Thursday 28th March 2024

Home » Frontpage » Currently Reading:

St. Thomas Aquinas . . . “Trying To Know God, Love God, And Help Others Get There”

May 21, 2020 Frontpage No Comments

By DEXTER DUGGAN

PHOENIX — The ultimate purpose of theology isn’t probing religious theories or citing the Bible, but gaining the unimaginable joys of Heaven.
That seemed to be the message of a presentation on the Catholic Church’s “premier theologian,” St. Thomas Aquinas, livestreamed on May 2 because of the pandemic by the Institute of Catholic Theology (ICT), an adult education program based at St. Thomas the Apostle Church here.
In medieval ages when university graduates with their licentiates or doctorates were expected to be able to converse about all the knowledge of the time, that period’s St. Thomas Aquinas still had a remarkable degree of scholarship that earned him recognition as “the greatest teacher the Church has ever known,” a Phoenix instructor with a master’s degree in theology told the ICT program.
Sometimes a twenty-first century Catholic has been given the belief that a theologian is someone who undermines or defies the Church.
Without pointing out that idea, ICT speaker Rocky Brittain said that one of the first things one notices about St. Thomas “is that he saw his own role as a Catholic teacher as perfectly in line with what the Church had been doing for 12 hundred years before him.”
Aquinas, a prolific author, “would have been appalled and offended and humiliated if somebody now had told him…that he was breaking from the Church tradition,” said Brittain, who earned a master’s degree in theology at Florida’s Ave Maria University and teaches religion at St. Mary’s High School in Phoenix.
ICT background information says Brittain’s “areas of focus are Thomistic morality and anthropology.”
Aquinas “had the Church Fathers so deeply in his soul that he was drawing on them constantly,” Brittain said. “. . . This was a man who was utterly grounded in the Church’s tradition and saw himself as trying to carry on…protect the Church tradition in a way that he could.”
He wasn’t interested in being recognized for his work but he wanted to serve Christ, which was how he was to get to Heaven, Brittain said.
The future saint’s ecstasies when saying Mass — which made others have to wait for him to finish — make one think of the scriptural promise that eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who love Him, Brittain said.
“He would often go into ecstasy in Mass, so they would just have to wait for him to come out of supernatural bliss, transubstantiating the Lord,” Brittain said, adding that the saint said, “What God has shown me makes everything that I have written seem to be as straw” in comparison.
“According to St. Thomas, what he saw made all the things that he wrote seem as nothing,” he said. “He was first and foremost a lover of Christ,” Brittain said.
Earlier in his talk, Brittain said that to Aquinas, “to know God is of no benefit if it does not lead you to love God more.”
Born at a location between Rome and Naples in 1225, Aquinas acquired titles as his reputation grew that included “the Dumb Ox” — not meaning stupid but mute because he “often was very reserved in manner” — and “the Angelic Doctor,” for his purity, Brittain said.
He was called all over Italy and elsewhere to teach and write but showed his humility when he begged “in tears” not to be made a bishop because those responsibilities would have taken him away from teaching, “which was far too valuable” to him, Brittain said. He added:
“Certainly many men have fallen in their pursuit of the Lord, and they’ve gotten sidetracked by falling to the desire of having more power in the Church.”
Aquinas “just wanted to be a wandering preacher,” not troubled “by the power struggle and all the trappings that come with being a bishop,” Brittain said.
The future saint wrote at least 60 books, some short and some thousands of pages long, writing commentaries including on all the major works of Greek philosopher Aristotle, on Scripture, on Job, the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and all four Gospels, he said.
Turning to the topic of medieval scholasticism, Brittain said Aquinas “definitely pushed the limits of scholasticism, and I think it’s better to say actually he found the perfection of scholasticism.”
Brittain described this period as a time “when intellectuals were discovering and trying to figure out for the first time the balance between faith and reason in the intellectual world.” Among them, such questions as, “What can we know by faith? What can we discover about God by reason?”
Toward the end of his life, Aquinas wrote what is considered his most important work, the Summa Theologiae, Brittain said. “He orders all of sacred theology from the beginning to the end, in such a masterful way, with such clarity, without anything superfluous, without multiplying rhetoric.”
This is the most clear and systematic approach to sacred theology that the Church has, he said. “There is not a more comprehensive, clearly thought-out, well-organized book on sacred theology in the entire world, and the Catholic Church has said as much.”
Nearly every Pope since Aquinas’ time has recommended him to the laity and clergy “as the premiere theologian,” Brittain said, with Pope Benedict XV saying anyone would benefit more from reading Aquinas for one year than from reading all the other saints for the rest of his life.
There have been other great theologians, like St. Augustine, and even Aquinas said it would be a mistake to read only one theologian, Brittain said. However, “Most of the great theologians over the last 500 years were Thomists” and devoted their lives to expounding him.
Thomas Aquinas was the youngest of eight children and was sent to study at the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino at age five, Brittain said, adding there is some speculation that the Benedictines recognized his “unique genius” at a very young age and sent him to the university in Naples in 1238.
Medieval universities were “very well established by that point” and taught in such subjects as grammar, logic, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, and civil and canon law, he said. “The crowning jewel of the universities was theology.”
Priests were likely expected to have memorized large portions of the Bible, such as seen in the knowledge of St. Augustine, Brittain said. “He’s not flipping through pages and finding a text,” but just had it at his fingertips, while Aquinas was much the same.

