st. thomas aquinas

fr: excerpted from fr. rudy horst, svd (2008 Jan 28). "the dumb ox."

Today, the Church honors the Dominican St. Thomas Aquinas. He became an intellectual giant under the tutelage of one of the greatest medieval thinkers, St. Albert the Great. Thomas seldom opened his mouth. His classmates thought he was a simpleton and teased him by calling him “Dumb Ox.”

In Italy , Thomas wrote the Catena Aurea to help the clergy better understand the Word of God. This work was followed by the Summa Contra Gentiles to provide doctrinal material for missionaries to the Muslims. He composed the texts for the new feast of Corpus Christi . While teaching at the university of Paris , he justified the use of the “pagan” Aristotle’s philosophy in the study of theology, wrote his commentaries on several works of Aristotle and the greater part of his most famous work, the Summa Theologiae. Then he died at the age of 49. Throughout his life, Thomas was totally dedicated to the ministry of the Word, nourished by intense prayer and mortification.

Thomas never finished his Summa. During a Mass on the feast of St. Nicholas, he received an interior revelation. He never spoke about it and no longer did any writing after this experience. He said, “I cannot go on. All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.” Thomas’ humility was born out of a deep spirituality. He felt small before the crucifix, before what Christ has done for humankind. He acknowledged that all his wisdom and writing is nothing but a small expression of gratitude for Christ’s work of salvation. Shortly before his death, he received the Eucharist and said, “I receive you, Price of my soul’s redemption. All my studies, my vigils, and my labors have been for love of you.”

From St. Thomas we learn that our successes are due to talents God has given us, talents we develop for the greater glory of God. Fr. Rudy Horst