This Wednesday is the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. Along with St. Augustine, he is perhaps the most influential theologian in the history of the Church. To this day, seminarians, theologians, and philosophers study his writings carefully and original academic work is still being created based on the foundation he built. The Church has given him the title of “Angelic Doctor” and recommends him as the blueprint for Catholic theology. This is an incredible accomplishment for a man who was nicknamed the Dumb Ox when he was in school!

When we consider the life of a man who is highly intellectual, we might expect to find it kind of boring. What do intellectuals do all day other than sit around, read books, and argue about stuff in dusty old university halls? For St. Thomas, at least, this is not at all the case! He is a saint not because he was smart, but because he loved God and showed heroic virtue.

His first opportunity came when he was still a young man. He was born in the year 1225 to a wealthy Sicilian family. At the age of 19, he decided to join what was then the fairly new Order of Preachers, the Dominicans. His father was not pleased, to say the least. He had Thomas’s brothers literally kidnap him and lock him up in a castle until he changed his mind! This is not a fairy tale, it really happened. Thomas was trapped there for an entire year. At one point, his parents became so desperate to change his mind that they sent a prostitute into his room to tempt him into sinning and giving up his desire for celibacy. Thomas responded by taking a hot iron out of the fire and chasing her away. Eventually, some of his family members took pity and helped him escape. He immediately went to the Dominicans.

He was sent to the University of Paris to study. This was one of the first universities in the world (universities and higher education are a medieval invention; this was not the “Dark Ages” as some people claim). He was quiet and reserved, which caused his friends to nickname him “Dumb Ox”, but his teacher, Albert the Great, said that if he was a dumb ox, his bellowing would one day be heard throughout the world. This prophecy began to come true when Thomas was later appointed himself as a professor at Paris. Here he wrote his most famous work, the Summa Theologia, which is an introductory treatise for future priests. Today, although we keep at it we find it very difficult to read (again, the Middle Ages were not the Dark Ages!).

At the time Thomas was in Paris, the world was slowly rediscovering the writings of Aristotle. Aristotle is a philosopher who uses common sense to show that humans have an eternal soul that requires a body, that morality is a matter of developing virtue, and that living with the final purpose of dwelling with God will make us happy. Aquinas takes Aristotle and shows how the Church completes his natural philosophy with Christian theology. He shows us that to be Catholic is to live virtuously, to love God’s creation, to see the good and beauty all around us as a reflection of God, and to see how God and the Church are the final completion of what we see around us. He shows that nature and grace go together.

He was also famously involved in a controversy over the Blessed Sacrament. There were some theologians who challenged the idea that Our Lord becomes actually, fully present in the Bread and Wine at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. They thought it was more of a spiritual reality only or a symbol. Aquinas forcefully defended and explained the Real Presence and the doctrine of transubstantiation. Our Lord is present body and blood, soul and divinity with us at Mass. This is why the Church takes the ritual surrounding it so seriously. Thomas at one point during the debate was doubting if his teaching was correct. While he was in chapel praying about it, a sacristan saw Our Lord speak from the crucifix and say to Thomas, "You have written well of me, Thomas. What reward would you have for your labor?" Thomas responded, "Nothing but you, Lord."

After this exchange, he stopped writing and his great Summa Theologia remains incomplete. His scribe begged him to resume his work and Thomas replied, “I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me" This is an interesting statement! He doesn’t say wrong or unnecessary, but like straw, insubstantial. In other words, the personal experience of God in prayer is more powerful than any amount of academic writing. We note, though, that the writing was necessary because it helped him to know God and thus provided the foundation for his mystical experience, meaning that our knowledge comes first but it is all for the sake of our love.

May we know God as well as St. Thomas Aquinas and may we come to love God so intensely that all else seems as straw to us, too.