St. Thomas Aquinas to be honored with triple jubilee celebrations

First in a series of two articles...

On July 18, the Catholic Church will enter into the triple jubilee celebrations of the legacy of beloved “angelic doctor” of the church, St. Thomas Aquinas.

The celebrations, also known “Centenaire Thomas d’Aquin (2023-2025),” will focus on the 700th anniversary of the canonization of St. Thomas Aquinas (July 18, 2023); the 750th anniversary of his death (March 7, 2024); and the 800th anniversary of his birth in 2025.
In an interview with The Catholic Commentator, Father Aquinas Guilbeau OP, University Chaplain and Director of Campus Ministry at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., noted that St. Thomas Aquinas is one of the Catholic Church’s foremost theologians and influencers of canon law and documents regarding formation of priests.

“His method of theology or his way of doing theology is to be imitated,” said Father Guilbeau, a native of Acadiana and graduate of Carenco High School in Lafayette and St. Joseph Seminary College in St. Benedict.

Because St. Thomas Aquinas was corpulent and reserved, his classmates at the University of Paris dubbed him “The Dumb Ox.” Yet as his instructor St. Albert the Great predicted, “His bellowing in doctrine will one day resound throughout the world." 
Known as the patron saint of universities and scholars, St. Thomas Aquinas’ teachings demonstrate a compatibility of faith and reason that the church and Dominican Oder continues to treasure and rely upon today, according to Father Guilbeau, who serves as editor of the English edition of Aleteia the online publication news source.

 “Faith does come with rational content that can help you uncover, explore and put in order according to our ways of thinking. It’s a real gift,” said Father Guilbeau,” … “St. Thomas Aquinas says that is one of the ways in which (God) tells us about himself so we can share knowledge with him, that we can come to know and know what he knows. That’s the beginning of our friendship with him.”

Father Guilbeau, who visited the diocese in 2021 to give a presentation to Legatus at the Baton Rouge Country Club, noted that St. Thomas Aquinas, in his best-known work, “Summa Theologica,” invites people into a relational conversation.

“His first move is, ‘Okay, what are other people, saying?” said Father Guilbeau. “And he lays out various opinions and you can begin to enter into them and think sympathetically about all the opinions. Then he writes, ‘This is actually what the authority of Scripture teaches us’ or turns to the church fathers.

“Then he gives his own explanation and returns to those previous opinions and shows whether either they are right and match the authoritative tradition or where they contain error. It’s not cold and detached. He has an approach that was very human, very relational.”

Father Guilbeau added, “It’s the best way do these things, whether it’s theology, philosophy or apologetics.”

Among The Doctor of Humanity’s best qualities is humility.

“He’s just fascinated by ‘what is.’ He realizes that none of us needs to make up anything. Reality is much more fascinating that our imagination or the life of passions. He’s fascinated by what things are, but he is also convinced as believer that this is how God communicates himself to us by making the world to represent himself and by making the world to participate in his own truth and his own goodness.

“You can look at the world as a way that God communicates his truth and goodness, for us to be fascinated by what is and how things are individually but know how it fits in one big, whole picture.”

The Common Doctor was receptive to God’s own revelation in Jesus, but also to the more primitive revelation of God, Father Guilbeau emphasized.

“That’s why reason is very important to philosophy. By reason we can come to understand the world around us and to pick up on things, to learn the things God wants us to know about himself as the creator and as the one originator, that love draws all things to himself.”

So, what important lessons does St. Thomas Aquinas teach us today?

“Patience before the truth,” said Father Guilbeau. (St. Thomas Aquinas) knows better than anyone we don’t get it all at once. That’s why this conversational approach, this friendship with others is important because we’re all going to see things in different ways, but also even over the course of our life we begin to see things differently too, hopefully more deeply.

“St. Thomas Aquinas helps us see the pursuit of truth is a lifelong project and one that is constantly purified and hopefully by grace sanctified … following in the footsteps of St. Thomas Aquinas is using the best of human reason to enlighten our understanding of God’s revelation.”

Next: St. Thomas Aquinas’ devotion to St. Agnes and presentation at St. Agnes Church in Baton Rouge on “Getting to Know the Angelic Doctor: His Life, His Virtues and His Gifts to the Church.”