Pope Francis meets the participants in the 11th Thomas Science International Congress, offering a way to deepen the thought of the master. Before speaking of St. Thomas, the Pope emphasized, we must meditate, otherwise his power and his greatness will be taken away.
(Vatican news network) Pope Francis received on September 22 in the Sala Clemente in the Vatican the participants in the 11th International Congress of Thomasology. The Pope stressed that the reflection on St. Thomas is faced with a teacher, not just any sage. The Thomas School risked exploiting the teacher, for example, when the teacher’s interpretation led to the impression that he is a slave to “doubt”.
This International Congress of Domas is organized by the Pontifical Institute of St. Thomas, with the theme: “Completing and perfecting the old with the new: a resource of the Domas tradition in the current context” (Vetera novis augere. The resources of the Thomist tradition in context current). The Pope offered the participants a way to study the master’s mind.
The Pope said that the first step is contemplation, so that his brilliant thoughts can enter our mind; the second step is to interpret humbly; the last step is to interpret very carefully. That is to say: “Never use the master for what I think, but think of things according to the master’s mind, and let the master’s mind interpret it.”
The Pope invites the scholars present at the Congress: “Before speaking of St. Thomas, before speaking of Thomas, and before taking a lesson, we must contemplate: the contemplative teacher, in addition to understanding his rational thought, also understands his experience and what he wants to tell us. “We must never reduce the teacher to a thinker, who would destroy his mind,” taking away his power and life “.
“St. Thomas is a light for the mind of the Church, and we must defend him from all these ‘intellectualist reductionisms’, which bind the vast ocean of his brilliant ideas”, said the Pope. “Tomasology should not be an exhibition in a museum , but a fountain of living water “.
Next year will be the 700th anniversary of the canonization of the great theologian, who, the Pope observed, is above all a saint, a faithful disciple of divine wisdom. “The Word of God that enters the heart needs to reach the intellect to ‘renew our way of thinking’ and to evaluate everything according to eternal wisdom”.
The Pope stressed that a passionate search for God “must be both prayer and contemplation. It can be said that St. Thomas is an example of a theology that is born and grows in a climate of worship. This search for God’s truth is valid. The two ‘wings’ of faith and reason. We know that the way in which St. Thomas intended to reconcile the two lights of faith and reason remains exemplary “.
The Pope defined the “movement of the double life of systole and diastole” characteristic of Thomas ‘studies, explaining that this had to grasp the originality of Thomas’ work, in a critical way, that is, to take its true and right essence, to integrate it into the culture Contemporary . Finally, the Pope encouraged the scholars of the Pontifical Institute of Saint Thomas not to be afraid of “adding and enriching the old and always fruitful again”.
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