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January 28, 2022 | catholicnewsherald.com

“Saint Thomas Aquinas” by Fra Bartolomeo, c. 1510-1511

St. Thomas Aquinas: From ‘Dumb Ox’ to preeminent Doctor of the Church

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St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 1400 Suther Road in Charlotte, has a dramatic baldachin (canopy) over its altar, installed in 2018. The 30-foottall structure of intricately-carved oak was rescued from a church that closed in Pennsylvania. Carved in the late 18th century in Austria and shipped to America sometime between World War I and World War II, the baldachin has embellishments of fretwork, carving and paintings in silver and gold leaf, red, green and aquamarine blue.

Feast day: Jan. 28

On Jan. 28, the Church celebrates St. Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century theologian who – once mocked by his fellow students as a “dumb ox” – wrote some of the Church’s seminal works on theology, faith and reason, and who was declared a Doctor of the Church.

St. John Paul II, in his 1998 letter “Fides et Ratio,” said St. Thomas “had the great merit of giving pride of place to the harmony which exists between faith and reason,” knowing that “both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God. ... Hence there can be no contradiction between them.”

Thomas was born during 1225 into a noble family, having relatives among the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire. His father Landulph was the Count of Aquino and his mother Theodora, the Countess of Teano.

When he was 5, Thomas was sent to study at Monte Cassino, the abbey founded by St. Benedict. The boy’s intellectual gifts and serious disposition impressed the monks, who urged his father to place him in a university by the time he was 10. At the University of Naples, he learned philosophy and rhetoric while taking care to preserve his morals against corruption by other students.

It is said that a hermit, before Thomas’ birth, told Theodora that she would have a son who would enter the Dominican Order “and so great will be his learning and sanctity that in his day no one will be found to equal him.” In his adolescence, Thomas’ friendship with a holy Dominican inspired him to join them.

His family, however, did not envision the brilliant young man as a penniless and celibate preacher. His brothers kidnapped him from the Dominicans, took him to the family’s castle, and at one point even sent a woman to seduce him – whom Thomas drove out by

AQUINAS, SEE PAGE 24

Daily Scripture readings

JAN. 30-FEB. 5

Sunday: Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19, 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13, Luke 4:18, Luke 4:21-30; Monday (St. John Bosco): 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30, 16:5-13, Luke 7:16, Mark 5:1-20; Tuesday: 2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30–19:3; Wednesday (Feast of the Presentation of the Lord): Malachi 3:1-4, Hebrews 2:14-18, Luke 2:22-40 or 2:22-32; Thursday: 1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12, Mark 6:7-13; Friday: Sirach 47:211, Mark 6:14-29; Saturday (St. Agatha): 1 Kings 3:4-13, Mark 6:30-34 FEB. 6-12

Sunday: Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11; Monday: 1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13, Mark 6:53-56; Tuesday: 1 Kings 8:22-23, 2730, Mark 7:1-13; Wednesday: 1 Kings 10:1-10, Mark 7:14-23; Thursday (St. Scholastica): 1 Kings 11:4-13, Mark 7:24-30; Friday: 1 Kings 11:29-32, 12:19, Mark 7:31-37; Saturday: 1 Kings 12:26-32, 13:33-34, Matthew 4:4b, Mark 8:1-10 FEB. 13-19

Sunday: Jeremiah 17:5-8, 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20, Luke 6:17, 20-26; Monday (Sts. Cyril and Methodius): James 1:1-11, John 14:6, Mark 8:11-13; Tuesday: James 1:12-18, Mark 8:14-21; Wednesday: James 1:19-27, Ephesians 1:17-18, Mark 8:22-26; Thursday: James 2:1-9, Mark 8:27-33; Friday: James 2:14-24, 26, Mark 8:34–9:1; Saturday: James 3:1-10, Mark 9:2-13

Our faith

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Pope Francis

God offers courage, guidance to those in difficulty

God always offers people the help and courage they need to face life’s fears and difficulties, Pope Francis said. The pope said his thoughts were with all those who “are crushed by the weight of life and can no longer hope or pray.”

Parents, in particular, often must grapple with situations or problems that are out of their control, such as when their child is sick or has a chronic illness. “How much pain is there!” the pope said Jan. 26 during his weekly general audience.

Parents also may be aware their children have “different sexual orientations,” so they must figure out “how to deal with this and accompany their children and not hide in an attitude of condemnation,” he said. Parents may see their children die of an illness or in a car accident, or they see them struggle in school. There is so much pain or fear, he said, but “never condemn a child.”

Continuing his series of audience talks about St. Joseph, Pope Francis focused on how the saint would discern the voice of God through prayer and dreams.

It is important to be able to recognize the voice of God amid so many other voices, such as “the voices of our fears, the voices of past experiences, the voices of hopes,” the pope said, adding “there is also the voice of the evil one who wants to deceive and confuse us.”

“Joseph demonstrates that he knows how to cultivate the necessary silence and, above all, how to make the right decisions before the word that the Lord addresses to him inwardly,” he said.

God “does not cast us alone into the fire. He does not cast us among the beasts. No. When the Lord shows us a problem, or reveals a problem, He always gives us the intuition, the help, His presence, to get out of it, to resolve it.”

“Life often puts us in situations that we do not understand and that seem to have no solution. Praying in these moments, this means letting the Lord show us the right thing to do.” When people experience dangerous situations, “praying means listening to the voice that can give us the same courage as Joseph, to face difficulties without succumbing,” he said. “God does not promise us that we will never have fear, but that, with His help, it will not be the criterion for our decisions. Joseph experiences fear, but God also guides him through it.”

“Let us ask the Lord to give this courage to all fathers and mothers, as He gave it to Joseph. And to pray, no? Pray that the Lord will help us in these moments. It is only when we combine prayer with love, the love for children in the cases I just mentioned, or the love for our neighbor, that we are able to understand the Lord’s messages,” he said.