YOU MUST CALL NO ONE, TEACHER

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, PRIEST, DOCTOR  

Wis 7:7-10,15-16; Ps 119:9-14; Mt 23:18-12

The Incarnate Wisdom, Our Teacher

Our Lord himself taught us how to become his brothers, sisters, and mother. But said nothing about becoming his Father because the Father is the origin of all things and life. None can replace or take the place of the Father, from whom all perfect gifts flow to us. To consolidate this understanding, he expressly states it in the passage today. “You must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one master, and you are all brothers. You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven.” The role and name of the heavenly Father must never be trifled with, for all must hold it most holy and refer to it with due reverence. The Father is most holy because the Son is begotten by Him from eternity, and through the only Begotten Son, we receive life and every grace for salvation. The Son is the perfect expression of the Father, and we must attend to him for all our needs from the Father. Because the Son is the only true expression of the Father’s will, we must never turn our attention to another to know the divine will. Hence, he forbids us to call anyone 'Rabbi' or 'master'. To divide the attention we give to the Son would put the salvation we receive from the Father in jeopardy. Hence, the reverence we give the Father goes to our reception of the Son, as the only way to the Father, and the sum total of the perfect gifts from the Father, especially the gift of salvation.

As we must never allow anyone distract our attention from the Son, who is the perfect expression of the Father, we must not allow ourselves to distract another from following the Son to the Father, the origin of all perfect gifts. He allows us and shows us how to be his brothers, sisters, and mothers, but we must not present ourselves as the Christ or Saviour of another. Rather, we must mediate the coming or formation of Jesus Christ in souls we bring to him. This is what it means to be brothers, sisters, and mothers of Jesus Christ: mediating Christ to souls. The heavenly Father remains central in the whole work, for he is the giver of eternal life; and the eternal life is Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the one who makes the seed of eternal life, the Word, to germinate in the souls we bring to Christ. To understand the deep mystery of Jesus Christ as the gate to the Trinity of Persons in God is to receive the spirit of Wisdom. We must supplicate the Father to give us the Son, who is our teacher for all times. “I prayed, and understanding was given me; I entreated, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.” Understanding the Son of Man as our perfect gift from the Father is to enter into the path leading to the heavenly kingdom. The path is still closed to all who do not recognise in Jesus Christ the presence of the Eternal Word of God.

Blessed indeed are those to whom the Father opens the gate to enter into this path leading to the heavenly kingdom. As our Lord says: ‘And no one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and to whom the Son might choose to reveal Him.” This is the reason we celebrate Saint Thomas Aquinas as the angelic doctor of the Church. He attended to the Son, the Eternal Wisdom, with all his mind and heart, and Christ revealed the Father to him. He was born of a noble family in southern Italy and educated by the Benedictines. He decided to become a Dominican instead of a Benedictine. His family was so scandalised by the disreputable plan that they kidnapped him and kept him prisoner for over a year, but he was more obstinate than they were, and he had his way at last. He studied in Paris and in Cologne under the great philosopher St. Albert the Great. Saint Thomas Aquinas synthesised Aristotle’s teachings with the Gospel to produce a system of coherent philosophy and theology that remains irreplaceable to date. Out of his depth of learning came, also, the dazzling poetry of the liturgy for Corpus Christi. And out of his sanctity came the day when, celebrating Mass, he had a vision that, he said, made all his writings seem like so much straw, and caused him to cease writing. May his prayer help us to know Jesus Christ, the eternal Wisdom.

Let us pray: O God, who made Saint Thomas Aquinas outstanding in his zeal for holiness and his study of sacred doctrine, grant us, we pray, that we may understand what he taught and imitate what he accomplished. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.