28 January 2020 - Tuesday of the 3rd week in Ordinary Time - Memorial of St Thomas Aquinas - Doctor of the Church - Mark 3:31-35

       Who is a true family member of Christ?  Jesus tells us that when we follow him and do his will, then we are his brother and sister, then we are a member of his family.  However, that is not always so strait forward, is it?  How do we always know when we are following God’s will for us in our lives? 

       Today, we celebrate St Thomas Aquinas, one of the great theologians of our Church.  But, when he first wanted to follow a vocation in the Church as a priest, his wealthy, powerful family kidnapped him and hid him in their castle in southern Italy to keep him from going to seminary.  When he initially studied theology with the Dominican religious order in Cologne, Germany, his fellow classmates nicknamed him the “dumb ox,” since he was large in size and very quiet, and to them, he did not seem very intelligent.  Yet, his main professor, St Albert the Great, who was himself one of our Church’s great theologians, recognized Thomas’ brilliance in theology.  Thomas turned out to be one of the most influential theologians in the Catholic Church, truly a brother of Christ, truly one of his devout disciples.  Thomas adapted the philosophy of Aristotle into Western philosophy in his great work the Summa Theologiae, making it a one of the most influential works in Christian theology.  Yet, when Thomas was in the chapel at mass one day, he was contemplating the mystery of God.  The vision he had of God at mass influenced him to famously say that all his works in theology are straw compared to what God had revealed to him in that mystical vision.  With that vision, he made the decision not to finish his work on the Summa. 

        Thomas Aquinas, a Doctor of the Church from the 13th century, is honored at mass today on his feast day.  He is the patron saint of students, philosophers, and scholars.  Yet, as our Gospel tells us today, we go not have to be a great theologian or great scholar to be considered a brother or sister of Christ.  To be his brother or sister, we are called to have faith in him and to put that faith into action.