It is said that the Saints are the “living commentaries on
Sacred Scripture”. Today in St. Thomas Aquinas we have an illustration of some
of the central truths of our scripture readings, particularly the humility the
Lord exalts in his teaching.
Thomas Aquinas is perhaps the greatest doctor of the Church
and one of the greatest minds in human history, and certainly one of the
brilliant lights of Church history. He
wrote nine commentaries on the Sacred Scripture, numerous expositions on the
works of philosophers such as Aristotle and Boethius, a collection of commentaries
on the early Church Fathers, fifteen letters on theological, philosophical, and
political subjects, he composed the liturgical hymns and the prayers for the
Mass for the feast of Corpus Christi; and of course his famous Summa
Theologiae is a theological
synthesis of the whole of Catholic Theology.
His intellect was so great he could would work on four
different projects at a time: dictating to four scribes four different books on
different subjects.
Yet, even with this great intellect he remained a humble
man. Earlier in his life, his contemporaries called him a dumb ox, because he
wouldn’t speak much. Yet, St. Albert the Great, his teacher, said, Thomas might
be a dumb ox now, but one day his bellowing will one day resound throughout the
world.
Thomas humbly recognized that all of his gifts came from God
and were meant for the service of God. At the end of a life totally dedicated
to serving the Church, while praying before a crucifix, the voice of Jesus
himself asked Thomas what reward he wanted for his labors. He replied: “None but yourself, O Lord.”
Throughout his public ministry, Our Lord offered many
parables and teachings to instill in his disciples the importance of humility. The proud would often not understand our Lord,
while the humble recognized him as Savior. The attitude of humility is
fundamental for the Christian, which is why our Lord mentions humility first
among the beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, the humble heart” who
recognize they need God, they need a savior, everything they have comes from
God and is meant to serve God.
We live in a very arrogant age, where many people think they
know better than the Church in areas of faith and morality; they know better
than centuries of saints, holy doctors of the Church, and even Our Lord
himself.
Even lifelong Catholics often think a little too highly of
themselves. Sinful pride can become a pitfall even for priests and bishops, and,
so we all do well to return over and over again to the scriptures, to the great
doctors of the Church to teach us; we do well to come humbly to the sacraments and
daily prayer recognizing our need for Christ’s saving grace. I think this is
why Saint John Paul II would go to confession every week, for in confession we
deflate the prideful ego in order to be filled up with the Holy Spirit.
May we continue to celebrate the feast of this exultant, yet
humble servant of God, seeking to imitate his learning, his holiness, and his
virtues, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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