Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Catholicism, for better or worse, is a religion of intelligence. In Fides et Ratio, the encyclical on Reason and Revelation, Pope John Paul II pointed out that philosophy is essential to understanding divine revelation. In Fides et Ratio, the Pope recognizes that St. Thomas Aquinas had the great merit of giving pride of place to the harmony which exists between faith and reason. Both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God, Aquinas argues; hence there can be no contradiction between them.
St. Thomas Aquinas records a famous phrase at the beginnings of his Commentary on Aristotle’s Ethics. It says sapientis est ordinare, which means “it is the task of the wise man to order things.” As today we celebrate the memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, let us reflect on how everything is ordered in the universe. How is the world made? How is it that I am the kind of being that I am today? How must I keep my interior life in order?