Here in Washington, when the brothers chant the Salve Regina in procession, we often pass lay people who join the friars in prayer. Some are familiar faces and others are new; many are young college students working on papers and preparing for exams, while still more are taking a moment to pray amidst the busyness of the world.
As I pass this visiting band of men and women, I have thought that, once upon a time in the city of Naples, a young man by the name of Tommaso d’Aquino stood in the back of a Dominican chapel much like our own, listening to the chanting of the friars. Overcome by the witness of the friars and the beauty of their prayer, he resolved to give up everything in pursuit of Christ after the pattern of life founded by Saint Dominic.
Even a great man like Saint Thomas Aquinas has a beginning. Today, he is known throughout the world as a great theologian, prolific writer, and profound mystic. He is even hailed by some as both a scholastic genius and spiritual master. But when he first encountered the grace of God calling out to him through the prayers of the friars, could Thomas have known the great heights to which this grace would lead him?
Thomas heard the call of the Lord, felt grace moving his heart, and fell in love with Jesus Christ. Within this quiet man, one whose voice would resound throughout the world for the rest of time, was a stillness that allowed him to enter into a truly profound and transformative relationship with Jesus Christ. When he responded to Divine Love with a gracious heart, he allowed his gifts to be sanctified and molded that they might be used for the glory of God. Thomas gave himself to God, becoming a tool through which countless men and women would come to holiness. Yet, from the moment he gave his own fiat and entered the arena of excellence as a Dominican friar, the young Thomas knew that the Lord called him.
For this reason, above his titles of theologian and master do we proclaim Thomas a man of God and a saint. As Dominican friars, we hail him further as one of our greatest brothers in St. Dominic. Not through intellectual prowess but by giving himself to God was he raised to the heights of sanctity. He placed his life in the hands of God and thereby reached the summit of wisdom and holiness. Only through this process could he contemplate the love of God and share the fruits of his contemplation with others.
Like St. Thomas Aquinas, each of us are called to holiness and to manifest the glory of God in a unique way. Every saint comes from humble beginnings, called by God in the silence of their heart. Yet, even though the call is simple, God desires to transform each of us and manifest his glory through our lives. Let us give ourselves courageously and without reserve to the love of God and, in so doing, become beacons of truth and goodness for the salvation of the world.
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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
