Pints With Aquinas - 134: 7 reasons I love Thomas Aquinas (and you should too)

Episode Date: November 27, 2018

Today I share with you 7 reasons I love Thomas Aquinas and you should to. SPONSORS EL Investments: https://www.elinvestments.net/pints Exodus 90: https://exodus90.com/mattfradd/  Hallow: http://hallow.app/mattfradd  STRIVE: https://www.strive21.com/  GIVING Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mattfradd This show (and all the plans we have in store) wouldn't be possible without you. I can't thank those of you who support me enough. Seriously! Thanks for essentially being a co-producer coproducer of the show. LINKS Website: https://pintswithaquinas.com/ Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/matt-fradd FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/ SOCIAL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattfradd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd MY BOOKS  Does God Exist: https://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Exist-Socratic-Dialogue-ebook/dp/B081ZGYJW3/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586377974&sr=8-9 Marian Consecration With Aquinas: https://www.amazon.com/Marian-Consecration-Aquinas-Growing-Closer-ebook/dp/B083XRQMTF/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586379026&sr=8-4 The Porn Myth: https://www.ignatius.com/The-Porn-Myth-P1985.aspx CONTACT Book me to speak: https://www.mattfradd.com/speakerrequestform

Hello, welcome to Pints with Aquinas. My name's Matt Fradd. In today's episode, I'm going to share with you seven reasons I love St. Thomas Aquinas and why you should too. And oh, by the way, Advent is coming up. Yes, you're aware of this? Hmm, you're aware of this?

Well, I've just edited a book called Advent with Aquinas, daily reflections on the Incarnation and Birth of Christ. I've basically been digging into the works of Thomas Aquinas and have put together this book. You can't buy it, but it is free if you support Pints with Aquinas on Patreon for 10 bucks or more a month. Not only will you get the ebook, which you can read on Kindle, more a month, not only will you get the ebook, which you can read on Kindle, but I've also recorded the daily reflections. So every day throughout Advent, you'll get this delivered to your inbox at like six in the morning, and you can listen to it for yourself. Isn't that cool? If you follow me on Instagram and Twitter and all that, you'll see the beautiful book we've

put together. So I think you're really going to like it. So big thanks to y'all if you support me. And here's a little way I can thank you back. Here we go. Good to have you back here at Pines for the Quietness, the show where you and I pull up a bar stall next to the angelic doctor to discuss theology and philosophy. It is morning time, 8 in the morning, in fact, and I am drinking coffee, currently doing Exodus 90. So there's going to be no alcohol for quite a long time, actually. But that's okay. This has been a wonderful experience.

I hope you're doing well wherever you are, however you're doing, wherever you're listening to this. I do. I really do hope you're well. I was giving a talk in Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago, and it was the first time I ever actually gave talks on Thomas Aquinas. So they asked me to give three separate talks on Thomas Aquinas, sort of like an introduction to Thomas Aquinas. So, they asked me to give three separate talks on Thomas Aquinas, sort of like an introduction to Thomas Aquinas. So, in the first talk, I shared what I kind of want to go over today, seven reasons I love Thomas Aquinas and you should too. In the second talk, I talked about what Thomas Aquinas had to say about the Blessed Mother. And in the third talk, I shared a paper that I wrote on why Richard Dawkins slash YouTube atheists misunderstand Aquinas' five ways. It was super fun. It was great to meet you there,

if you're one of those people that I met. Really amazing to meet you all. Thank you so much. You know, we've had a lot of people begin listening to Pints with Aquinas of late. You know, we've had a lot of people begin listening to Pines to the Quietness of Light. I think it was back in September. We started getting, gosh, I think we had 20,000 downloads a day. 20,000, wrap your mind around that, you know. And, you know, that's gone down and up, but it's amazing. Like, I know that there's a lot of people who have just come in to Pines to the Aquinas. So people have told you about the show and you've started listening. I've even met

people, they'll come to my talks and they're like, hey, I just went on a road trip and listened to you for three hours. And I'm like, I am so sorry, you know, and you have to listen to me give this talk. I am so sorry. By the way, yes, I will be drinking my coffee throughout this podcast. So if that annoys you, go listen to Catching Foxes or something. Okay. I'm really caffeine deprived. So what I wanted to do is kind of give an overview of Thomas Aquinas yet again, and talk about some of the new things I've been learning about him. Because I really do see my role, you know, as a studious amateur. So, a few weeks ago, you'll remember I gave that podcast. It was called Why Curiosity is the Enemy of Wonder.

