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Fidelity & ExcellenceThomas Aquinas College is unique among American colleges and universities, offering a faithfully Catholic education comprised entirely of the Great Books and classroom discussions.
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Truth MattersTruth, and nothing less, sets men free; and because truth is both natural and supernatural, the College’s curriculum aims at both natural and divine wisdom.
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Under the Light of FaithThe intellectual tradition and moral teachings of the Catholic Church infuse the whole life of Thomas Aquinas College, illuminating the curriculum and the community alike.
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What Can You Do with a Liberal Education?Nothing speaks more to the versatility of the College’s academic program than the good that our alumni are doing throughout the Church and the world.
President McLean: Thanksgiving and the Year of Mercy
By Michael F. McLean
President, Thomas Aquinas College
Remarks at the 2015 Thanksgiving Dinner
President Reagan’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, which we heard just a few moments ago, touched on some themes that are very important in their own right and of particular importance for Catholics right now.
Invoking the proclamation of Grover Cleveland, the President urged Americans to thank God for His mercy and to recognize our dependence on His forgiveness and forbearance — two things which would be impossible were it not for His mercy. In addition, President Reagan urged Americans to temper their gratitude with compassion and mercy for the needy.
As you probably know, last April Pope Francis proclaimed an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which begins this year on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception — a little over two weeks from now — and which will end on the Solemnity of Christ the King, November 20, 2016.
“We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy,” said Pope Francis; “it is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it.”
Opening the Jubilee on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is no accident. “After the sin of Adam and Eve, God did not wish to leave humanity alone in the throes of evil.” “And so,” Pope Francis says, “He turned His gaze to Mary, holy and immaculate in love, choosing her to be the mother of man’s Redeemer. When faced with the gravity of sin, God responds with the fullness of mercy.”
Our Lord Himself stresses the importance of mercy in the parable of the king and his servants: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? And in anger his lord delivered him to the jailers, till he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
“The Church,” says Pope Francis, “is commissioned to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel.” Let us heed the words of President Reagan and thank God for His mercy. At Pope Francis’ urging, let us mark the Year of Mercy by heeding Christ’s exhortation that we not judge and not condemn. The Pope reminds us that human judgment looks no farther than the surface, whereas the Father looks into the very depths of the soul. Especially in an intense academic community like this, we must remember the harm that can be done when our words are motivated by feelings of jealousy and envy.
The celebration of mercy is especially urgent now, Pope Francis says, because it is the responsibility of the Church and of every believer to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. “It is absolutely essential for the Church and for the credibility of her message that she herself live and testify to mercy,” wrote the Holy Father. “Her language and her gestures must transmit mercy, so as to touch the hearts of all people and inspire them once more to find the road that leads to the Father.”
Not forgetting the connection between justice and mercy, the Holy Father reminds us that they “are two dimensions of the same reality.” In the words of St. Thomas, “mercy does not destroy justice but in a sense is the fullness thereof.” “Divine justice always presupposes the work of mercy,” St. Thomas continues, “because nothing is due to creatures, except for something pre-existing or foreknown in them …which things can only be in them by God’s mercy.”
In his discussion of mercy, St. Thomas, as he so often does, quotes St. Augustine, who said, “mercy is the heartfelt sympathy for another’s distress, impelling us to succor him if we can.” In this vein, Pope Francis, in his turn, asks that we rediscover the corporal works of mercy and that we not forget the spiritual works of mercy. We must all do better to comfort the afflicted among us, to forgive one another’s offenses, and to bear patiently with one another, especially those who do us ill. As regards external works like these, St. Thomas says, “the sum total of the Christian religion consists in mercy.”
This Thanksgiving, on the eve of the Year of Mercy, let us thank God for His bounteous mercy to ourselves, to our college, and to our country, and ask Him to make us ever better models of that mercy. Let us thank the Church whose first truth, as Pope Francis says, is the love of Christ, and that we might live well this upcoming Jubilee, ask of Our Lord that He make us ever better vessels of that love. Finally, let us thank Pope Francis himself for reminding us that mercy is the bridge that connects God and man.
Thank you.