUARY 28 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, O.P.
We Dominicans take special pride in St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P.. He is our brother and a major intellectual hero in philosophy and theology. He was also a poet. Those familiar Latin hymns, Pange Lingua, O Salutaris Hostia, and Adoro Te are attributed to him. His written output was prodigious. He was said to be able to dictate on four different subjects at a time to four secretaries. His Summa Theologiae is still considered a fundamental text for Catholic theology. His personal story of meeting the Dominicans at a university in Naples when he and the order were still very young and defying his family's plans for him to join a monastery and instead joining the Dominicans is part of our treasury of great Dominican legends.
What Thomas Aquinas presents to us through all his work is a dedicated man of faith. The Dominican order - the Order of Preachers - offered him an outlet for his talents in university life and academia. He saw the opportunity and took it on faith. To those of us who struggle with questions of faith, he offers a serene confidence. If he was terrified, he never showed it! Toward the end of his life, he had a spiritual experience that made him feel as if all he had done up to that time was mere straw compared to what was awaiting him. I suspect he would have let Jesus continue to sleep in the boat and just weather out the storm. The friar behind the writings is just as inspiring as the writings. AMEN
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