Fr. Paul: St. Thomas and Fortitude

By Rev. Paul Raftery, O.P.
Head Chaplain, Thomas Aquinas College
Homily from St. Thomas Day 2021
March 8, 2021

Many of the great saints we admire had impressive conversions — St. Mary Magdalen, St. Augustine, St. Francis, and St. Ignatius. But St. Thomas had nothing so spectacular in his journey to holiness. In fact he was not even like those saints we admire who had mystical visions as children, like St. Catherine of Siena and St. Padre Pio. Rather, St. Thomas, in ordinary ways, but with great focus and resolve, was always intent on doing the will of God and spending himself in the service Christ.

He truly brings to life for us the Lord’s command: You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, as well as the commandment: You must love your neighbor as yourself.

St. Thomas fulfilled these commands with exceptional resolve from his earliest days. At age 5, in 1231, he was placed by his family — who were of the aristocracy in their region of Naples — in the nearby Benedictine Abbey of Monte Casino to be educated by the monks. There Thomas was known for being exceptionally devout and constantly seeking to understand more deeply the Christian faith. His teachers remembered how he would ask probing questions about God, thirsting to know Him not just in a devotional way, but in a deeper, intellectual way, even as a young boy.

When he was 13 and sent to the University of Naples for his undergraduate studies, he was again single-minded, especially in dedicating himself to the study of Aristotle. He also sought to give himself over completely to the service of God, going so far as to choose a vocation of prayer, study, and preaching in the order begun by St. Dominic just 25 years before. St. Thomas wasted no time, joining the order at age 16.

This was followed by a great dramatic standoff that is well known. His aristocratic family was not happy with his choice of a new, in some circles suspect, religious order known for living in poverty and begging for their food. So a couple of his family members kidnapped Thomas soon after he was given the habit, keeping him captive in the family castle, hoping that would change his mind.

But again Thomas exceled in resolve and single-mindedness, not becoming disconsolate and idle in his imprisonment, but finding it a great occasion for living out his religious life and for study. He obtained a breviary for praying the Divine Office, the Sacred Scriptures — which he set about memorizing — and a copy of the main theological work of the day, the Sentences of St. Peter Lombard. Thomas made the most of his captivity for around two years. On one occasion, as all of us who are in the Angelic Warfare Society know, he had to drive out of his room a prostitute that his brothers sent in to seduce him, which is depicted on the painting here in the Chapel in the north transept.

So Thomas was locked up by his family from age 17 to 19, but is said to have come out of that captivity better educated than the other novices who had joined the order at the same time. Too bad we didn’t use him earlier as the special patron for students in quarantine!

Thomas continued with this single-minded dedication to God throughout his life, exceling in charity to others, especially in his vocation as priest and teacher. He always kept the door to his room open for his brethren to come to confession at any hour of the day or night. And he put his intellectual gifts completely at the disposal of others, generously granting whatever requests other Dominicans or bishops would make of him for either a short treatise or a major work. His Gospel commentary, the Catena Aurea, was requested by Pope Urban IV. The Summa Theologiae was a theology program for Dominicans. The Summa Contra Gentiles was an apologetic work for missionaries in Spain. And on it went for so many of his works, putting his gifts at the service of the Church, pouring himself out in continual writing and teaching.

St. Thomas showed us by his example one particular virtue so necessary for moving forward on the path to holiness, which he himself describes in the Summa as a certain unrelenting resolve in the practice of virtue, even when the difficulties increase.

This, he says, we call fortitude … a certain firmness of mind …; … required both in doing good and in enduring evil… (II-II, 139,1).

Fortitude is clearly a virtue very much needed for us in today’s world. And that, undoubtedly, is one reason why Divine Providence has us going through this pandemic with all its frustrations and restrictions — to build us up in this virtue, so crucial for our fidelity to Christ in years to come.

Our Lord here in the Gospel calls us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. We are called to a firmness of mind lest we become a light hidden under a bushel basket, or salt that has lost its flavor.

St. Paul in the second reading is not able to fulfill his mission, nor will we, of preaching to the nations the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all … the mystery hidden from ages past … unless we can remain steadfast in this task as Christ’s instruments for evangelization.

St. Thomas, we call upon you as the patron of our College, and as the outstanding example you are in holiness and the pursuit of wisdom, to intercede on our behalf. May the gift of firmness in mind, and fortitude in seeking God, and in serving Him faithfully in this life, be ours. And one day lead us to join you and all the saints in forever praising God, the fullness of light, truth, and beauty that we are made for and long for.