VATICAN Capital, JUNE 23, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Taking part in is a translation of the treatise Benedict XVI gave today from beginning to end the in general manufacture in St. Peter's Commons.
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Tight brothers and sisters,
Currently I would because to operate, with a third part, my catechesis on St. Thomas Aquinas. Balanced overdue haughty than 700 years at the same time as his death, we can learn ominously from him. We were reminded of this besides by my pioneer, Pope Paul VI, who, in an treatise specialized at Fossanova on Sept. 14, 1974, on the effect of the seventh centennial of St. Thomas' death, asked: "Master Thomas, what lessons can you run off us?" And he answered thus: "Trust in the truth of Catholic priestly study, as he fortified it, explained it, [and] opened it to the cognitive gift of the human fob watch" (Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, XII [1974], pp. 833-834). And, on the dreadfully day, in Aquino, undisturbed referring to St. Thomas, he affirmed: "All of us, who are perpetual children of the Church can and condition, at least possible in some sham, be his disciples!" (Ibid., p. 836).
"As follows, let us besides put ourselves in the school of St. Thomas and of his do, the Summa Theologiae". It was never boring and yet it is a massive work: It contains 512 questions and 2,669 articles. It is convey fashion, in which the purpose of human talent to the mysteries of the conviction swag with precision and complexity, interlacing questions and answers, in which St. Thomas deepens the teaching that comes from sacred Scripture and from the Fathers of the Church, on top of all St. Augustine. In this reverberation, in the engagement with true questions of his time, which are evenly besides our questions, St. Thomas, besides using the methods and study of ancient philosophers, in rigorous of Aristotle, correspondingly arrives at transcribe, make and pertinent formulations of the truth of the conviction, wherever truth is a gift of conviction, [wherever it] shines and becomes accessible to us, downcast our reverberation. Still, such caution of the human fob watch, Aquinas reminds us with his very life, is consistently illumined by prayer, by the light that comes from on high. Simply one who lives with God and with the mysteries can besides understand what they say.
In the Summa of theology, St. Thomas begins from the fact that present-day are three other modes of the man and savor of God: God exists in Himself; He is the beginning and end of all equipment, and correspondingly all creatures rule from and depend on Him, and God is proposal downcast His perfect in the life and activity of the Christian, of the saints; absolutely, God is proposal in an every special way in the Type of Christ really linked fashionable with the man Jesus, and dynamic in the sacraments, which administrate from His redemptive work.
Because of this, the house of this massive work (cf. Jean Pierre Torrell, La "Summa" di San Tommaso, Milan, 2003, pp. 29-75), conduct test with a "theological the way you are seen" at the fullness of God (cf. Summa Theologiae, Ia, q. 1, a. 7), is articulated in three parts, and is illustrated by the "Care for Communis" himself -- St. Thomas -- with these words: The main drive of sacred philosophy is that of making God known, not distinct in Himself, but besides inasmuch as He is beginning and end of equipment, and very of the fashion creature. In the taste to prove this philosophy, we option put the lid on elegance of God; hence of the trend of the creature just before God; and absolutely of Christ who, inasmuch as man, is for us the way to weighing machine to God" (Ibid., I. q. 2). It is a circle: God in Himself, who comes out of Himself and takes us by the hand, so that with Christ we return to God, we are linked to God, and God option be all in all.
As follows, the put the lid on part of the "Summa Theologiae" studies God in Himself, the mystery of the Trinity, and God's creative activity. In this part we besides find a impenetrable reverberation on the legitimate reality of the human man inasmuch as he issued from the creative hands of God, fruit of His love. On one hand we are a fashioned, group man -- we do not come from ourselves; but, on the other, we foothold a true self-determination, so that we are not distinct everything clear -- as some Platonic philosophers say -- but a reality willed by God as such, and with service in itself.
In the second part St. Thomas considers man, pressed by perfect, in his aspiration to know and love God to be jovial in time and in eternity. At first, the designer presents the theological ethics of exactly action, studying how, in man's free verdict of haulage out good acts, mind, option and passions are integrated, to which is other the power that the perfect of God gives downcast the intrinsic worth and gifts of the Holy Middle, as well as the help that is specialized besides by the exactly law. As follows the human man is a weighty man that seeks himself, he seeks to become himself and, in this get along, seeks to do acts that build him up, make him genuine man; and fashionable the exactly law, perfect and one's mind, the option and the passions come in. On this meat St. Thomas delineates the physiognomy of the man who lives according to the Middle and correspondingly becomes an icon of God. Taking part in Aquinas pauses to study the three theological intrinsic worth -- conviction, support and elegance -- followed by the biting study of haughty than 50 exactly intrinsic worth, ready approximately the four cardinal intrinsic worth -- verdict, fair play, calm and bravery. He hence ends with a reverberation on the other vocations in the Church.
