Objection 1 – Who am I to preach in honor of the one whose mouth poured forth sweet words of wisdom? I am not worthy to preach in honor of the master who climbed the mountain of God and whose words flowed forth like Jeremiah’s “many waters” that were “rich in treasures” (Jeremiah 51:13), or St. John the Beloved’s vision of “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1).
Objection 2 – Who am I, stupefied before his great name, to be preaching before him whom Dante said was the “crown of lights,” the chief of the “glorious suns [who were] aflame with their songs,” and one of the gems of heaven, (Paradiso, Canto 10) and who reflected the Light that shone in the darkness (cf. John 1:5) like a lamp for our feet and a light for our paths (Psalm 119:105)?
Objection 3 – Who am I to speak of him whose words could “teach the ignorant, delight the bored, and change the lazy”?1
Sed Contra – Yet, on the contrary, as St. Thomas said of himself, after his fateful vision on St. Nicholas Day, his words were like straw before the reality of what he saw. Even if I am like an ox who is dumbfounded before the Master, the reality of his sanctity can still shine forth.
Respondeo – It is in this light that I respond that what guides us is holiness. In his humility, St. Thomas would not have wanted my double comparison for he saw “the new and living way” (Hebrews 10:20) behind the veil that had been lifted by Christ (cf. Hebrews 10:20). In the last four months of his life, when all that he had previously offered to the Lord was put in the context of the reality behind his words, he realized that his writings were nothing in comparison to what they signified. They were worth no more than straw. The indescribable vision he had on St. Nicholas’s Day revealed his deeper vision. He now saw God’s providence in a whole new light and God’s mysteries with a whole new sense of wonder. That vision at the end of Thomas’s life reveals what had been building up to that time. His increasingly frequent contemplative moments in those last four months showed that the Lord was bringing to fulfillment what He had been giving to Thomas in snippets all along the way.
And, after his death, the defense from his own teacher, St. Albert the Great, reveals this. For after Thomas’s death, some of his theses were condemned. Historians, theologians, and philosophers now debate the legitimacy of the condemnation of the 219 theses that took place in Paris three years after his death, and which contained a few of Thomas’s own teachings.2 Yet, at the time, there was a whirlwind of frustration in Paris, and the bishop sought to decry teachings that were thought to impinge upon the faith. And so, the aged St. Albert the Great walked by foot from Cologne to Paris to defend his deceased pupil. Despite his previous eloquence and insight, Albert’s own intellectual gifts now failed him.3
Yet, it’s not Albert’s words that should strike us. Rather, the whole episode reveals something deeper. Similar to how Thomas saw beyond the veil and into the reality, Albert’s defense of Thomas does the same. It reveals that Thomas is not only worth studying but he is also worth imitating.
On the one hand, it is more obvious that St. Thomas is worth studying. It is easy to see that Thomas’s wisdom has permeated the teachings of the Church. His theology of the Incarnation helped to steer through the narrow strait of the ancient heresies, like Jason and the Argo passed through the Clashing Rocks (cf. Homer, Odyssey, 12.69–72). His moral theology led to an understanding of the human person that guides the teachings of the Catechism and finds it perfect articulation in Veritatis Splendor. His sacramental theology has given us the most complete understanding of the sacramental economy, guiding us like food for the wayfarer.4 His Eucharistic theology, in particular, which joined together the two poles of thought in Ambrose and Augustine, not only illuminates our minds with truth but also inflames our hearts with love and flows forth from our lips as we sing his liturgical texts at Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.5
On the other hand, we should also come to know that St. Thomas is worth imitating. Thomas’s gifts to the Church aren’t simply limited to his teachings. He was also a saint! He was a saint who sought to follow God, and he was also a saint who came to know God.
First, he was a saint who sought to follow God. Aside from the vision at the end of his life, St. Thomas had an earlier mystical vision that forever shaped his life.6 Soon after his entrance into the poor band of friars, the Order of Preachers, Thomas’s family sought to break his vocation. Kidnapping him and entrapping him in the family home, they introduced a loose woman to lead him to break his vow of chastity. Yet, always seeking first the kingdom of God (cf. Matthew 6:33), Thomas seized a smoldering log from the fire, drove her from the room, and emblazoned the door with a cross. At that, angelic spirits came and girded him with a cincture of purity. Herein, he experienced the promised Beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). From that moment on, his intellectual vision grew clearer and clearer.
