Feast of the Transfiguration
St. Thomas comments on the words, "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him":
"There follows the testimony from the voice of the Father, … ‘and the voice from the cloud, saying…’ But why from the cloud? To indicate that it is the voice of the Father, the Lord who is within the cloud. ‘This is My beloved Son. In whom I am well pleased.’ This touches upon the dignity of Christ regarding His filiation by the perfection of love, and also regarding the conformity of His actions. Therefore, the Father says, ‘This is…,’ to indicate a singular son. Others are sons by adoption, as in Psalm 81:6, ‘I said, you are gods, and you are all sons of the most High.’ But this one is the true Son, clearly singular, as First John 5:20 states, ‘The Son of God came and gave perception to us, that we might know the true God.’
Likewise, He is also, ‘beloved.’ Our love arises from the goodness of the creature. A thing is not good because I love it. Rather, because it is a good thing, I love it. But the love of God is the cause of the goodness of things. And so God poured out goodness into creatures through creation. However, He poured out goodness into the Son through generation, because He communicates all goodness to the Son.
Creatures are blessed by means of participation in God's goodness, but the Father gave all goodness to the Son (John 3:35): ‘The Father loves the Son and has put all things into His hands.’ Therefore, love itself proceeds from the Father loving the Son, and from the Son loving the Father.
But it might be that a thing may be given to someone and he does not use well those things given to him, and does not please the giver. But God gave the fullness to His Son and He has used them well, and so He says, ‘In whom I am well pleased.” … Therefore, because of this, He says, ‘Hear Him.’ The Father indicates that the Son is given as the teacher of all people.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew, chapter 17, verse 5.
Eighteenth Sunday of the Year
Commenting on the Gospel of today, John 6:24-35, St. Thomas writes: “He leads them back to the truth by calling their attention to spiritual food… The power of this food is seen in that it does not perish. In this respect we should point out that material things are likenesses of spiritual things, since they are caused and produced by them; and consequently they resemble spiritual things in some way. Now just as the body is sustained by food, so that which sustains the spirit is called its food… The food that sustains the body is perishable, since it is converted into the nature of the body; but the food that sustains the spirit is not perishable because it is not converted into the spirit; rather the spirit is converted into its food” (894-895).
“Work for that which, that is, the spiritual food, endures to eternal life. This food is God Himself, insofar as He is the Truth, which is to be contemplated and the Goodness which is to be loved, which nourish the spirit… bodily things are perishable, while spiritual things, especially God, are eternal” (895).
“If He had said, ‘the Son of God’ [will give you], it would not be unexpected; but He captures their attention by saying that the ‘Son of Man’ gives this food. Yet the Son of Man gives this food in a spiritual way, because human nature, weakened by sin, found spiritual food distasteful, and was not able to take it spiritually. Thus it was necessary for the Son of Man to assume flesh and nourish us with it: ‘You have prepared a table for me’ (Ps 22:5)” (897).
“God the Father has impressed His Word on human nature; this Word, who is ‘the brightness of His glory, and the figure of His substance’ (Heb 1:3). Chrysostom explains it this way. God the Father has ‘set His seal,’ i.e. God the Father specifically chose Christ to give eternal life to the world: ‘I came that they may have life’ (Jn 10:10). For when someone is chosen to perform some great task, he is said to be sealed for that task…” (898).
“Only God can be the end of faith, for our mind is directed to God alone as its end. Now the end, since it has the character of a good, is the object of love. Thus, to believe in God as an end is proper to faith living through the love of charity. Faith, living in this way, is the principle of all our good works; and in this sense to believe is said to be a work of God” (901).
“But if faith is a work of God, how do men do the works of God? Isaiah (26:12) gives us the answer when he says: ‘You have accomplished all our works for us.’ For the fact that we believe, and any good we do, is from God: ‘It is God working in us, both to will and to accomplish’ (Phil 2:13). Thus he explicitly says that to believe is a work of God to show us that faith is a gift of God, as Ephesians (2:8) maintains” (902).
“The true bread, not the symbolic bread, is that which descends from heaven. This is clear, because it gives life to the world: for Christ, who is the true bread, gives life to whom He wills: ‘I came that they may have life’ (Jn 10:10). He also descended from heaven: ‘No one has gone up to heaven except the One who came down from heaven’ (Jn 3:13). Thus Christ, the true bread, gives life to the world by reason of His divinity; and He descends from heaven by reason of His human nature, for…He came down from heaven by assuming human nature: ‘He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant’ (Phil 2:7)” (910).