And in it, we talked about what Aquinas had to say about curiosity and why it's a vice. And he contrasted it with studiousness. Well, I love Thomas Aquinas, but I am an amateur. You know, like I have my master's in my undergrads in my philosophy, sorry, my master's in philosophy. I've just began doing a master's in theology at Augustan Institute, shout out, but I am definitely an amateur, you know. But I see my role as coming beside you and with as much enthusiasm as you can tolerate, beside you and with as much enthusiasm as you can tolerate pointing to the Sumer, pointing to Thomas Aquinas and saying, see, see, isn't it beautiful? And then my hope is that you would agree with me and that you might even kind of go on to read better books, take courses. Some of you

have even written to me and said that this podcast has helped you discern religious life and you're joining the Dominicans. I mean, not many, but I'd say two or three guys have said that this podcast has helped you discern religious life and you're joining the Dominicans. I mean, not many, but I'd say two or three guys have said that to me. That's really great. You know, that's really great. And glory to God. Glory to God. All right. So, that's what we'll do. We'll do a little bit of Aquinas' timeline, seven reasons I love him, and then we'll take some Q&A from our patrons. I got to say too, this month, this is the final week we're doing this promotion to try and bring more patrons into Pints with Aquinas. So if you do listen to this show week after week and you like it and

want to support it, then please do that. That really means a lot to me. We have people who drop out for different reasons all the time. I'm doing more and more projects. I'm commissioning artists to create beautiful illustrations of Thomas Aquinas. I'm doing these long-form sit-down video interviews that are coming out on YouTube now. I have a trip scheduled to Africa next year in which I'm not going to charge the host. I'm just going to go and try to develop apologetics material, have it printed and distributed. I think a couple of weeks ago, I said, I'm going to Uganda next month. So, that was an error. I meant next year. You know, so I'm doing a lot of these things. I'm printing these books that I want to give out for free at conferences, which I've spoke about in previous episodes. All of this costs money. And that's why I can do more if I have more patrons.

And it's funny, I suppose for some people, like they, they have Patreon accounts or they have, you know, so that they can, they want to, they want to make more money so that they can, I don't know, cruise around on yachts or something, which is definitely not what I'm doing. But what I love doing is teaching people about Thomas Aquinas. So it's like, the more money I'm able to kind of bring in, the more I'm able to like start these different projects. It's so fun. I mean, I'm kind of a one man show, but I have like five or six people that I pay to do different things for me, like run social media, send out those gifts to our patrons, you know, do the video shooting and all these different things. It's just really cool that I don't have to pay them their health

benefits and things as well. So it's a really trim organization, I think, and I really appreciate your support. Here's what you get if you choose to start supporting Pints with Aquinas for 10 bucks or more a month. I'll send you a private video thank you message, by the way, where I thank you specifically. You'll also get a Pints with Aquinas car magnet, which are really cool and only available for this month. I'll send you a signed copy of my new book, Does God Exist? A Socratic Dialogue on the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas. You'll get access to an ever-growing audio library and the audio books that we have that are coming out from time to time. We just had a brand new audio book on Thomas Aquinas come out last week. This is a lot easier to kind of digest that information for some of you at

least. And you also have this kind of like a Patreon community forum, you know, like I'm not on social media anymore, right? Somebody else runs my social media. If it looks like I'm saying stuff on social media, it's because someone else is saying it for me. So it's completely, yeah, it's kind of weird. But where I communicate is with my patrons on Patreon. So again, if you want to support the show, go to pintswithaquinas.com, click donate, give 10 bucks a month. If you want to give a dollar a month, that's fine too.

The more people we can get supporting in a small amount, I think the more secure Pints with Aquinas and the work I'm doing as a whole becomes and the more I'm able to do. So a big thanks. All right, enough of trying to make money. Capitalism. All right. Let's talk about Aquinas. I want to share a bit of his timeline. I won't go into great detail because I've done this in the very first episode, like 104,

30 something episodes ago, but I do want to go through it. The best book you can get right now on Thomas Aquinas, as far as, you know, you want to learn more about him, is check out, in regards to his biography, I should say, St. Thomas Aquinas, Volume 1, The Person and His Work by Jean-Pierre Terrell, who's a Dominican priest. It's translated by Robert Royal. I've spoken to a bunch of Dominicans at the Thomistic Institute. They say like, this is the best scholarly work right now on the life of Thomas Aquinas. So, I've been going through that and I've been learning a lot about Thomas Aquinas. So, learning a lot about Thomas Aquinas. So, he was born in 1225 at Roccasecca. Roccasecca is a,

well, it's an hour and a half drive north of Naples in Italy. The word Roccasecca means dry rock, incidentally, and people have said, it's kind of like reading Thomas Aquinas. I feel like I'm eating rock, which, come on, that's not fair. In 1230, when he was about five years old, he began studying at Monte Cassino, which is the Benedictine monastery, which Saint Benedict founded. That's amazing, right? And Aquinas went there as an oblate. His parents wanted him or were hoping that he would be the abbot of the casino one day, which welded tremendous political and ecclesial power. And of course, they hoped that he would use this to benefit the family. Because Aquinas was an oblate, he would have worn this little black Benedictine habit, which would have been the cutest thing in the world. But because he hadn't made his final vows, he couldn't do that till he was old enough. He actually ended

