(02 Jun 10 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI returned to his series of lessons on the Christian
culture in the Middle Ages during his general audience this Wednesday, turning to
Saint Thomas Aquinas, known as the Doctor Communis, whose life and teaching
have always been revered as a outstanding model for theologians.
The Pope
explained that Thomas was born around 1225 to a noble family in Roccasecca, Italy
near the Abbey of Montecasino. He was sent to the University of Naples at a young
age where he first became interested in Aristotelian thought and felt a call to the
religious life.
In 1245 he went to Paris to study theology under the guidance
of St. Albert the Great who held this student in such esteem that he was asked to
accompany him to Cologne, Germany to open a centre for theological studies.
"Thomas
Aquinas, at St. Albert the Great's school, carried out a task of fundamental importance
in the history of philosophy and theology as well as for history and culture", the
Pope said. "He studied Aristotle and his interpreters in depth" and "commented on
a great part of Aristotle's works, discerning what was valid in it from what was doubtful
or refutable, demonstrating its consonance with the facts of Christian revelation,
using Aristotelian thought with great breadth and intelligence in presenting the theological
writings he composed. In short, Thomas Aquinas demonstrated that a natural harmony
exists between reason and the Christian faith".
"His great intellectual endowment
brought him again to Paris to teach theology. That is where he began his monumental
literary output: commentaries on the Sacred Scriptures and the works of Aristotle
along with his masterpiece, the Summa Theologiae".
"There were a few
secretaries who assisted in drafting his works, among whom was Reginald of Piperno
[...] who was bound to him by a fraternal and sincere friendship characterized by
great trust and reliance. This is a characteristic of the saints", the pontiff observed.
"They cultivate friendship because it is one of the most noble manifestations of the
human heart and holds something of the divine within it".
In 1259 Thomas Aquinas
participated in the General Chapter of the Dominicans in Valenciennes, France to establish
the order's constitutions. On his return to Italy, Pope Urban IV charged him with
composing the liturgical texts for the feast of Corpus Christi.
"St. Thomas
has a profoundly Eucharistic soul", the Pope affirmed. "The beautiful hymns that the
liturgy of the Church sings to celebrate the mystery of the real presence of the Body
and Blood of the Lord in the Eucharist are due to his faith and theological wisdom".
In
Paris, where he returned in 1269, a great number of students followed his courses,
but the "Angelic Doctor" also dedicated himself to preaching to the people, who listened
with attention. "It is a great gift that theologians know how to speak with simplicity
and fervour to the faithful. The ministry of preaching, on the other hand, also helps
those who are experts in theology to develop a healthy pastoral realism and enriches
their research with stimulation", the pontiff remarked.
In the final months
of his life, St. Thomas -- who died in 1274 at the Abbey of Fossanove, Italy when
he was heading to Leon to participate in an ecumenical council -- confessed to his
friend Reginald of Piperno that, after a divine revelation, he considered his work
as "so much straw", writing nothing further afterwards.
"It is a mysterious
episode that helps us understand not only Thomas' personal humility but also the fact
that all that we are able to think and say about the faith, as elevated and pure as
it may be, is infinitely surpassed by the greatness and beauty of God who will reveal
himself to us in the fullness of paradise," Pope Benedict XVI concluded.