St. Thomas Aquinas

January 28,2004

by Rev. Herbert Nichols

As we saw yesterday among David’s plans for unifying the kingdom and the people with each other and with God, he brought to Jerusalem the Ark of the Covenant. Today he announces plan to build a great Temple to house the Ark. (You recall, I said yesterday, the Ark never had a residence. In fact it had been stolen; and once again in our own day there is no public knowledge of where this Ark might be.)

Nathan, a prophet, a man, proclaims forth the sentiment of God, and informs the king that God is not impressed. In fact he uses a pun, which is usually a derogatory form of humor to put down someone who comes across too lofty.

Nathan tells David that is God who will build the house in the form of a dynasty for David. This prophetic pun marks the beginning of a belief in a royal messiah to be born of the house of David. It is fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary, who was of the family and lineage of David.

Why did it take so long for God to fulfill this prophecy? A question we might often ask about our own petitions to God. Psalm 90 tells us that God is very patient, because in his eyes a thousand years are like yesterday come an gone, That is why God is so patient with us in dealing with our transgressions, our slowness to repent, to confess, to be absolved, to be reconciled into the unity and whole cloth of the fabric of God’s Divine, I-AMness.

In the fabric we co-exist, we the great prophets of the Old Testament, most importantly with the Incarnate Word Himself, Jesus the Savior, and with the minions of sinners who struggled and surrendered to grace and became saints.

Thomas Aquinas, whom we honor today, is one of those, a Dominican priest of the thirteenth century who has been recognized over the years as one of the pre-eminent spokesmen of Catholic tradition and Divine Revelation.

What does Thomas Aquinas have to say of relevance to us today? Apart from the fact that his theology has been the pillar of Catholic thought for six centuries, he shows us that there is no necessary conflict between faith and intelligence. We need never be afraid of the truth. God is truth and truth is one. What we need to fear are half-truths, partial truths, apparent or half-baked truths.

That reminds me of a story that I shared with you a few years back when I was here preaching a parish mission. Fr. Ken Roberts was "discussing" with Madilyn Murry O’Hare the possible relationship between logic and faith.

Fr. Ken asked Madilyn how she would proceed to purchase hot dogs and beans. She responded that she would procure the hot dogs from the deli, then proceed to the aisle marked beans.

FR. Ken replied that the hot dogs were quite visible to the naked eye, but since the beans were in metal cans, one had to rely upon the paper wrapping, which of course, logically, could be accidentally or even maliciously mislabeled. Without seeing inside the can it is impossible to know, but would you say that it is illogical to believe or to trust in the paper label on the can? Why then should it be any less logical to believe and to trust in the Book which tells of the history of Salvation?

Reason is a gift from God; it is never an enemy, but an ally of faith. An old proverb says: Christ came to take away our sins, not our intelligence.