up joining the Dominicans, as we know. Well, how did he do that? Well, in 1239, there was some turbulence surrounding Monte Cassino for different reasons. So he was sent to the University of Naples to study. That's where he meets the Dominicans. Now, I don't think people realize just how crazy the 13th century was in Europe. You've got the threat of Islam. You've got the new mendicant orders. You've got the new translations of Aristotle, right, that are influencing the church. It was pretty crazy. Mendicant orders were really weird. Mendicant, by the way, comes from the Latin word, which means mendicare, which means to beg. Right. So when I say there was this new religious order, we're tempted to think, yeah, okay, well,

there's always religious orders popping up. Yeah, but there actually wasn't for about 12, 1300 years. You've got the secular priests, kind of like our diocesan priests, and then you've got religious orders like the Benedictines and the Cistercians, but these owned property in common and took a vow of, what do you say, sort of stability in the sense that they never moved from where they were. That's what you had. So now that you've got these new religious orders, that's a weird thing. They haven't been officially approved by the church. They're begging for their food. They're kind of like secular priests, but they're kind of like monks because, you know, they pray in common. They live in common, but they also travel to the cities to preach, to serve the poor.

Now, the Dominicans and Franciscans were really a response to some of the heresies that were going on at the time. And these heretics had some good points. They were accusing the church of perhaps becoming too political and too rich, you know, and basking in that wealth, not living lives of simplicity or poverty, if you want. They were kind of challenging the church to get back to scripture, you know. So, what do you do when you've got heretics who are saying to the church, you're too powerful and political? You can't shut them down by like riding in on horseback in all of your grandiose religious garb. That just proves their point. So, the Dominicans and Franciscans sort of met these heretics and heretical groups on their own terms and said, we'll kind of take what's good in you

and we won't be heretics, which is always a good thing. So, anyway, needless to say, perhaps, this was a real scandal to Aquinas' family. Aquinas' father, I believe, had passed away at that point, but his mother sent Aquinas' brother, who was in the military, as well as a few of his comrades, to arrest Thomas Aquinas. So, when they knew he had become a Dominican, they arrested him. They brought him back to the family castle where he experienced something like house imprisonment. So it wasn't like he was thrown into a dungeon or up in the tower and locked away. It was more like house imprisonment in that I think he could go to and from somewhat as he pleased. He could certainly receive visitors. The Dominicans brought him a new habit. He read scripture and Aristotle. It was actually the University of

Naples that he was first introduced to these new translations of Aristotle. So yeah, all right, that's pretty cool. Now there's this famous story which Jean-Pierre Torel does not dispute. While he was in imprisonment, his brothers, wanting to dissuade him from this religious vocation, hired a prostitute to tempt him. So they paid her money and sent him into the room that Thomas Aquinas was in, in the middle of the night. And Thomas Aquinas leapt up and grabbed a firebrand out of the fire that was still glowing with heat and walked towards her, you know, with it out in front of him. She freaked out, as you do, ran outside the door. Aquinas shut the door and he made a sign of the cross over the door.

We'll talk a bit more about that later, but that's pretty cool. Not that I'm suggesting that anybody chase prostitutes with hot things. In 1245, that's about a year later, he was released by his family. He goes to study with Albert the Great, whose feast day it was a couple of weeks ago. Let's see, in 1250, he was ordained a priest. He's 25 years old, ordained a priest. He comes back to Paris. He starts writing this work, Defense of the Mendicant Orders, because these mendicant orders, I mean, they were causing a lot of turbulence because a lot of these secular priests were making their income through teaching. and now the Dominicans were sort of kind of stepping on their toes, as it were. And so there was a lot of accusations against the Dominican orders, that they're not really religious, they're not legit, they're not of God.

And Aquinas wrote some pretty cool things in response to that. He was named Master of Theology at 1256. He begins writing the Summa Contra Gentiles in 1260. In 1265, he begins reading the Summa Theologiae. In 1269, he was recalled to Paris to combat the Averroist Siege of Brabant and other philosophers, which we'll talk about. And, you know, there was that moment, hey, on the Feast of St. Nicholas, where he has this encounter with Christ. And we don't really know what happened, but something about that encounter left him speechless, and he hung up his writing instruments, and he stopped working on the Summa Theologiae altogether.

and he stopped working on the Summa Theologiae altogether. Reginald, his assistant, pressed him, but he said, you know, compared to what I've seen, everything seems a straw. Everything I've written is a straw, which I'm kind of bummed about actually, Aquinas. I wish he had written more because, you know, I would have made for more episodes of Pines with Aquinas, but hey, you're the saint, not me. In 1323, Aquinas, but hey, you're the saint, not me. In 1323,

Aquinas was canonized. Now, you want to know why you should study Thomas Aquinas? Well, listen to this. Pope John XXII, who was speaking about Thomas Aquinas, said before his canonization that, quote, his life was saintly and his doctrine could only be miraculous because he enlightened the church more than all the other doctors. By the use of his works, a man could profit more in one year than if he studies the doctrine of others for his whole life. Let that sink in a moment, you know. Why should you study Thomas Aquinas? That's a pretty good reason. So, yeah. Let's see. He was made a doctor of the church, that is to say, kind of like an official teacher of the church in 1567. That doesn't mean, by the way, a doctor of can never error, rather, or didn't make errors. But that what he says is reliable, generally speaking, and that we can learn a lot from him. Interestingly enough,