“Again, material bread does not give life but only sustains for a time a life that already exists. But spiritual bread actually gives life, for the soul begins to live because it adheres to the word of God: ‘For with You is the fountain of life,’ as we see in Psalm 35:10. Therefore, since every word of wisdom is derived from the Only Begotten Word of God… this word of God is especially called the bread of life. Thus Christ says, ‘I am the bread of life.’ And because the flesh of Christ is united to the Word of God, it is also life-giving. Thus, too, His body, sacramentally received, is life-giving: for Christ gives life to the world through the mysteries which He accomplished in His flesh. Consequently, the flesh of Christ, because of the Word of the Lord, is not the bread of ordinary life, but of that life which does not die…. (914).
“His flesh was also signified by the manna. ‘Manna’ means ‘What is this?’ because the Jews saw it and wondered, and asked each other what it was. But nothing is more a source of wonder than the Son of God made man, so that everyone can fittingly ask, ‘What is this?’ … How can Christ be one person in two natures? ‘His name will be called wonderful’ (Is 9:6). It is also a cause for wonder how Christ can be present on the sacrament” (915).
St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Part I, 894-915, trans. James A. Weisheipl, O.P. and Fabian Larcher, O.P. (Albany, NY: Magi Books, Inc., 1980), 356-365.
Solemnity of the Sacred Heart
“Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34).
“The import of the commandment is mutual love; thus He says, ‘that you love one another.’ It is of the very nature of friendship that it is not imperceptible; otherwise it would not be friendship, but merely good-will. For a true and firm friendship the friends need a mutual love for each other; for this duplication makes it true and firm. Our Lord, wanting there to be perfect friendship among His faithful and disciples, gave them this commandment of mutual love: ‘Whoever fears the Lord directs His friendship aright’ (Sir 6:17)” (1837). “The standard for this mutual love is given when He says, “as I have loved you.” Now Christ loved us three ways: gratuitously, effectively and rightly. He loved us gratuitously because He began to love us and did not wait for us to begin to love Him: ‘Not that we loved God but because He first loved us’ (1 Jn 4:10). In the same way we should first love our neighbors and not wait to be loved by them or for them to do us a favor.”
“Christ loved us effectively, which is obvious from what He did; for love is proven to exist from what one does. The greatest thing a person can do for a friend is to give Himself for that friend. This is what Christ did: ‘Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us’ (Eph 5:2). So we read: ‘Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’ (Jn 15:13). We also should be led by this example and love one another effectively and fruitfully: ‘Let us not love in word and speech but in deed and in truth’ (1 Jn 3:18).
” “Christ also loved us rightly. Since all friendship is based on some kind of sharing (for similarity is a cause of love), that friendship is right which is based on a similarity or sharing in some good. Now Christ loved us as similar to Himself by the grace of adoption, loving us in the light of this similarity in order to draw us to God. ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; and so, taking pity on you, I have drawn you’ (Jer 31:3). We also, in the one we love, should love what pertains to God and not so much the pleasure or benefits the loved one gives to us. In this kind of love for our neighbor, even the love of God is included” (1838).
“Then when He says, ‘By this all men will know that you are My disciples,’ He gives the reason for following this command. Here we should note that one who is in the army of a king should wear his emblem. The emblem of Christ is the emblem of charity. So anyone who wants to be in the army of Christ should be stamped with the emblem of charity. This is what He is saying here: ‘By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.’ I mean a holy love: ‘I am the mother of beautiful love and of fear and of knowledge and of holy hope’ (Sir 24:24).”
“Although the disciples received many gifts from Christ, such as life, intelligence and good health, as well as spiritual goods, such as the ability to perform miracles – ‘I will give you a mouth and wisdom’ (Lk 21:15) – none of these are the emblem of a disciple of Christ, since they can be possessed both by the good and the bad. Rather, the special sign of a disciple of Christ is charity and mutual love; ‘He has put His seal upon us and given us His Spirit’ (2 Cor 1:22) (1839).
St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, trans. James A. Weisheipl, O.P. and Fabian Larcher, O.P. (Petersham, MA: St. Bede Publications), 319-320.