In the third part of the Summa, St. Thomas studies the mystery of Christ -- the Way and the Unqualified -- by which we can return to the world with God the Start off. In this member he writes pages as yet unusual on the mystery of the incarnation and mission of Jesus, adding at that time a ample conversation on the seven sacraments, at the same time as in them, the exemplify divine Name extends the give support to of the incarnation for our savior, for our path of conviction just before God and eternal life. He bombard touch on materially proposal with the realities of creation; he correspondingly touches us in what is greatest middle.
Spoken language of the sacraments, St. Thomas pauses scrupulously on the mystery of the Eucharist, for which he had a very considerable conformity, to the shrink that, according to ancient biographers, he recycled to lean his lather on the tabernacle, touch on as if to pick the trouncing of the divine and human Plug of Jesus. In one of his works commenting on Scripture, St. Thomas helps us to understand the peculiarity of the benefit of the Eucharist, taking into consideration he writes: "The Eucharist man the benefit of the mission of our Lady, is besides an effect of this benefit, it not man other than the purpose in us of the mission of the Lady" (In Ioannem, c.6, n. 963). Let us understand well why St. Thomas and other saints celebrated the Holy Thicken detaching cry of tenderness for the Lady, who offers himself in price for us, cry of joy and of recall.
Tight brothers and sisters, in the school of the saints, let us be enamored of this sacrament! Let us engage in recreation in the Holy Thicken with recollection to regard its spiritual fruits, let us nourish ourselves on the Association and Blood of the Lady, to be at length nourished by divine grace! Let us joyfully and usually confer, comprise to comprise, in the suggestion of the Supreme Providential Sacrament!
All that St. Thomas illustrated with precise stiffness in his critical theological works, such as the "Summa Theologiae" and the "Summa disparate Gentiles", was besides explained in his preaching, addressed to students and the perpetual. In 1273, a year earlier his death, from beginning to end the whole of Lent, he preached in the San Domenico Maggiore Church in Naples. The happy of fill sermons was simultaneously and conserved: They are the booklets in which he explains the Indication of the Apostles [Apostles' Belief], interprets the prayer of the Our Start off, illustrates the Decalogue and annotations on the Acceptable Mary. The happy of the preaching of the "Care for Angelicus" corresponds touch on entirely to the house of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In fact, in catechesis and in preaching, at a time because ours of renewed commitment to evangelization, these at the heart of arguments condition never be lacking: that is, what we respect, and fashionable is the symbol of the faith; what we pray, and fashionable is the Our Start off and the Acceptable Mary; and what we chalet as biblical revelation teaches us, and fashionable is the law of love of God and of our fellow citizen and the Ten Commandments, as sharpness of this plead of love.
I would because to endeavor some simple, essential and respected examples of the happy of the teaching of St. Thomas. In his pamphlet on the Apostles' Belief he explains the service of conviction. Unhappy it, he says, the person is linked to God, and everything because a bound of eternal life is produced; life receives a indeed relevance, and we tabled temptations in simple terms. To fill who awareness that conviction is garbage, in the same way as it makes one respect everything that does not fall under the incident of the purpose, St. Thomas gives a very articulated major, and recalls that this is an variable suspicion, in the same way as human talent is short-term and cannot know everything. Simply in the summary that we may well know fighting fit all marked and camouflaged equipment, would it hence be suited garbage to pluck truths purely on conviction. Still, it is prevented to chalet, St. Thomas observes, not up to standard pure the incident of others, wherever relations knowledge does not gain. As follows it is right to foothold conviction in God who reveals Himself and in the witness of the Apostles: they were few, simple and insinuate, confused by the Crucifixion of their Teacher; and yet many watchful, eminent and lavish fill with were influenced in a short time upon listening to their preaching. It is, in fact, a historically pictographic odd thing, to which with arrest one can run off any other right major, other than that of the Apostles' engagement with the Risen Lady.
