THOMAS AQUINAS, Church doctor
Introduction
We honor today St. Thomas Aquinas, who was one of the greatest theologians in the Church’s history, yet his life was marked by simplicity. He succeeded in making a harmonious synthesis between the philosophy of Aristotle and the theological thought of the Bible and of St. Augustine. Prayer and contemplation were the sources of his theology. In his time he was considered by many a dangerous innovator and suffered much contradiction. Let us ask today for his understanding of the faith, his wisdom and his spirit of prayer.
Heb 11:1-2, 8-19
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.
By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God. By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. That’s how it happened that from one man’s dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions. Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them. By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him—and this after he had already been told, “Your descendants shall come from Isaac.” Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that’s what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar.
Mk 4:35-41
Late that day he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?”
Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, “Quiet! Settle down!” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?”
They were in absolute awe, staggered. “Who is this, anyway?” they asked. “Wind and sea at his beck and call!”
Prayer
Lord our God,
we thank you for St. Thomas,
a great saint and a wise thinker.
Grant us the wisdom
to reflect on the word of the good news,
that it may deepen our insight in our faith
and make our love for you grow.
Give also to the Church of our time
great prophets and theologians
who make us see what the faith means
to the people of our day.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Reflection:
28 January 2023 St Thomas Aquinas
Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
God will raise us up, even from the dead
Thomas Aquinas was born in 1224. His most famous literary work, the Summa Theologiae was his attempt to provide logical proofs for the existence of God. He was invited to become archbishop of Naples and abbot of Monte Cassino but he declined both. He was described by his contemporaries as being “a pure person, humble, peace-loving, devoted to contemplation, moderate, a lover of poetry.”
Today we begin to read from chapter 11 of Hebrews, which is a magnificent hymn on the meaning of faith. The author of Hebrews gives the most extensive description of faith provided in the New Testament, though his interest does not lie in a technical, theological definition. In view of the needs of his audience, he describes what is the meaning of authentic faith.
“Faith is the assurance of what we hope for and being certain of what we cannot see.”
Faith is less about ideology than it is about how we actually live and act. Belief is the source of our behaviour; and conversely, our behaviours tell us what we really believe! Abraham’s faith, according to the passage offered to us today, is his obedience, his movement out of security into a long journey to a place he did not know. His faith is the offering of his son unto death because he believed that God asked that of him.
Abraham had fallen in love with God, to the extent of doing everything what his beloved God asked of him. It was this experience of a loving God that made it possible for him to say “this will work, I am not being led falsely.” We often talk about being in a love relationship with God and to place our trust in him. But, the hitch in all this, is the same experience that happened to the Apostles in the boat on the lake in the storm.
It’s all well and good to be confidant that Jesus can save us from every storm, but what if we experience him to be asleep and that we can’t sense or feel his care? The storm rages and looks like life-threatening and then we start thinking, that maybe the thoughts of the love of God was perhaps nothing more than our imagination! We imagined his love (or his power) and so we take matters into our own hands and begin to panic: this is often my personal experience.
God will raise up, even from the dead, if we believe. That is the deepest and most profound conviction of Christianity.