Bonaventure, who was a contemporary of St. Thomas Aquinas and died at the same time as him, at least the same year. Oh, I got to tell you this. I forgot to tell you this. He died in, at least the same year. Oh, I got to tell you this. I forgot to tell you this. He died in, so Aquinas dies in 1274. He was on his way to the Council of Lyon, where they were trying to discuss the reconciliation of East and West, which as, you know, for all intents and purposes, an Eastern Christian who loves Thomas Aquinas, that would have been amazing. But on his way there, he gets sick and he's taken to Fossa Nova, which is the Cistercian monastery and dies there. And I read that while he was dying or while he was laying in bed, he was shocked that these monks treated him like an angel. His reputation preceded him. Well, the Cistercians asked him if he would dictate a commentary on the Song of Songs, which he did for them. Isn't that neat? It's kind of like a

little much like, hey, I know you're dying, but if we could just kind of go over this, that'd be great. I mean, Song of Songs is perhaps the most mystical book of the Bible, or at least it's the book most loved by the mystics. And Aquinas was certainly a mystic, which we'll talk about. And it was there, you know, on his deathbed that he reflected on the Song of Songs. Powerful stuff. I actually don't know if we have that work. If you know it, if you know about it, write to me over Patreon, because I would like to know. work. If you know it, if you know about it, write to me over Patreon because I would like to know. Okay, I was saying he was made a doctor of the church and Bonaventure, who died the same year as him, is also doctor of the church. But whereas Aquinas is like the patron saint of universities,

the patron saint of teachers, Bonaventure is the patron saint of bowel movements. If you listened to my episode of Peter Kreeft, you already know that because we talked about it, but that's pretty crazy. That doesn't seem fair. But anyway, there you go. All right, let's talk about this. Let's talk about seven reasons I love Thomas Aquinas and why you should too. Number one, he is a champion of faith and reason. You and I tend to separate the two, or many people do that at least. You know, if people consider themselves very rational, then they're kind of anti-religious, anti-supernatural. On the flip side, if someone's a very religious person who believes in the supernatural, they can tend to view reason, science, philosophy with skepticism. Aquinas didn't fall into either error, but synthesized the two, right? He didn't see faith and reason

as being in conflict, but recognized that the truth, what is truth? Says Pilate. Well, Aquinas answers that. The agreement or conformity of reality and the mind's judgment of reality. That's what truth is. It's the agreement of reality and the mind's judgment of reality. Or to put it much more simply, it's the equation of thought and thing. The equation of thought and thing. Aquinas didn't misrepresent his opponents. I think that's the other thing that you and I tend to do. We misrepresent our ideological opponents, our political opponents, our religious opponents. Aquinas never seemed to do that. When you read the objections he sets himself, they are very difficult to answer and often formulated better than his interlocutors.

So, listen to this objection from evil and you tell me, can you answer this? He says, it seems that God doesn't exist. Well, why is that, Thomas? He says, well, because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word God means that he's infinite goodness. If therefore God existed, there would be no evil as discoverable, but there is evil in the world. Therefore, God does not exist. Go on, respond to that quickly. Go on, quick. Right? I mean, that's really well put. Let's look at another one of his objections and see a response to that objection. This has to do with

whether or not God is self-evident. He says, and this is in the first part of the Summa Theologiae, question two, article one, it seems that the existence of God is self-evident. Now, those things are said to be self-evident to us, the knowledge of which is naturally implanted in us, as we can see in regard to first principles. But as Damascene says, the knowledge of God is naturally implanted in all. Therefore, the existence of God is self-evident. That's a pretty good argument for why God's existence is self-evident, don't you think? Again, it's easy to kind of look down at Aquinas' answer and be like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But I wrestle with the objection, that's really difficult. One of the reasons I love Aquinas, this is still under this main heading that he's a champion of faith and reason, is that he's very nuanced.

And if you want to love the truth and pursue the truth, you have to be nuanced. We don't tend to be nuanced. We tend to make sweeping generalizations about things. Because, I don't know, it's louder. It's easier to be enthusiastic about it and things like that, but he was very nuanced, and his answer is nuanced. His answer is essentially, not really, but kind of. That's how he's going to respond to this objection. He says, to know that God exists in a general and confused way, okay, all right, sure, he says,

that's implanted in us by nature, in as much as God is man's beatitude. For man naturally desires happiness, and what is naturally desired by man must be naturally known to him. This, however, is not to know absolutely that God exists, just as to know that someone is approaching is not the same as to know that Peter is approaching, even though it is Peter who is approaching. For many there are who imagine that man's perfect good, which is happiness, consists in riches or other pleasures and others in something else.

