Thomas Aquinas

“ Seek we to have our souls silent before God, freed from pleadings of all emotion, to catch the accents of the mental word. This mental word is the fruit of contemplation; and, by the chinks of such contemplation, God speaks to us, not in voice, but through mind; not fully developing Himself, yet revealing something of Himself to the mind of man. ”

“ Truth is great, and will prevail; it is great, and stronger than all things; the whole earth invokes truth, and it blesses heaven itself; it moves all work, and they tremble because of it, and there is no iniquity in it. A wicked banquet, a wicked king, wicked women, all wicked sons of men, and all their wicked works, and truth is not in them, and they shall perish in their iniquity, and truth shall remain." The epistle further exhorts us impurity and humility, " Not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying" (v. 13) . ”

“ The Lord persuades us to have our treasures in heaven, but how can any one lay up treasures in heaven unless by making riches in time? We are able to understand spiritual wickedness by rust, moth, and thieves. By rust pride is signified, for it having invaded souls, turns them from the right way, ever shewing itself openly, and expanding itself for human praise. By the moth envy is signified, corrupts where it invades, and deprives of all integrity. ”

“ S. Augustine says of these three kinds of joy - " What is the joy of the world? Wantonness is the impurity of the wickedness of the world; to toy with the games, to be luxurious, to be allured, to be swallowed up, and to offend by baseness. To rejoice in the Lord is that joy which tends to salvation; for the loving-kindness of the Lord leads to justification, for He is most bountiful by way of remuneration. For a very small servitude He gives eternal life and the heavenly kingdom, and such a Lord is without doubt to be rejoiced in; Who saves His servants by redeeming them ”

“ The best part of our nature is wasted—“lam become as sounding brass.” In time the brass is worn away by giving out the sound, just as the rational creature without charity is consumed by vices. S. Austin says in the “ City of God,” “ If we were not of a good nature we should not be harmed by vices ; for what harm can they do us save to deprive us of integrity, beauty, salvation, and peace?” (2) The soul without charity, being separated from God, dies— “ I am nothing”—that is, I am dead, I am separated from the truth, without which man is dead ”

“ By contempt, if any humble person can be made much of; if any lowly person can be brought into repute. It is easy, indeed, to place a veil before the eyes, and to wear poor clothing, and to walk with the head bowed down; but patient endurance of wrong proves who is truly humble. (3) We ought to humble ourselves by submitting ourselves to all: “ Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well,” 1 Pet. ”

“ Chambering and wantonness are acts of riot which make impurity. Strife and envying proceed from pride. In prohibiting immodesty it exhorts to purity; in prohibiting pride it exhorts to humility. In the words, " Let us walk honestly, as in the day," it awakens us to reflection upon and to fear of the judgment; that is, that we should so live as it is meet to live in the day of judgment. A man is in the judgment by thinking upon the judgment; he lives honestly by fearing the judgment. ”

“ These holy women teach us to seek Jesus according to His own promise, if we wish to find Him. Jesus is to be sought for in a threefold manner— firstly, in faith ; secondly, in hope; thirdly, in charity. (1) Reasonably he seeks Him by faith, who seeks the light of His truth. (2) Earnestly he seeks Him in hope, who looks for the glory of His Majesty. (3) Fervently they seek Him in charity, who long for the sweetness of His goodness. These are the three Marys who came to the sepulchre. O Lord Jesus! make us to seek Thee and to find Thee. ”

“ Nothing among God's creatures does the Creator find to be disobedient, save the sinner and the devil. God teaches us to love Him by His benefits and gifts, which He shows to us daily. S. Augustine says that heaven and earth, and all things which are in them, on every side, say to me that I should love Thee; neither do they cease to say this by all things, that I may be inexcusable if I love Thee not. ”

“ S. Augustine says that they are the enemies of God not by nature, but by committing sins which are opposed to His commands ; for all the enemies of Christ who are unwilling to obey Him, they avail nothing to hurt Him ; but they are enemies to themselves by their resistance of His will, and not by their power of doing Him harm. Although anyone is an enemy, He is able to become his friend if he flies to the Blood of Christ: “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life,” Rom. ”

“ It is congruous, because when we obtain mercy from all creatures, it is only suitable that we should shew mercy to others. For we are full of misery, and unless other creatures should have compassion on us in giving themselves and their kind offices for us, we should not be able to exist. For if the sun or fire should give up its light and heat, and the earth its fruit, what could miserable man do? Therefore it is sufficiently congruous, since man meets mercy, that he should shew mercy to others. ”

“ By a mean measure of justice they acquire eternal joys: 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18, “For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” ”

“ On account of the danger of snares, we ought ever to walk cautiously before the Lord, that He Himself may draw our feet out of the trap. S. Augustine says, “ I resist the seducers that my feet may not be entangled by which I walk in Thy way, and I will lift up to Thee the invisible eyes that Thou mayest draw my feet out of the snare. Whence dost Thou draw them, for if they seek Thee Thou ceasest not to lift them up. But I, therefore, run where the snares are scattered abroad.” On account of the danger of robbers we ought to walk cautiously, armed for walking with all spiritual arms. ”

“ Because out of prison and chains sometimes a man cometh forth to a kingdom." There are not only the bonds of preceptors to be embraced, but the bonds of sinners to be dissolved. For the sinner is bound with the chains of pride, of avarice, of luxury, and of an evil tongue. ”

