Word to the Wise
Friday, January 28, 2022 - Friday in the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Sam 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17 and Mark 4:26-34,393]"This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a person were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wilds the sickle at once, for the harvest has come." [Mark]
FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2022 ST, THOMAS AQUINAS o.p. (Dominican friar/priest and Doctor of the Church)
[2 Samuel 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17 and Mark 4:26-34. The scriptures will vary at Dominican locations because this is an important feast in our calendar. Suggested scriptures are Wis. 7:7-10, 15-16 or Eph. 3:8-12 and John 17:11b-19 or 16:23b-28 or Mt 5:13-19]
I really doubt that Friar Thomas Aquinas believed that his academic career would result in the Church adopting him as a kind of "gold standard" in theology! He lived 1221-1274 and taught in France and Italy. HIs literary output was prodigious. It is said that he dictated different items to several secretaries simultaneously. The surviving examples of his penmanship give us the reason. It has been called the litera inintelligibilis,= "unreadable." And, truth be told, there have been periods in the Church's history when his writings were condemned (1277) or just fell into disuse. However, there was a tremendous revival of his writings in the 19th century, led by Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Aeterni patris. St. Thomas Aquinas remains a "gold standard" for Catholic theology!
In pointing out his lack of awareness of future fame, I think of the image in the gospel scripture that is assigned for today (Friday in the 3rd week in Ordinary Time) of the farmer who sows the seed and witnesses the gradual process of germination and maturation and harvest. As an avid amateur gardener and preacher myself, I have witnessed this process over and over again. St. Thomas Aquinas was a teacher and could experience the joys and sorrows of seeing his efforts succeed or fail according to the student. He could not have predicted that his students would be centuries of generations, and still growing!
Toward the end of his life, St. Thomas Aquinas is said to have experienced an encounter with Christ in which the Lord said, "You have written well of me, Thomas. What would you have in return?" Thomas is said to have replied, "Nothing except you, O Lord." Even if we do not read his famous Summa theologiae or other writings, his reply to the Lord can give us much to pray about. AMEN