All right, so we could say more, but he was a champion of faith and reason. I mentioned earlier that he was called back to Paris to combat the Averroists. These were Christians who followed the Arabic philosopher Averroes, and they thought that there were two truths. Religion had its own truth, but then science had its own truth. You know, it seems to me just as I'm speaking now that maybe Jordan Peterson is bordering on that kind of idea, although I'd have to hear more of what he has to say before seeing if that's true or not. But yeah, Aquinas says this is rubbish, you know, and this is actually something like, for example, C.J. Brabant believed, okay, he's like, okay, philosophically, we can prove the world never began to exist, because that's something that Aristotle argued for, that the universe never began. But he says, I'm a Christian and Christianity teaches the world

began to exist in the finite past, you know, therefore it did. And he holds those two truths and says they're both true. That's ridiculous. Cray cray. And Aquinas comes back and says as much. Well, he doesn't say it's cray cray. He probably does it in a little more articulate way than that. The other reason to show that Aquinas, you know, pursued the truth wherever it led, the reason to, another way of showing that he was a champion of faith and reason is that he rejected two very popular arguments for God's existence in his own day. He rejects the most prominent argument for God's existence in the Christian tradition, namely the ontological argument put forth by the 11th century bishop, Anselm of Canterbury.

And he also rejects the Kalam argument that was originally put together by Al-Ghazali, or at least I think he's the first person who did it. Craig, William Lane Craig has made that popular today, but this is something his contemporary Bonaventure also thought. And he says, no, it doesn't work. And he had some really harsh words about it. Craig, William Lane Craig has made that popular today, but this is something his contemporary Bonaventure also thought. And he says, no, it doesn't work. And he had some really harsh words about it. I mean, when you hear it, the Clam Arguments sounds pretty good to me. Why not just accept it? Because you go on YouTube and you see people just like saying Aquinas wasn't really a philosopher because he already knew the truth he was trying to prove. And so he just kind

of accepted premises that led to that conclusion. And, you know, which is really, it just commits the genetic fallacy to say that. Also the ad hominem kind of fallacy, which I guess the genetic fallacy is a sort of sub, in a subgroup of ad hominem fallacies, perhaps. But anyway, so that doesn't work. All right, two, here's the second reason I love Thomas Aquinas and you should too. He is extremely clear. He's extremely clear. You and I, we tend to cover up our lack of knowledge with lots of words and lots of passion. Yeah? It's like, oh, that person's shrill. They're screaming. Look how passionate they are. Oh, wow. They're crying while they're talking. Well, we can't not believe them. They must be telling the truth because it looks like they really feel that they're right. Yeah, okay, who cares? I mean, just because you feel like you're

right about something doesn't mean you are, right? We tend to cover up our lack of knowledge with too many words and just a bunch of enthusiasm and passion. Albert Einstein supposedly said, whether he did or not, I'm not sure, if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. That's a very good point. Some of the best teachers you know of are able to explain very complex things in very simple terms. If you're chatting with somebody who's very intelligent and you've just asked them to explain something to you and you get the sense that maybe they know what they're talking about, maybe, but you really can't grasp them, the temptation is to think maybe you're the idiot. And it's like, no, I don't know if that's true.

If this person doesn't know how to break it down so that you can understand it, at least partially, then maybe they don't know what they break it down so that you can understand it, at least partially, then maybe they don't know what they're talking about, actually. So, Aquinas was both clear, he used few words, and, you know, very logical. So, like, let me give you one example. Look at this. This is three sentences, and he's going to tell us three kinds of knowledge that are necessary for us to be saved. That's it. And he says what they are and where to find them in three sentences. He says three kinds of knowledge are necessary to man for his salvation. The knowledge of what he must believe, the knowledge of that for which he

must pray, and the knowledge of what he must do. The first is taught in the creeds of our faith, the second in the prayer of the Lord, the third in the commandments. He's very clear. He says in one paragraph what it might take modern theologians chapters to write. Here's the third reason I love Thomas Aquinas. He's down to earth. He has his feet firmly planted on the ground and yet has his head in the clouds on the lofty things. You and I tend to be one way or the other. We are entirely theoretical and don't know how to interact with normal people, or we're just immersed in earthly, worldly, fleshly things and don't care for the things of the spirit, the supernatural. Aquinas was down to earth and he loved God, but he was also a realist and knew and loved human nature, understood human nature. So Aquinas knew what the church teaches, that man or woman is not a spirit which has a body, but body and soul together. So, you don't have a body, you are a body.

When you kiss your daughter goodnight, it is you who is kissing your daughter goodnight. I mean, if you weren't your body, think about what that would mean. It would mean that you were manipulating the husk that is not you to press it against the husk that is not your child. manipulating the husk that is not you to press it against the husk that is not your child. So because of Aquinas' understanding of what the human person is, namely body and soul, he speaks rather directly about what helps us when we're sad. Now, I've done a whole episode on this and I don't intend to go over it all again, but in the first part of the second part, question 38, Aquinas suggests five things that we can do when we're sad. And the first thing is pleasure. The second thing is weeping. The third thing is the sympathy of friends. The fourth

thing is the contemplating of the truth. And the fifth thing, which as you know, is my favorite and yours too, sleep and baths. Now, this does flow from his understanding of what the human person is again. Since the human person is a body, right, then if he is sad, then experiencing pleasure can help him, the whole person, not the body as if it was somehow separate from the soul. Let me just read one little quotation on pleasure. This is fantastic. Speaking about Aquinas' clarity, look at this. Pleasure is a kind of repose of the appetite in a suitable good. Okay? Pleasure is a kind of repose of the appetite in a suitable good. So think about it this way. You want a chocolate.

