Special: St. Thomas Aquinas: Model for the 'New Evangelization'

What is needed in our own age are young men and women who can, as did Thomas, take the thought of the Third Millennium and use it as the framework for the essential task of building an apologetic for the New Evangelization of this age.

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - Born of a wealthy family and educated with the finest the Benedictines had to offer, Thomas was seemingly on a "career path' of sorts with a foregone concusion. All, including his family, recognized his extraordinary intellectual gifts. So, when this young man with so much promise decided to take up with mendicants, the Latin word means beggars, those Dominicans who lived on the resources of gifts given by others, he was not greeted with the support of his family. They actually kidnapped their son away from this new band of friars who were so "suspect" among the established Catholics of their age. After a year of trying to dissuade him, they were no match for the young mans resolve to follow the voice of the Lord and pursue his vocation to the Dominican life.

He studied in Paris and Cologne under St. Albert the Great, a philosopher of great reputation. The entirety of Europe was caught up in a major time of intellectual ferment and change. The writings of the ancient Greek Philosopher Aristotle had been reintroduced to contemporary Western thought by, of all sources, the intellectual community of the Islamic world. Already suspect in most circles and accused of being "Anti-Christian", the re-presentation of Aristotle by the Muslims made this body of philosophical work even more of a threat to many in Thomas' day.

As he had done in choosing the way of the Dominicans when so many thought he was to walk a different road, Thomas rejected the contemporary suspicions surrounding the allegedly contradictory nature of Aristotelian thought and orthodox Christianity. Instead he pursued it with all of his natural and supernatural gifts. He did so because he loved, above all and everyone else, the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Thomas knew that all truth finds its source - and its fulfillment - in the One who is Truth Incarnate, Jesus the Christ. In this way, he was a pioneer of a "New Evangelization" of his own second millennium and a model for our efforts to do the same in the Third.

Thomas set about re-presenting the fullness of the Truth which is found within the Catholic faith right within the framework of Aristotelian philosophy. Using his formidable intellect, sincere and profound faith and solid grounding in the Patristic sources, Thomas produced a body of work which is still the theological and philosophical equivalent of the "gold standard" in the West. His 'Summa Theologiae' became the primary theological textbook for seminarians, theologians and ordinands for centuries. His poetry inspired some of the greatest liturgical music and piety in the Latin Rite. His holiness has been - and continues to be - the source of countless religious and lay vocations.

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What is needed in our own age are young men and women who can, as did Thomas, take the thought of the Third Millennium and use it as the framework for the essential task of building an apologetic for the New Evangelization of this age. On this Feast of the Great St. Thomas Aquinas, let us honor him by reflecting on these words which he wrote:

"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.
If you seek the example of love: Greater love than this no man has, than to lay down his life for his friends. Such a man was Christ on the cross. And if he gave his life for us, then it should not be difficult to bear whatever hardships arise for his sake.
If you seek patience, you will find no better example than the cross.

"Great patience occurs in two ways: either when one patiently suffers much, or when one suffers things which one is able to avoid and yet does not avoid. Christ endured much on the cross, and did so patiently, because when he suffered he did not threaten; he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and he did not open his mouth. Therefore Christ's patience on the cross was great. In patience let us run for the prize set before us, looking upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who, for the joy set before him, bore his cross and despised the shame.

"If you seek an example of humility, look upon the crucified one, for God wished to be judged by Pontius Pilate and to die.If you seek an example of obedience, follow him who became obedient to the Father even unto death. For just as by the disobedience of one man, namely, Adam, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man, many were made righteous.

"If you seek an example of despising earthly things, follow him who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.Upon the cross he was stripped, mocked, spat upon, struck, crowned with thorns, and given only vinegar and gall to drink.

"Do not be attached, therefore, to clothing and riches, because they divided my garments among themselves. Nor to honours, for he experienced harsh words and scourgings. Nor to greatness of rank, for weaving a crown of thorns they placed it on my head. Nor to anything delightful, for in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."

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