Conclusion The Tao of Fierce Wisdom by Thomas Aquinas
Conclusion
The Tao of Fierce Wisdom by Thomas Aquinas
We have been considering the essence of Aquinas’s teachings about our spiritual journey toward wisdom, justice, and compassion. A journey that takes us away from dullness, indifference, and, in his words, folly. “Folly implies apathy in the heart and dullness in the senses,” he writes, “for sapiens (wise) as Isidore says ‘is so named from sapor (savor), because just as the taste is quick to distinguish between savors of meats, so too a wise person is quick in discerning things and causes.’ Thus it is clear that folly is opposed to wisdom as its contrary … the fool has the sense, though dulled, whereas the wise person has the sense acute and penetrating.”
Yet overcoming apathy in the heart and dullness in the senses the goal is not just about awareness but also action. For “Wisdom is able to direct us not only in contemplation but also in action” (378). For Aquinas “prayer consists in two things: namely, in the interior action of the heart, and in exterior works” (263). This corresponds exactly to my teaching on prayer as a “radical response to life,” which includes our mysticism (the Via Positiva and Via Negativa) and our prophecy (the Via Creativa and Via Transformativa).39 It is all the work of the Spirit who “ennobles us and makes us leaders” (265). Indeed, it is “the same Holy Spirit that inspired the prophets and the authors of Sacred Scripture that moved the saints to work. For, as 2 Peter (1:21) says: ‘The holy ones of God have spoken inspired by the Holy Spirit.’”
The work is both inner and outer, mystical and prophetic. “The apostles, who are the chiefs and leaders of Christian wisdom and were motivated every day by truth, witnessed as is appropriate, not only in word but also in work” (266).
And he urges fire in the heart. “It is impossible that anyone hide the words of God when their heart is inflamed by love. … But the cause of one’s excitement is the meditation on divine things; whence the psalmist says: ‘And the fire burned in my meditation.’” He offers this advice: “If you wish to arrive at spiritual things your heart must be inflamed with love of God. The effect of the excitement is that one who preferred to be silent is moved to speak. … Acts (2) says: ‘All were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak’” (267).
To conclude this journey with Aquinas, I choose to present his words in a poetic modality much like the Tao Te Ching. Here we summarize his teachings in his own words, words that constitute the chapter titles to this book, arranged in poetic form. As they so deserve.
The Tao of Fierce Wisdom by Thomas Aquinas
The experience of God
must not be restricted
to the few
or to the old.
“They shall be drunk
on the beauty
of thy house,”
that is, the universe.
Revelation comes
in two volumes:
Nature
and the Bible.
The greatness of the human person
consists in this:
that we are
capable of the universe.
A mistake about nature
results in
a mistake about God.
Sheer Joy is God’s
and this demands
companionship.
Joy
is the human’s
noblest act.
Religion is
supreme thankfulness
or gratitude.
The first and primary meaning
of salvation
is this:
To preserve things
in the good.
The same Spirit
who hovered over the waters
at the beginning of creation
hovers over the mind
of the artist
at work.
We ought to cherish the body
and celebrate
the wonderful communion
of body and soul.
Every truth without exception—
—and whoever may utter it—
is from the Holy Spirit.
Revelation
has been made
to many pagans.
The old pagan virtues
were from God.
Every being
is a name for God;
and no being
is a name for God.
We are united
to God
as to One Unknown.
The greatest accomplishment
of the human mind
is to know
that it does not know
who God is.
The first requirement, then,
for the contemplation of wisdom,
is that we should take complete possession
of our minds
before anything else does.
It is a great thing
to do miracles.
But it is a greater thing
to live virtuously.
The proper objects
of the heart
are truth
and justice.
The vision of God
is arrived at
through Justice.
Compassion is the fire
that Jesus came
to set on the earth.
Conscience is
more to be obeyed
than authority imposed from
the outside.
The prophet’s mind is moved
not only to apprehend something,
but also
to speak
or to do something.
A trustworthy person is angry
at the right people,
for the right reasons,
expresses it in the appropriate manner
and for an appropriate
length of time.
Playfulness
or Fun
is a Virtue.
It pertains to Magnanimity
to have
a great soul.
Angels carry thoughts
from prophet
to prophet.
There is
a double
Resurrection.
God is
a fountain
of total Beauty,
the most beautiful
and the superbeautiful.
Christ is
a dew for cooling;
rain for making fruitful;
a seed
for bringing forth the fruit of justice.
It is impossible
that anyone
hide the words of God,
when their heart
is inflamed by love.
Amen.