That's the appetite. You take the chocolate. You now have pleasure and you're satisfied, hopefully. So pleasure is a kind of repose of the appetite. So that appetite is now, it's reposing in this good of chocolate. Aquinas says, while sorrow, on the other hand, arises from something unsuited to the appetite. So you wantinas says, while sorrow, on the other hand, arises from something unsuited to the appetite. So you want the chocolate, you don't get the chocolate. You want the sleep, you don't get the sleep. You want the warm bath, but the hot water ran out, something like that. So Aquinas continues, consequently, in movements of the appetite, appetite. Pleasure is to sorrow what in bodies reposes to weariness. That is so profound and so clear and so quick that maybe you missed it. So, just like rest rejuvenates the body,

we could say that pleasure rejuvenates oh gosh like what did i just say the way aquinas said because i'm going to butcher it pleasure does to sorrow what rest does to weariness i think that's a good way to put it pleasure does to sorrow what rest does to weariness. I think that's a good way to put it. Pleasure does to sorrow what rest does to weariness of the body. That's powerful. So you might have expected Aquinas say you ought to be kneeling on glass and whipping yourself with rosary beads. He doesn't say that. Not that he's putting down asceticism, of course. But he's like, if you're sorrowful, if you're sad, you should take a bath. He doesn't actually say take a large glass of wine, but that would certainly go along with his advice. Fourthly, fourth reason I love Thomas Aquinas and you should too, is that he was a virtuous man. And you and I often aren't. I mentioned a moment ago that when his brothers let in a

prostitute to tempt him and he chased her out, that something happened after that. Well, what happened? Well, according to the records of his canonization, at that moment when the door shut, Thomas fell at once into a mystical sleep and had a vision. Two angels came to him from heaven and bound a cord around his waist, saying, On God's behalf, we gird you with the girdle of chastity, a girdle which no attack will ever destroy. In the records of his canonization, many different witnesses who knew St. Thomas at different points in his life remarked about his evidently high degree of purity and chastity. This gift that preserved St. Thomas from sexual temptation and gave him an enduring purity that ennobled his thought and actions, is something that Pope Pius XI commented on.

He said this, quote, If St. Thomas had not been victorious when his chastity was in peril, it is very probable that the church would never have had her angelic doctor. One of the things Aquinas says in the Summa Theologiae is that lust kind of blinds us. It blinds our reason. That is to say, really, it makes us stupid. This is why chastity is so important, especially for the young who ought to be dedicating their minds and desires to things that are true, good, and beautiful. I didn't do that. I plunged myself into pleasures and passions as a child. I don't think I ever completed a book until I was 17 years old. I read a book, I think I read a book when I was maybe in

fifth grade, but it was one of those choose your own adventure books. I think the first time I started reading was after my conversion when I was 17 years old. I'm not joking. Why? Well, I had porn. I had videos. I had video games. Why would I read a book? That's like saying to a child, here's a bunch of apples and also a bunch of Cheetos and chocolate and Mountain Dew. Go at it. Okay, I'm going to leave the apples. That's kind of what it was like for me. Now, in saying that, I'm not trying to throw my folks under the bus or anything like that. They tried to encourage me to read, and they would buy me books and things like this. But again, I just didn't care. One of the things I've noticed in raising my own children is when it's no longer an option to watch TV, to play video

games, that's not a thing we do. All of a sudden they start reading and doing other beautiful things. But being so immersed in unchastity as I was, that really hindered my growth in virtue, in intelligence. But here we see Thomas Aquinas. He's a great example for those who want to be chaste, those who want to be virtuous. Here's the fifth reason I love Thomas Aquinas and you should too. He loved Jesus Christ. We study Thomas Aquinas so that we can learn about Jesus Christ and God and the church Christ established, and so that we can be holy, and so that we can go to heaven. Aquinas was not an academic who was not in love with Jesus Christ. He was a mystic. It's said that when he couldn't figure out a particular intellectual problem, that he would lay his head upon the tabernacle

and beg our Lord to shine a light into his mind. There is, of course, that beautiful instance where our Lord appears to Thomas in a vision and says to him, you've written well of me, Thomas, what would you have as your reward? Now, back up. If God ever said that to me, hey, Matt, love the podcast. What would you have as your reward? I'd be like a Jeep and a trip to Russia. And he'd be like, all right, not the best answer. Well, Aquinas says, non nissite domine.

Nothing, nothing if not you, Lord. Nothing if not you, Lord. Which is a much better answer than a Jeep Wrangler and a trip to Russia. Here is what Aquinas said on his deathbed upon receiving Eucharist for the last time. Quote, I wish to receive the price of my redemption, viaticum of my pilgrimage, for love of whom I have fasted, prayed, taught, and labored. Never have I said anything against thee. If I have, it was in ignorance, and I do not persist in my ignorance. I leave the correction of my work to the holy Catholic church.

