The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-03-09
ST. THOMAS AQUINAs
THE UNIVERSAL CHARACTER OF
HIS ATTAlNMENTs.
Extract from the Sermon Preached by
Rev. G. Pierse, .. D., on the Patronal
Feast of the College of st. Thomas.


Rev. G. Pierse, p. o., on the Patronal
Feast of the College of st. Thomas.
Owing to his universally of gifts st.
Thomas is at once the symbol and the
product of the Catholicity of the
Church. There are some who find it
hard to realize how the Catholic
Church could have produced i'm st.
Thomas so universal genius as well
as so great a saint. There are some
who point with scorn to the Catholic
Church as possessing system of mar
row intellectualism and as cramping
the various powers of ner children
There are those who refer to Scholas-
ticism, or the philosophy favored by
the Church, as inconsistent with the
full development of the imagination,
or of the nobler qualities of the heart
They forget, however, that the Catholic
Church is suited to all men and to all
the faculties of man. They forget that
the same Holy Mother Church, who i'm
her intellectual capacity is character
lied by the most accurate and legal
definitions of dogma, i'm her system of
cult and public ceremonies is calcu-
lated to strike the imagination of all,
and in her preaching of the solace of
religion for the living and the dying
can satisfy the human heart as nothing
else upon earth is able to do. They
forget that st. Thomas, while the most
finished product of the scholastic phil
osophy of the Church, had all the
highest faculties of man harmoniously
developed. The pen that wrote the
Sum of Philosophy Against the Gen.
tiles also wrote the familiar "Tantum
Ergo" one of the nob1est effusions of
the human heart aided by Divine
grace. The mind that composed the
strictly intellectual Sum of Theology"
was combined with an Imagination
that created the immortal "Lauda
Sion." Against those who say that
the Catholic Church Ia purely intel
lectual and formal, against those who
assert that she supplies no fitting out
let for the varied forms of human
genius, against those who regard
her scholastic philosophy as a means
for contracting the heart, against the
shallow theories of all those cavilers
regarding Catholicism there is one de-
cisive fact, and that fact is st. Thomas
of Aquin.
The Science of God.
A man of such universal studies
need not be supposed to have neg
lected the science of God, Who is the
Allin-an. Possessing such a bent for
wide attainments, he would be sadly
inconsistent il he omitted the study
of God. Vain are our studies IL we
study not God! Vain is our industry
II we study not the most important
thing, the one thing necessary! For
what elements go to make a man?
What powers are they which distin-
guish him from the other beings of the
earth? His intellect and his will.
What is the deepest thought of his
intellect? The thought of the in
finite. What is it that i'm the mightiest
way moves his will and thrills his
soul and agitates his being? The
magnet of boundless good and happi-
ness. And this infinite reality, this
boundless happiness ever pursued by
man, as the pole is sought by the
magnetic needle, is none other than
God Himself. We estimate the great
ness OF a science from the greatness
of the matter with which IL deals. The
knowledge of a small thing is trivial
knowledge. The knowledge OF a
greater thing 10 greater knowledge.
But the knowledge of the greatest
Being is the greatest knowledge. The
Science Of God may be driven from It's
rightful place; 1t may be expelled from
the schools and the universities: IL
may be dethroned for a while by the
pride of Goddess men, but st. Thomas
gave it for all time It's proper rank;
he enthroned the science of God, the
science of Theology as the empress of
the sciences by divine right.
The Keynote of His Life.
All the achievements of st. Thomas.
gigantic as they seem to us, appeared
little to him, viewing them from the
truer standpoint of a higher world.
His works have been called perfect
masterpieces, but in comparison with
that OF Heaven which the year before
his death st. Thomas saw i'm vision,
there is found no perfect masterpiece
here below. The one earthly mood
that viii endure forever, though
the heavens and the earth and
all their vanities pass away, the
one reality of realities In the love
OF God. st. Thomas found this reality;
to God he devoted his whole 1ife's
work; about Him he spoke when he
was receiving the Body OF Jesus Christ
for the last time, when he pronounced
concerning the Divine Master those
last words of his which deserve TO De
inscribed ON his monument I'm everlast-
ing letters OF gold. Thee have i
preached. Thee have taught. AGAINST