Saint of the Day: Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor

I had the good fortune during my college days to have been taught logic, anthropology, and metaphysics (in a public university) by a genuine Thomist—an old-fashioned, twenty-four-Thomistic-theses Thomist.  If, over the years, I have strayed from the Thomist path in this or that particular, my love of the Angelic Doctor (the Common Doctor of the church) remains. If I have chosen his fellow-mendicant as my alter ego, it is more because of what moves my heart than what moves my mind.

Indeed, it's the mystic Thomas, the Thomas of the Corpus Christi liturgy, the Thomas who put down his pen before finishing his second Summa to whom I am most attracted.

In his general audience talk on June 2, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said:

The last months of Thomas' earthly life remain surrounded by a particular, I would say, mysterious atmosphere. In December 1273, he summoned his friend and secretary Reginald to inform him of his decision to discontinue all work because he had realized, during the celebration of Mass subsequent to a supernatural revelation, that everything he had written until then "was worthless". This is a mysterious episode that helps us to understand not only Thomas' personal humility, but also the fact that, however lofty and pure it may be, all we manage to think and say about the faith is infinitely exceeded by God's greatness and beauty which will be fully revealed to us in Heaven.

From the second lesson at the Office of Readings for today, a conference by St. Thomas:

Why did the Son of God have to suffer for us? There was a great need, and it can be considered in a twofold way: in the first place, as a remedy for sin, and secondly, as an example of how to act.

It is a remedy, for, in the face of all the evils which we incur on account of our sins, we have found relief through the passion of Christ. Yet, it is no less an example, for the passion of Christ completely suffices to fashion our lives. Whoever wishes to live perfectly should do nothing but disdain what Christ disdained on the cross and desire what he desired, for the cross exemplifies every virtue.

 From the Roman Missal, 3rd edition:

 O God, who made Saint Thomas Aquinas
outstanding in his zeal for holiness
and his study of sacred doctrine,
grant us, we pray,
that we may understand what he taught
and imitate what he accomplished.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.