St. Thomas Aquinas: Faith & Reason

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as we celebrate the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Dominican friar, priest, confessor, and doctor of the Church, we are mindful of the contribution that he made to the Church's intellectual heritage, and, I might add, spiritual heritage. We also honor St. Thomas as one of the patrons of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. In that first collect of this evening's Mass, we heard these words, O God, through whom your Church is glorified by the wonderful learning of your blessed confessor Thomas, and has profited still from his holy labors, grant, we pray, that we may grasp his teaching with our minds, and show it as he did in our lives. That is quite an oration. Indeed, St. Thomas Aquinas is one of the shining stars in Western thought and theology. Throughout his life here on earth, even though it was relatively short, some 49 or 50 years only, the fruit of his prayer, study, and works are just as valid now as they were in the 13th century. St. Thomas Aquinas produced vast quantities of materials for our use today. While he is ranked as a preeminent Christian theologian, he is also known for synthesizing Aristotelian thought with Christian dogma, and for rendering theology into a science. St. Thomas Aquinas is especially known for harmonizing reason and faith, while maintaining a precise distinction between the two. Reason was helpful in discovering the existence of God, but was insufficient as a certain guide for human action. Revelation reached by faith was necessary for the discovery of higher truths revealed by divine assent. In other words, St. Thomas Aquinas' moderate realism emphasizes the timelessness of basic truths regarding nature, knowledge, and God. While we can trust the use of reason to obtain truths about reality, there are higher truths which are revealed to us through divine revelation. Remember, God is the source of all truth. St. Thomas Aquinas and the scholastics recognized this, and they promoted that there can be no contradiction between faith and reason. The higher truths revealed to us by God transcend human reason, but they are not contrary to reason. God's truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created order and governs the world. St. Thomas Aquinas' teachings have great relevance in our own day. A time and society which is heavily influenced by skepticism and relativism, namely, a distrust of human reason and the denial of ultimate and objective truth. In response to the erroneous philosophical trends of the modern age, Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical letter, Fides et Ratio, Faith and Reason, which was heavily influenced by Thomistic thought. He began that encyclical with these words, faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth, and God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth, in a word, to know himself, so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come to the fullness of the truth about themselves. Pope John Paul II emphasized that truth is known through a combination of faith and reason. The absence of either will diminish man's ability to know himself, the world, and God. Human reason seeks the truth, but the ultimate truth about the meaning of life cannot be found by reason alone. Faith makes up for what reason alone cannot provide. Faith is man's obedient response to God's revelation. By faith, man accepts the truth of Christ's revelation, which is guaranteed by God, preceded by the gift of grace, and assisted by the Holy Spirit. Faith is an act of the mind and the will. Men and women can accomplish no more important act in their lives than the act of faith. It is here that freedom reaches the certainty of truth and chooses to live in that truth. The teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas have had a huge impact upon the Church, and they are still doing so today. Finally, I want to emphasize that St. Thomas and his life, in his life of prayer, was graced with mystical experiences. Toward the end of his life, while kneeling before the altar, he heard a voice which seemed to come from the crucifix. You have written well of me, Thomas. What reward would you have? His response to this was, Nothing but yourself, Lord. Within months of his death, during the celebration of Holy Mass on the Feast of St. Nicholas, Thomas received a revelation from God which so affected him that he wrote and dictated no more. To a brother of the community, he said, All that I have written appears to be so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me. St. Thomas had an experience of God, and he would write no more in front of that mystery. Thomas recognized that what he had written and said about God was true, but his words had fallen infinitely short of the glory, the majesty, the mystery of God. As we participate in the Holy Eucharist on this Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, may we be in awe of the mysteries we humbly celebrate as God's sons and daughters by adoption. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.