Kidnapped

The family’s aspirations were for Thomas to become an abbot at a well-established monastery of a well-established religious order, but Thomas heard a different call, to join the recently founded Dominicans, and his family was not pleased, Brittain said.
They had him kidnapped during a trip from Paris to Naples and “put in a high tower on one of their large estates” for more than a year, but he wouldn’t accede to their wishes, so his father and mother gave up and he joined the Dominicans, he said.
Responding to a question from ICT director Eric Westby, Ph.D., as the program ended, Brittain said that all Aquinas “cared about was trying to know God, love God, and help others get there.”

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

Abortion Advocates No Longer Consider It “A Necessary Evil,” They Celebrate Killing Babies

Last week, Kamala Harris became the first vice president in U.S. history to make a public visit to an abortion clinic. Though the Democratic party’s support for abortion is nothing new, Harris’ Planned Parenthood appearance does illustrate how that support has become a flagrant celebration of abortion as a public and personal good, essential to both “freedom” and to “healthcare.” At the appearance, Harris proclaimed,  It is only right and fair that people have access…Continue Reading

Wisconsin Supreme Court says Catholic charity group cannot claim religious tax exemption

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a major Catholic charity group’s activities were not “primarily” religious under state law, stripping the group of a key tax break and ordering it to pay into the state unemployment system. Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) last year argued that the state had improperly removed its designation as a religious organization.  The charity filed a lawsuit after the state said it did not qualify to be considered as an organization…Continue Reading

Walgreens and CVS Will Start Selling Abortion Pills That Kill Babies

The two largest pharmacies in America will start selling abortion pills this month that end the lives of unborn children by starting them to death. Walgreens and CVS will both sell the abortion pills despite the fact that they kill a developing human being and have killed at least dozens of women and injured tens of thousands more. They plan to initially roll out abortion drug sales in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke announces novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for ‘crises of our age’

VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — Raymond Cardinal Burke has announced the start of a global, nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, calling on Catholics to beseech Mary’s intercession on the Church and the world in the face of the “crises of our age.” In a new endeavour published online over the weekend, Cardinal Burke announced a novena beginning in March, and culminating on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

Texas attorney general targets Catholic nonprofit, alleges it facilitates illegal immigration

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 21, 2024 / 21:15 pm Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to shut down a Catholic nonprofit organization in El Paso based on allegations that the group may be facilitating illegal immigration, harboring immigrants who entered the country illegally, and engaging in human smuggling.  Paxton filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit Annunciation House, which has operated in the state for nearly 50 years. The lawsuit asks the District Court of El Paso…Continue Reading

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)