“ God Himself gives Himself to them for a reward, He who will be all in all, He who will be salvation, life, honour, glory, peace, joy, and all good things. (7) He gives to them the land flowing with milk and honey, that is the kingdom of heaven, the joy of the humanity and divinity making joyful. ”

“ Yet perfect goodness, and truthfulness, and beauty, and holiness are not mere ideas; they are realities, finding their true archetype in the mind and being of God - realities of which, by our union with Him through our Blessed Lord, we may hope to be partakers. The teaching of the four great Schoolmen, of Abert the Great, as well as of the Seraphic, Angelical, and Subtle Doctors, was, in common with that of Plato and the New Testament, essentially and entirely realistic. ”

“ He who wishes to redeem his soul from future wrath gathers together the riches of good works; for if he lacks these, he will not be able to sustain rebuke at the day of judgment. The poor shall not be rebuked, but they shall partake of the blessing of the inheritance. (3) On account of dignity: “The crown,” i.e., eternal, “is their riches,” Prov. xiv. 24. Their true riches are not earthly emoluments nor the froward blindness of the foolish, Gloss. The wise, if they have any earthly emolument for riches, nevertheless partake of the crown as if for virtues which are to them in the future. ”

“ For the arms of light are mercy and truth; for mercy is the shield by which we are defended from the enemy, and truth is the power by which we overcome all things. Of the first, Eccl. xxix. 12, 13, "Shut up alms in thy store-houses, and it shall deliver thee from all affliction. It shall fight for thee against thine enemies better than a mighty shield and a strong spear." ”

“ About the punishment of the wicked, the Gospel shows that the Creator and the creature unite for their punishment. This creature, which meets together for the punishment of the wicked, is three-fold—spiritual, corporeal, and composite. The spiritual creature is an angel; the composite creature is a man; the corporeal creature is two-fold, superior and inferior—the former being the heavenly bodies, the latter being the elements. Therefore the Lord points out in this Gospel that the wicked receive punishment from Him, by angels, by heavenly bodies, and from themselves. ”

“ The Elements Of Human Perfection.
FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY. (FROM THE EPISTLE.)
" Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." ”

“ Humility orders us in relation to God; Justice regulates us in regard to our neighbours; and Purity with regard to ourselves. May we so govern ourselves that we may be worthy to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ Our Lord. ”

“ The small fishes are the joys in the presence of the saints, who are even now taken away from the most bitter sea of this world, who frequently come and console the just “ who are in the way.” There are, indeed, some martyrs who are wasted, as Laurence and others, who, being afflicted with fires and differents torments, were smiling brightly, and so by their mirth proclaimed that they had infinite delights within, by which they could despise external torments. 2 Cor. xi. 27, 30, “If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities.” ”

“ Gloss. Delighting himself in present good things, he does not think about or attend to future things, so that in the end he will lack eternal riches: “ Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God .... laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life,” 1 S. Tim. vi. 17-19.
III. On the third head it is to be noted, that spiritual riches are knowledge and virtue; riches of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge: “ The fear of the Lord is his treasure,” Isa. ”

“ The Church celebrates the day of judgment with meditation and fear. As S. Jerome says, "Whether I eat or drink, that voice seems ever to resound in my ears, 'Rise up, ye dead, and come to judgment.' "On the contrary, it is said of the wicked, Prov. xxviii. 5 , "Evil men understand not judgment." We ought to hasten to run to meet the day of glory with righteousness. Heb. iv. 11 , "Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest." To four Christian virtues the Apostle exhorts us in this epistle. To mercy and truth in the words, "Let us put on the armour of light." ”

“ Charity, “in love;” for mutual services are nourished of and by charity. “ By love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another,” Gal. ”

“ They who lay up treasure in heaven shall find their own delights, the granary of whom will be filled by plenty, because they shall be satiated, when His glory will be manifested; and the wine-presses will overflow with wine. He kindles the hearts of the faithful towards the praises of the Creator, and he who bestows earthly subsidies upon the poor will be rendered richer by the giving in heavenly remuneration. (2) Defence from his enemies—Ecclus. xvii. 22, “The alms of man is as a signet with him, and shall preserve the grace of a man as the apple of the eye.” ”

“ Sinners can never sufficiently blush when placed in so great a multitude of creatures which are all good, whilst they themselves are evil. Secondly, because all things naturally do good, for whatever the creature gives to itself is an indication of the goodness of themselves and of the Creator. S. Dionysius says that God is the effusion of good to Himself ; S. Augustine, that it is a great indication of the Divine goodness that which every creature thinks to give to itself. Thirdly, because all things naturally desire good, and tend to good ”

“ It is not too much to say, that the Sadduceeism which is now sapping all the vitality of our faith and morals, is but the legitimate product of that nominalism which has lain at the root of all religious belief ever since the religious movement of the sixteenth century. Because the Scholastic Theology is realistic in its teaching, it is the only antidote which will be powerful enough to counteract the effects of that pernicious influence which the Teutonic Upas-tree has cast over so large a portion of Christendom. ”

“ I. Inward holiness consists in two things firstly, that evil affections should be renovated; and, secondly, that good affections should be obtained. S. Bernard said that holy affection makes the saint, whilst evil affection is to rejoice in the world. II. But there is an evil joy of the world, as in evil things, in vanities, in base pleasures. The joy in evil things is to rejoice in wickedness; the joy of vanities is to rejoice in riches, which are vain; and the joy in base pleasures is to rejoice in wantonness. ”