This led to St. Thomas’s second great quality worthy of imitation: he was a saint who came to see God. As we read, “In the explanation he gave to Brother Reginald, he uses only the verb to see: ‘After what I saw, all I have written seems to me nothing but straw.’”7 Thomas not only studied God, but he also saw God. With heavenly vision, he saw a heavenly vision. Thomas came to know not just about the One of whom he wrote, but throughout his life, he knew the One of whom he wrote. Frequently, he went into ecstasy and contemplative gazes, and he regularly shed copious tears during the celebration of Mass.8 Sometimes in the midst of a conundrum, he would go to the chapel and pray in tears before the Blessed Sacrament while asking the Lord for insight.9 At the end of his life, the Lord brought all this together, by not only revealing a particular insight but by giving him perfect sight; by not only offering an aspect of truth but Truth itself, Truth Incarnate. With this sight, he sought nothing but God. He simply sought to be with God, “clothed . . . with a robe of salvation” and “wrapped in a mantle of justice” (Isaiah 61:10).
That is the heart of St. Thomas’s example for us. Through purity of heart, we come to purity of mind. Through the purity of the whole of our life, we come to the place of the most perfect and pure One, seeing behind the veil to the hidden reality of the heavenly kingdom.
Ad 1–3 – Even if my words were not like “rivers of water” “rich in treasures” that refreshed and satiated your hearts;10 even if I did not illuminate your minds like the stars from above; and even if my words failed to teach, delight, or change you, maybe these words of one of the Dominicans who were present at St. Thomas’s death can make up for my lack: “This is the Moses of sacred doctrine, who spoke face to face with God, who understood, so clearly, the divinely revealed truths that he seemed to see the Trinity visible in the Scripture where they are hidden. This is the Angelic Doctor who was constantly in ecstasy, who discovered mysteries so superior to the realm of human intelligence that his soul was absorbed in the Divinity.”11
If all of these words were like nothing more than straw, then may we all be like the donkey in the manger, who feeds on the words of straw that come forth from the bellowing of that most noble Ox.12
Conclusion – For here is that saint. It is St. Thomas, who, through his intercession and his example, can water your hearts with the river of life, shine like a “crown of lights” upon your mind, and bellow forth the soundings of virtue to your heart. He is the saint who is the powerful protector of your purity and the intercessor for your interior sight. And he is the saint who wants to intercede for you so that after having come to venerate him and to imitate his life for years to come, you may, one day, benefit from what he now sees: He who is the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, “the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come” (Revelation 4:8), and who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
- St. Thomas Aquinas, “Inaugural Sermon 1,” quoted in: St. Thomas Aquinas, Selected Writings, edited by Ralph McInerny (Penguin Books: New York, 1998), 5. ↩
- Jean-Pierre Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Person and His Work, translated by Robert Royal (CUA Press: Washington, 2003), 299. ↩
- Torrell, 298–99; Reginald Coffey, The Man from Rocca Sicca (The Bruce Publishing Company: Milwaukee, 1944), 137–38. ↩
- Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Benzinger Brothers: New York, 1948), III, q. 79, a. 2; see also: ST III, q. 65, a. 1, corp. ↩
- It is typically thought that St. Ambrose focuses on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and that St. Augustine focuses on the res tantum, namely the unity of the Church, when speaking of the Eucharist. St. Thomas quotes both in both contexts to show the unity between the authors. For instance, see: Thomas Humphries, “‘These words are spirit and life’: Thomas’ use of Augustine on the Eucharist in Summa Theologiae, III, 73–83,” Recherches De Théologie Et Philosophie Médiévales 78 no. 1 (January 1, 2011): 59–96. ↩
- James Weisheipl, Friar Thomas D’Aquino: His Life, Thought, and Work (Doubleday & Company, Inc.: Garden City, NY, 1974), 30; cf. Torrell, 10. ↩
- L.H. Petitot, The Life and Spirit of Thomas Aquinas, translated by Cyprian Burke (The Priory Press: Chicago, 1966), 171. ↩
- Petitot, 124–130. ↩
- Petitot, 126. ↩
- Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, “Inaugural Sermon 2,” quoted in: St. Thomas Aquinas, Selected Writings, edited by Ralph McInerny (Penguin Books: New York, 1998), 5, preface. ↩
- William of Tocco, quoted in: Petitot, 174. ↩
- Cf. Torrell, 26. ↩
About Fr. Peter Martyr Yungwirth, OP
St. Thomas was appropriately humble at the end of his life, when he realized the words he spoke earlier had gone astray. In light of his later mystical experience, he saw the errors. This did not happen in a vacuum but rather could be evaluated in light of his disputes with St. Bonaventure who, from much earlier on, tried to warn Thomas about his over-reliance on Aristotle (Realism) and his failure to properly engage in the mystical traditions, which informed so many theologians and saints that had gone before. Thomas is not to blame, as he was corralled by the wrong thinking of the First Inquisition, a specifically Dominican affair. To this day we still suffer from the resulting slide into Materialism initiated by Thomas veering too much into the Realism of Aristotle. This was a harmful divergence from, for example, the marriage of Neo-Platonism and Christianity so artfully put forth by Augustine. (And later by Bonaventure.) To this day, Neo-Scholasticism shows its inability to robustly engage the Materialism (Physicalism) of our age.