Catholic Radio Dramas

The Cross Exemplifies Virtue

On the solomn feast of Corpus Christi

A homily by Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest (c. 1225 – 1274)

O precious and wonderful banquet!

Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California

Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.

O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.

It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Saint Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 in the family castle of Rocca Secca near Aquino, Italy. He was the son of Count Landulf of Aquino, a knight and relative of the Emperor and of the King of France, and Theodora. At 5, he was sent to the nearby Benedictine monastery, Monte Cassino for his early education. The abbot there was a kinsman of the Aquino family. At 14 he went to the University of Naples to finish his education studying the arts and sciences. At 19, he joined the Dominicans (Order of Preachers) there in 1244. This move was strongly opposed by his family, whose objection was not that he joined a religious order, but rather because he joined the Dominicans. His mother, Theodora, was quite content that he become a Benedictine and probably saw him destined as the future abbot at Monte Cassino. Theodora herself set out for Naples to persuade her son to return home. The friars, however hurried him off to their convent of Santa Sabina in Rome. When the angry lady followed in pursuit, Thomas was no longer to be found there. The master general of the Dominicans, who was on his way to Bologna, had decided to take Thomas with him, and a little party of friars set out on foot. Theodora sent word to the saint’s elder brothers, who were serving with the emperor’s army in Tuscany, to waylay and capture the fugitive. As Thomas was resting by the roadside near Siena, he was overtaken by his brothers at the head of a troop of soldiers, and after a vain attempt to take his habit from him by force, was brought back and held in confinement at the family castle for two years. During his captivity he studied the Sentences of Peter Lombard, learned a great part of the Bible by heart, and is said to have written a treatise on the fallacies of Aristotle.

Thomas prevailed and rejoined the Order of Preachers in 1245. He studied at Paris for three years, and then, accompanied by Albertus Magnus, attended the new Dominican college at Cologne. Thomas was ordained there 1250-51 and returned to Paris in 1252. Then, as a master of theology, he taught for the next nine years at Naples, Anagni, Orvieto, Rome and Viterbo. During those years he completed his work, Summa contra Gentiles and began his famous work Summa theologiae. He returned to university at Paris in 1269 and three years later was sent as regent to head a new Dominican house of studies at Naples.

Thomas was appointed to attend the General Church Council of Lyons, called to discuss the reunion of the Greek and Latin churches by Pope Gregory X in 1274, but he died on the way to Lyons at the Cistercian abbey of Fossa Nuova near Terracina, Italy on March 7, 1274. He was 49. Thomas was canonized by Pope John XXII in 1323, was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope St. Pius V in 1567, and was named patron of all universities, colleges, and schools in 1880 by Pope Leo XIII, who required all theological students to study his thought. The substance of his work became the accepted basis for modern Catholic theology.

Saint. Thomas Aquinas was probably the greatest theological master of all time. His writings were voluminous, characterized by his in-depth analysis of faith, reason, and revealed truth. He demonstrated that truths such as the existence of God, his eternity, his creative power and his attributes and divine providence can be discovered by natural reason alone. His greatest work, the unfinished Summa theologiae, is seen as the greatest exposition of theological thought ever written.

While a man of towering intellect, Aquinas was also a man of great humility and holiness. He experienced visions, ecstasies, and revelations. He left Summa theologiae unfinished because of a revelation he experienced while saying Mass in 1273. He composed the office for the feast of Corpus Christi and wrote hymns still used in Church services, notably Pange lingua, Adoro te devote and others. The sermon above is his sermon on the Holy Eucharist written for the feast of Corpus Christi.