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The Christian faith is more then just pondering on revealed truth, elaborate theological dogmas and philosophical doctrines.
In themselves these things are not Christian faith. They are part of a circle,which is important. They proceed from the life of contemplation and when we believe and live according to them, they facilitate the life conemplation. The whole picture is the Christian faith. Aquinas and many other great doctors are excellent examples.
Many people forget that Aquinas and Bonaventure were contemplatives, not to be mistaken with enclosed religious. Together they began to put down what they came to know through the reading of scripture, meditation sacred truths, the nature of God and the nature of man. This was the beginning of the Summa. Bonaventure was commanded to bail out of the Summa, because the Franciscans had a more pressing assignment for him, to write the official biography of our Holy Father Francis.
This is important for an good understanding of how the Christian life is traditionally lived. Many would ask, "How can the biography of St. Francis be more important than the Summa? Why would Bonaventure leave Aquinas to finish alone and go off to a mountain for five years to medidate and write about Francis of Assisi when there were heretics to conquer and souls to save?’
This takes us into the whole mystery of the Christian life. Aquinas’ response to his friends separation from the project was, “Leave the saint to his saint.” Bonaventure’s response was, “I will obey.” What we see in both men is detachment. The Summa was important and necessary, but even as important and necessary as was the completion of the Summa, more important was detachment. Neither Thomas nor Bonaventure are upset by the idea of sacrificing. Either one could have been called away to shine shoes and either one would have gone gladly and the other would have remained behind to finish the work without complaining. In the end, it was all about their relationship with Jesus Christ. That relationship is nurtured through great humility and obedience to the will of God and the will of authority.
Protestants do a good job of showing what happens when you remove contemplation and mysticism from faith. You end up as literal minded, fundamentalist Bible thumpers, who have whole chapters of scripture memorized but wouldn’t know anything about charity if it knocked on their door asking for help.
One has to be very careful here. Some Protestants have made great contributions to the world of Mystical and Ascetical Theology. A few names that come to mind are Wesley, Bonhoeffer (sp?), Br. Roger of Taize.
St. Thomas Aquinis knew a whole lot about philosophy and theology while Francis knew a whole lot about love, and according to St. Paul the greatest of all gifts is love. A love born from a realization of the indwelling trinity.
Actually, Thomas wrote much more philosophy and theology than Francis. The difference between the two men has to do with their work. Unfortunately, Thomas is often abused by Catholics. Many Catholics wave the Aquinan flag whenever they want to prove a point or win an argument. The truth is that they don’t win too many that way. If we look at how Thomas lived, he was a man of great peace, a contemplative, a very simple soul, and never intended for his writings to be used as a hammer. He was writing from his contemplation. Whis is very Dominican.
Francis, on the other hand, writes little, is as much a contemplative as Thomas, and teaches as much truth as Thomas, but does so by becoming a mirror. He reflects Christ for us.
Thomas puts Christ into words and Francis puts Christ into actions. Both are necessary. Actually, the Gospel of John is very clear on this. “The Word became flesh.” In this sentence, there is Word and there is concrete action.
I was once one of those people so I feel I can generalize… I apologize if I offended. I should not have said protestants in general but more accurately fundamentalists rather than the more “main-line” denominations or “evangelicals.” But I stand by what I say about fundamentalism. Its bad in Islam and its bad in Christianity and any other religion as well.
Fundamentalism is a form of exrtremism. Extremes are dangerous in any domain, politics, religion, eating, entertainment, etc. That’s why labels are dangerous. Once you apply a label to yourself, you run the risk of locking yourself into one mode of thinking and one way of looking at God and man.
The beauty of the contemplative life is that it rises above labels. If you look at Julain of Norwich, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, etc, these folks were neither Traditionalilsts nor liberals. They were different and others labeled them from their point of view. These people were very free of labels. They were simply in love with God. They were not going to let themselves be trapped into this pious practice, that custom, the other tradition, this book or that thinker.
Instead, they followed a method of prayer and a method of living the Gospel that was consistent with Church teaching and from there they let God lead the way. St. Maximilian Kolbe once wrote that “true love is not attached to self, knowlege, or desires. True love is attached to God’s plan.” I have always thought about this and I have concluded that contemplation is a relationship with God in which we talk to him about his plan for us and listen to his guidance.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