“Therefore, I wish that you may be enclosed in the opened side of the Son of God, which is an opened store, full of fragrance, in so much that the sin becomes odorous. There the gentle spouse reposes on the bed of fire and of blood. There she sees and is shown the secret of the heart of the Son of God.”
St. Catherine of Siena, Letter 112.
Immaculate Heart of Mary
“Mary was full of grace not only in the performance of all good, but also in the avoidance of all evil. Again, the Blessed Virgin was full of grace in the overflowing effect of this grace upon her flesh or body… Moreover, the soul of the holy Virgin was so filled with grace that from her soul grace poured into her flesh from which was conceived the Son of God. Hugh of Saint Victor says of this: ‘Because the love of the Holy Spirit so inflamed her soul. He worked a wonder in her flesh, in that from it was born God made Man.’” St. Thomas Aquinas, “Explanation of the Angelic Salutation,” in The Catechetical Instructions of St. Thomas Aquinas (Manila, Sinag-Tala Publishing Co.), 206-207. “The Eternal Word was given to us through the hands of Mary. And He was clothed with our nature with the substance of Mary.” St. Catherine of Siena, Letter 16
[1] “Dato è a noi el Verbo etterno per le mani di Maria; e della substancia di Maria si vestì della natura nostra” (OratioXVI, 190).
“The Eternal Word was given to us through the hands of Mary. And He was clothed with our nature with the substance of Mary.”[1]
Tenth Thursday of the Year
“Unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20).
“Things may be distinguished in two ways. First, as those things that are altogether specifically different ways, e.g. a horse and an ox. Secondly, as perfect and imperfect in the same species, e.g. a boy and a man: and in this way the Divine Law is divided into Old and New. Hence the Apostle compares the state of a man under the Old Law to that of a child under a pedagogue; but the state under the New Law to that of a full grown man, who is no longer under a pedagogue (Gal 3: 24, 25).”
“Now the perfection and imperfection of these two laws is to be taken in connection with the three conditions pertaining to law… For, in the first place, it belongs to law to be directed to the common good as to its end… This good may be twofold. It may be a sensible and earthly good, and to this, man was directly ordained by the Old Law: wherefore, at the very outset of the law, the people were invited to the earthly kingdom of the Chananeans (Ex 3:8, 17). Again it may be an intelligible and heavenly good: and to this, man is ordained by the New Law. Wherefore, at the very beginning of His preaching, Christ invited men to the kingdom of heaven, saying ‘Do penance, the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Mt 4:17). Hence Augustine says that ‘promises of temporal goods are contained in the Old Testament, for this reason it is called old; but the promise of eternal life belongs to the New Testament (Contra Faust. Iv).”
“Secondly, it belongs to the law to direct human acts, according to the order of righteousness: wherein also the New Law surpasses the Old Law, since it directs our internal acts, according to Mt 5:20: ‘Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’ Hence the saying that ‘the Old Law restrains the hand, but the New Law controls the mind’ (Peter Lombard, 3 Sentent., D. xl).”
“Thirdly, it belongs to the law to induce men to observe its commandments. This the Old Law did by the fear of punishment: but the New Law by love, which is poured into our hearts by the grace of Christ, bestowed in the New Law, but foreshadowed in the Old. Hence Augustine says that ‘there is little difference between the Law and the Gospel – fear and love’ (Conra Adimant. Manich. xvii).” (1a2ae. 91, 5).
“As the father of a family issues different commands to the children and to the adults, so also the one King, God, in His one kingdom, gave one law to men, while they were yet imperfect, and another more perfect law, when, by the preceding law, they had been led to a greater capacity for Divine things,” (1a2ae. 91, 5 ad 1).
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Vol. II trans. English Dominicans (New York: Benzinger Brothers, 1947), 1000.
“And because it proceeded from one same light, the new law did not break the old law. Rather the new was bound together with the old, but it removed the imperfection since it was founded only in fear. The Word, My only-begotten Son, coming with the law of love, fulfilled it, giving the love, lifting the fear of punishment and retaining the holy fear. And so My Truth said to His disciples to show them that He was not a breaker of the law, 'I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. As if My Truth said to them; the law is now imperfect but with My blood I will make it perfect. And so I will fulfill it with that which is now lacking, taking away the fear of the suffering and founding it in love and in holy fear. What made it clear that this was the truth? The light that was given by grace and is given to whoever wants to receive it beyond the natural light, as I said.”
St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, 85.
