" NEW " WHAT CAN WE KNOW???

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225- 1274)

There are many "giants" in the 2,000 years history of the Catholic Church since it was first founded by God. 

Although various Catholics have their favourite Saints- even Popes for various reasons - the Popes themselves have regularly nominated and recommended the Angelic Doctor - Saint Thomas Aquinas-  as the very model of the Authority , the Ideal Teacher and Thinker whom those aspiring to learn about the Catholic Faith, should study.

In recent times we can look to the strong, no nonsense Pope Pius XI who commended Saint Thomas Aquinas to be studied by those aspiring to the Priesthood.He did this in an Apostolic Letter accompanying revisions of the Canon Law.

And Pope Saint John Paul II,often called "the Great", himself an extraordinary Teacher and Scholar ,said  "The philosophy of St.Thomas deserves to be attentively studied and accepted with conviction by the youth of our day, by reason of its spirit of openness and universalism, characteristics which are hard to find in many trends of contemporary thought" (Fides et Ratio).

It is this very "openness" which sometimes brings us up short when reading Saint Thomas ( the same can be said when reading Pope Benedict XVI - himself a devotee of the great Saint Augustine of Hippo, perhaps even more so than of Saint Thomas.

A remarkable book is  "AQUINAS AT PRAYER" by Father Paul Murray O.P. Bloomsbury 2013.It gives us a wonderfully instructive example of this phenomenon.Here is the relevant extract: 

"Believing Christians to day seldom hear from preachers and teachers about the incomprehensibility of the divine nature. So the notion that the height of our human knowledge of God, far from being a remarkable fountain of wisdom, is no more than a "drop" in the ocean relative to the awesome mystery of God might sound alarming. But St.Thomas, in his work, shows not the least hesitation in making clear to us, and over and over again, the true depth of our "ignorance" . Thus in the Summa Theologiae , he writes, 

"Neither a Catholic nor a pagan knows the nature of God as He is in Himself."(p 25) And, in a commentary on Boethius on the Trinity :" at the end of our knowledge, God is ultimately known as unknown."(p.25)  

WHAT???  Is our giant of the Faith an "agnostic"???

NO WAY!!

 "St.Thomas's  position differs from that of modern agnostics because while modern agnosticism says simply "we do not know, and the universe is a mysterious riddle", a Thomist says "We do not know what the answer is ,but we do know that there is a mystery behind it all which we do not know, and if there were not, there would not even be a riddle. This Unknown we call God. If there were no God, there would be no universe to be mysterious and no body to be mystified." Victor White O.P. p26.

 

As a "Master of the Sacred Page", we would say a Master of Sacred Scripture, Saint Thomas of course knew and taught what we do know about God : That is the detail which God Himself has revealed to us. Firstly, from the time of  Adam and Eve we know that God IS. We also know that God made us  and that "in His Own image and likeness". Later in Sacred Scripture we know that God revealed Himself to Abraham. When Abraham asked God His Name  ( a foolish request since names are used to distinguish between like beings, and there is no being comparable to God.) He received the answer "YWHW" : "I Am Who I Am." The Jews took this up as a Name.  

 

As time went by, God revealed Himself to Moses giving him the Ten Commandments. In countless ways throughout the Old Testament, God revealed to us His continuing Mercy.

 

In the fullness of time God became Incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose birthday we celebrate today.

 

During the Life of Jesus the Christ, He revealed to us the  great Mystery of the Blessed Trinity, He also revealed His Divinity and His place within the Trinity.He also revealed the paternity of God toward us His creatures. Later still, through the inspired writing of Saint John ,God revealed that He "is Love".

So, although what we know of God is only like a "drop" in the ocean, we DO know by Divine Grace, enough to keep our puny human intellects going. But we have to recognise as Saint Thomas did, that our capacity to know God the Creator is limited by our the difference between our finite nature and the INFINITE God.

 

So Saint Thomas knew , and we can know quite a bit about God even with our limited human minds.

 

However, the point Saint Thomas is making above, is that  even beyond what we do know the full and complete knowledge of God by which Sit Thomas meant  to know God in such a way that we can define Him finally and that, our limited created intelligence can never do.