Thomas Aquinas 		January 28
Teacher of the Faith
Thomas Aquinas was the outstanding thinker and teacher of his own period, and among the greatest of all time. He was born in 1225 to well-to-do and ambitious parents, who sent him to the abbey of Monte Cassino in the expectation that the might prosper and even become abbot. Thomas developed a profound religious faith, but, while studying in Naples, he became interested in the new evangelical enthusiasm of the friars with their commitment to poverty and hard work in the emerging cities. That was not at all to his family’s liking, and they imprisoned him at home in Roccasecca for a year, before giving up in the face of Thomas’ determination. 
In 1244 Thomas joined the Dominicans and went to Paris. He spent the rest of his life mainly in university circles in France and Italy, writing prolifically, preaching and debating. He died in Italy in 1274 at the age of forty-nine. His writings are marked by the equable tone in which he conducts a debate. There are no polemics, only a passionate commitment to underlying principles and a focus on the argument, never on the person. He is well named “the angelic doctor”, not just for the depth of his thought, but for the irenical spirit of his writings.
His life and his enormous output of writings mark a turning-point in the medieval church. The new friars carried the gospel into the new towns. They also took over the universities, much to the annoyance of the existing teachers, who were locked into the old ways of hierarchical order and monastic isolationism. Thomas was also at the centre of the new theology.
Traditional theology was dominated by a Platonist outlook that distrusted the senses and found truth in ideas and spiritual reality. The rediscovery of Aristotle, for whom the senses are the basis of all human knowledge, led to a new way of understanding the world. Most theologians reacted against the new ideas. A few welcomed them boldly, to the point where revelation and knowledge of God were unrelated to general human knowledge. Thomas accepted the Aristotelian starting point for human knowledge, and thus endorsed the scientific exploration of the world. But Thomas also saw the limits of human reason. There are matters of faith that are not dependent on the senses. Nevertheless, there is only one truth that encompasses both. Therefore, it can be maintained that faith is not irrational, and that the world is expressive of divine truth.
Thomas’ ideas were radical and, for a time, regarded by many as heretical. His own profound religious faith and the link he saw between faith and reason gave him a deep interest in the sacraments, where spiritual and physical so obviously meet. His eucharistic hymns are still sung.
For Liturgical Use
Thomas Aquinas was the greatest thinker and teacher of the medieval church. He was born in 1225 and became a Dominican. He offered the church a deep theological understanding of the physical world as conveying divine truth, even though faith is needed for other aspects of God’s truth. His profound thought and gentle spirit earned him the title, “the angelic doctor”. Some of his eucharistic hymns are still sung. He died in 1274.
Sentence
Happy is the person who meditates on wisdom and reasons intelligently.
				Ecclesiasticus 14:20
Collects
Almighty God,
you have greatly enriched your church
through the holy learning of Thomas Aquinas;
enlighten us more and more
by the work of scholars and believers
and deepen our devotion by the example of saintly lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God,
you give us all our wisdom, all our knowledge;
we thank you for Thomas,
for his supreme discovery
that everything he thought, everything he wrote was straw
compared with your inexpressible riches.
Psalms 	19:7-14 	119:97-104
Readings
Wisdom 7:7-16 	The gift of knowledge
Hebrews 5:11-6:3		Mature teaching
John 17:6, 13-19		Consecration to the truth
Post Communion Sentence
All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. 
				2 Corinthians 3:18