And in that obedience, I pass from this life. All right. So that's the fifth reason he loved Jesus Christ. Here's a sixth reason, and that is that he was immersed in and loved sacred scripture. in and loved sacred scripture. You know, it might be tempting to look at Aquinas, look at perhaps what you might consider to be his preoccupation with Aristotle and to say that, he was too sort of immersed in pagan philosophy. Not true. When you read the Sympathologiae, if you do a count, if you tally it all up, you say, well, who did he quote the most? Was it Aristotle? Because he certainly quotes Aristotle a lot. He calls him the philosopher. Was it Augustine? Who was it? Well, let me tell you in order. Sacred Scripture. That's the first thing he quotes more than anything else. And again, he didn't have Bible

hub. He couldn't be like, what was that thing that St. Paul said? Rejoice in the Lord. I'll type that in. Oh, here it is, Philippians 4. No, he knew a lot of this by memory. When you read Thomas Aquinas, you almost can't go a sentence without some reference to sacred scripture. So, the first thing he does is quote sacred scripture. Second thing, second person he quotes, second source he quotes was Augustine. And then thirdly, Aristotle. You might be aware of this, maybe you're not. He wrote several commentaries on the scriptures, such as the Psalms, Jeremiah. Also, the Pope commissioned him to write a commentary of sorts on the four Gospels. In English, this is called the Golden chain. You can find it online.

It's also called the Cantina Aurea in Latin. What is that? It is so incredible. This sounds like an idea that someone today came up with. It's just because it's so, so practical and something that could be done over the internet. He goes through the four gospels and he stops at every couple of verses. And then what's his commentary? It's not his words. It's just what all of the early church fathers said on that line, right? So in the beginning was the word, the word was right. That from the first line of John, he's like, okay, here's what Jerome says. Here's what Augustine says. You actually, there's nothing in there

that Aquinas wrote. He's just showing you what the church fathers said. Honestly, if you are a priest, you should get that. Let me see here. There's a beautiful edition. It's published by, I want to make sure I get this right,

published by, I want to make sure I get this right, by Baronius Press. Baronius Press. Check it out. The Cantina Aurea by Baronius Press. It's a beautiful four-volume edition. It would be great for your preaching as a priest. Imagine that. Everything you preach on, the gospels, you've got what the church fathers had to say. That's pretty amazing. And again, this is without Verbum software that Aquinas is coming up with this. So check that out. He loved the scripture and we should too. And sometimes we don't. Sometimes we find philosophical musings more interesting than sacred scripture and we neglect it and we shouldn't neglect it. Okay, the seventh reason I love Thomas Aquinas and you should too, is that he comes highly recommended. I shared with you that beautiful line from Pope John XXII.

Remember where he said you can profit more in one year than if you studied the doctrines of everyone else your entire life just by studying Thomas Aquinas. Well, you should listen to him. That's pretty cool. Also, listen to two other popes here. Pope Pius X, Saint Pope Pius X said that, quote, all who teach philosophy in Catholic schools throughout the world should take care never to depart from the path and method of Aquinas and insist upon the procedure more vigorously every day. We warn teachers to keep this religiously in mind, especially in metaphysics, that to disregard Aquinas cannot be done

without suffering great harm. Did you hear that? That's incredible. To disregard Aquinas cannot be done without suffering great harm. That's why you need to subscribe to Pints with Aquinas on iTunes now. Pope Benedict XV said, So those are the seven reasons I love Thomas Aquinas and you should too. Maybe you're new to the show and you want to learn more. I would suggest going to my website, pintswithaquinas.com, and in the search bar, type something that. Type that in. You'll see it. You can listen to this on your commute. You can listen to this while you're running on the treadmill or whatever. I want to introduce you to Thomas Aquinas so that he can introduce you to Christ so you can be holy. And I want to be holy too. So here's what I want to do. I want to close with a prayer that was written by Thomas Aquinas to show you that he didn't just write in that very dry, you remember, rock a second kind of way, but he was a beautiful writer also. We'll

close in a prayer and then we'll take some questions from our amazing patrons. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all being. Graciously let a ray of your light penetrate the darkness of my understanding. Take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of sin and ignorance. Give me a keen understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in the completion. I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