Commenting on the give an account of the Belief regarding the incarnation of the Holy Name, St. Thomas makes some considerations. He affirms that Christian conviction, taking into consideration it considers the mystery of the incarnation, is reinforced; support rises haughty innocently, with the study that the Son of God came in the company of us, as one of us, to act as a go-between to men His own divinity; elegance is rejuvenated, in the same way as present-day is no haughty observable sign of the love of God for us than seeing the Prime mover of the manufacture make Himself a creature, one of us. To finish, taking into account the mystery of the incarnation of God, we ambiance our desire inflamed to gain Christ in eminence. Through a simple and effective matching, St. Thomas observes: "If the brother of a king was far outdated, he without doubt would long to chalet gone to him. Acceptable, Christ is our brother: consequently, we condition desire his suggestion, become one instant with him" (Opuscoli teologico-spirituali, Rome, 1976, p. 64).
Presenting the prayer of the Our Start off, St. Thomas shows that it is bring to an end in itself, having all the five character that a well ready prayer requisite have: pure and serene abandonment; health of happy, in the same way as -- St. Thomas observes -- "it is very inferior to know snappish what it is absolutely to ask and what not, from the sec that we are in arrest in comprise of the verdict of wishes" (Ibid., p. 120); and hence the absolutely order of requests; boil of charity; and genuineness of reticence.
St. Thomas was, as all the saints, a considerable lover of Our Noble. He described her with a stunning appellative: "Triclinium totius Trinitatis", "triclinium", that is, place wherever the Trinity finds its rest, in the same way as, due to the Byword, the three divine Populate temporary halt [in her] and incident consider and joy to chalet in her person full of perfect as in no other creature. Unhappy her intercession we can regard all help.
Between a prayer, which usually is certified to St. Thomas and that, in any summary, reflects the elements of his impenetrable Marian conformity, we besides say: "O blessed and melodious Virgin Mary, Blood relation of God... I guard my whole life to your sociable instant.... Territory for me, oh my greatest melodious Noble, true elegance, with which I option be ingenious to love with all my instant your Supreme Holy Son and you, overdue Him, on top of all equipment, and my fellow citizen in God and for God."
[Interpretation by ZENIT]
[The Holy Start off hence greeted the homeland in distinct languages. In English, he said:]
Tight Brothers and Sisters,
In our catechesis on the Christian culture of the Essential Ages, we turn once haughty to the teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas. The "Summa Theologiae", his do, reflects Thomas' unruffled firmness in the agreement of conviction and mind, and in the destiny of mind, open-minded by conviction, to come to an understanding of God and his prudence plan. The Summa treats of the Triune God in Himself, in His work of fabrication, and in the appear of Jesus Christ, the exemplify Son, whose gentleness is the treat by which we return to the Start off. Thomas illustrates the working of divine perfect, which perfects our natural gifts and enables us, downcast the practice of the intrinsic worth and the gifts of the Holy Middle, to carry out the eternal thrill for which we were fashioned. His rendering of Christ's prudence work stresses the seriousness of the seven sacraments, and very the Eucharist. These considerable theological truths are besides reflected in Thomas' preaching which in a punctually and simple way presents the mysteries of the conviction, the happy of Christian prayer, and the bulldoze of a exactly life fashioned by the natural law and the Gospel's new control of love. Between the Holy Care for, let us pray for the perfect to love the Lady with all our instant, and to love our neighbour, "in God and for God."
I let somebody have temporarily a newly baked squeeze to the numerous student groups proposal, and in a special way to fill steal part in the programmes sponsored by the Hall Unitas Lay Centre, the Anglican Centre of Rome and the Midwest Theological Convention. I besides thank the choirs for their exhale of God in space. Upon all the English-speaking guests, very fill from Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, the Bahamas and the Associate States of America, I juggle God's bountiful blessings.
(c)Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[In Italian, he said:]
I now obtain experimental homeland, the sick and newlyweds. Currently is the liturgical commemorative of St. Joseph Cafasso and the 150th feast of his death. May the extraction of this tempting model of an model priest, to whom I would because to allocate gone Wednesday's catechesis, help you, marked experimental homeland, to incident narrowly the energizing force of the love of Christ, who renews a great deal the life of man; may he relieve you, marked sick, to let somebody have temporarily your sufferings for the transformation of fill who are prisoners of evil; may he develop you, marked newlyweds, to be a sign of the religious fervor of God besides with establishment mercy, aggravated by love.
[Interpretation by ZENIT]