All right, now we're going to take some questions from our patrons. A big thanks to everybody who is supporting Pints of the Quintess on Patreon. And as I said, we're doing a promotion this month where you get all of that free stuff in return just for giving me 10 bucks or more a month. A big thank you to those of you who will do that. I don't want one or two or five or 10 big donors. I want to have thousands of small donors. That's what, honestly, like just selfishly, that makes things more secure for me. If I got five big donors, right? And then I do something like question Pope Francis, and one of them gets angry and they withdraw, that's scary. And so maybe human nature being

what it is, I won't be as honest. Or if I, I mean, I've already had like people like drop out because of some of the work I've done on homosexuality and what Aquinas said and what the church teaches. People who are like, I'm done. And these are patrons, you know? So, okay. I'm sorry to see them go, but it's not the end of the world for me. I would much rather thousands of $10, $1 supporters than someone who's like, hey, if you say something about homosexuality, I have to stop. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I've got a family to feed. I've got all this work. I've got all these bills. I can't, I can't, you know, no. The freedom that Patreon allows me is amazing. So again, go to pintswithaquinas.com,

click donate, give 10 bucks or more or less a month, and you'll see all those free things I will send you in return and a big thanks. So let's take a look at a couple of questions here. Joshua asks, this podcast is obviously focused on Thomas, but the church, as you have said before, allows for diversity in opinion in areas that haven't been defined strictly. How do you personally work with differences in theological opinion that seem to be at odds? How do you suggest the average members of the laity work with these differences? Okay, thank you very much. Yeah, so let me use an example from Thomas's day. So in Thomas's day, the immaculate conception wasn't defined it wasn't defined until 1854 by by Pope Pius the ninth

the church knew and had essentially always taught that Mary was immaculate or spotless or without sin and so Aquinas knew that she was without sin, but he wasn't sure about the idea of her being conceived immaculately. He figured she must have been conceived in utero. Now, since the church hadn't defined this, there were some areas to play with here. You could say, well, I think if I think about this, if I argue about this, she must have been conceived within the womb at some point. Okay, well, I think, you know, if I think about this, if I argue about this, she must have been conceived, you know, within the womb at some point, you know. Okay, well, then the church comes along and says, actually, no. Having reflected more upon this issue, we now know that she, you know, and it has always been true, that she was conceived immaculately. All right, so now

theological speculation can be put aside because this is just the way it is. That would be an example. So there are things the church hasn't defined where there is some kind of room to philosophize or to speculate, and that that can be okay. But when the church infallibly says something, then that's when, you know, we put that aside. I mean, a lot of this is sort of like intellectual musings, which most lay people perhaps don't kind of get into. You mentioned yourself the idea of predestination. Well, there might be some things there that we can chat back and forth on. And again, like, think about this, like, this is something that the church is reflecting upon, which is the deposit of faith.

So it's not like we're getting new revelation. It's not like the Mormon communities who believe in ongoing revelation. No, the faith was handed on once and for all, and then the church reflects upon this and comes to certain conclusions. Okay, Aaron asks, given the recent events at the USCCB, I'm curious if Thomas had any opinions or teachings about the governance of the church. Specifically, is there a situation that merits a body of lay people to oversee the clergy? My gosh, I mean, I don't think so. I don't think he talked about that at all. Certainly, the lay people can question the Holy Father and the bishops, and even if necessary, to publicly rebuke them. This is something Thomas Aquinas actually taught in the Secundae Secundae. Here we are. Question 33, Article 4.

Listen to this, all right? Here we are. Question 33, article 4. Listen to this. If the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly. Hence Paul, who was Peter's subject, rebuked him in public on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning faith. And as the gloss of Augustine says on Galatians 2.11, Peter gave an example to superiors that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects. Likewise, if the Holy Father is causing scandal or leading people into error, or if the bishops are, it would seem we have precedent in Scripture and also the teachings of Thomas Aquinas that would, you know,

allow us to not just ask questions, but to publicly rebuke. Prelates, how do you like that? Okay, another question here. Lupus asks whether Thomism stands out over other theological currents or the virtues of each current and how they complement each other if they do. So, I suppose one of the things that we can't forsake is metaphysics. And this is something that hasn't always been appreciated. My understanding is that there were times in the church in different areas of the world where Jesuits, for example, ceased to teach Christology and metaphysics. And in place of that, put more of an emphasis on sociology, say. metaphysics, and in place of that, put more of an emphasis on sociology, say. Well, when you start to, when you reject metaphysics or cease to teach it, everything begins to unravel since metaphysics is sort of like, well, it's the philosophy of being. It's the philosophy, it's the groundwork.

If you don't know what being is and you don't know why God's essence is existence, then all of a sudden all these other errors can begin to creep in. And so Thomas' metaphysics is, I mean, Thomas contributed a lot to metaphysics. One of his contributions was the distinction between essence and existence, which we've talked about in the past and can talk about in the future. All right. Thank you very much. I think that'll do it for today. Really appreciate you listening to Pines with Aquinas. Do us a favor and leave us a five-star review on iTunes. It really does help. Helps people find the show, listen to the show. You know, it's great, by the way, we have one of our patrons who is an atheist who listens to the show and he supports me financially. That's ridiculous. So I'm like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. We have Protestants, we have Protestant pastors who listen. Everybody is welcome to listen to Aquinas and everyone can benefit and learn from Aquinas. So

no matter who you are, where you come from, you are so welcome. So glad you're here. I hope you have a fantastic week. And I also hope since this is the last week of our promotion that you'll start to support Pints with Aquinas on Patreon. Go to pintswithaquinas.com slash donate, and that would be the best. God bless you. Who's gonna survive? Who's gonna survive? Who's gonna survive?