Wisdom, Witness, and Return: St Thomas Aquinas in the Light of Lent
MASS Oculi mei
LESSON Wisdom 7: 7-14
GOSPEL St Matthew 5: 13-19
PROPER (Sat Lent II) Luke 15: 11-32
HOMILIST Mt Revd Jerome Lloyd OSJV
Beloved in Christ,
On this Lenten Saturday the Church gives us a striking harmony of witnesses: the martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, whose relics rest in the ancient Roman basilica of today’s station, and the great Dominican Doctor St Thomas Aquinas, whose feast we celebrate. One bore witness with blood; the other with intellect. Yet both served the same Lord, and both illuminate the same truth: that the Christian life is the union of wisdom, fidelity, and conversion.
The Epistle from the Book of Wisdom might almost be taken as the motto of St Thomas Aquinas:
“I wished, and understanding was given me; and I called, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me; and I preferred her before kingdoms and thrones.”
Thomas Aquinas truly preferred wisdom before kingdoms. Born into a noble family in the Kingdom of Naples in 1225, he was expected to rise to power and influence within the Church. Yet when he chose to enter the newly founded Dominican Order—an order of preaching friars dedicated to poverty and study—his family considered it a humiliation. They imprisoned him for more than a year, hoping to break his resolve.
But the young Thomas already understood something that the world rarely understands: that wisdom is more valuable than honour, wealth, or power.
He later wrote a principle that perfectly expresses this conviction:
“The ultimate end of human life is the contemplation of truth.”
(Summa Theologiae, I–II, q.3, a.5)
For Aquinas, theology was not merely an academic discipline. It was the soul’s ascent toward God. To know the truth was to approach the Creator Himself, who is Truth.
This explains why the Church has long honoured him with the title Doctor Angelicus, the Angelic Doctor. His intellect possessed a clarity, order, and purity that seemed almost angelic. Yet the true secret of his greatness was not intellectual brilliance alone—it was humility before truth.
St Thomas once wrote:
“The study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.”
(De Caelo et Mundo, I, lect.22)
This sentence alone explains why his work has endured for centuries. He did not seek novelty, nor did he pursue clever theories. He sought reality—truth as it is.
And because all truth ultimately proceeds from God, his theology brought faith and reason into a luminous harmony. Against those who feared philosophy might corrupt the Faith, Aquinas demonstrated that reason, rightly used, leads toward God rather than away from Him.
Yet today’s Gospel reminds us that wisdom alone is not sufficient. Our Lord tells His disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth… you are the light of the world.”
Salt preserves what would otherwise decay. Light reveals what would otherwise remain hidden. This is the vocation of the Christian—and especially of those who teach the Faith.
In an age of confusion, St Thomas Aquinas became precisely this light. With serene clarity he explained the mysteries of God, the nature of grace, the purpose of the sacraments, and the structure of moral life. For this reason the Church has repeatedly commended his teaching as a guide for theology.
But Aquinas never separated knowledge from holiness.
He famously prayed before studying:
“Grant me, O merciful God,
a keen understanding,
a retentive memory,
and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally.”
For him, study was itself a form of prayer. Theology was not a display of intellect but an act of devotion.
The Church also remembers the extraordinary humility that crowned his life. Near the end of his days, after celebrating Mass and receiving a profound mystical grace, Thomas ceased writing. When urged to continue his work, he replied:
“All that I have written seems to me like straw compared to what I have seen.”
This was not a rejection of his writings, but a confession that even the greatest human intellect can only glimpse the infinite mystery of God.
And here the Lenten Gospel of the Prodigal Son sheds further light on today’s feast.
True wisdom does not lead to pride but to repentance.
The prodigal son in the parable “returns to himself”—that is, he awakens to truth. Sin is a form of blindness; conversion restores sight. In this sense, repentance itself is a work of wisdom.
St Thomas teaches precisely this when he writes:
“The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.”
(Commentary on the Sentences, II, d.24)
Fear here does not mean terror, but reverence—a recognition of God’s majesty and our dependence upon Him. It is this reverence that leads the sinner back to the Father.
Thus the wisdom praised in today’s Epistle, the light spoken of in today’s Gospel, and the repentance portrayed in the Prodigal Son all converge in the life of St Thomas Aquinas.
He teaches us three essential truths.
First, truth exists, and the human mind is capable of knowing it because it was created by God.
Second, faith and reason are not enemies, but allies, both ordered toward the same divine source.
Third, knowledge must lead to holiness, for the purpose of theology is ultimately the salvation of souls.
Perhaps the most famous sentence St Thomas ever wrote expresses the entire aim of his life:
“For those who have faith, no explanation is necessary. For those without faith, no explanation is possible.”
The Angelic Doctor spent his life illuminating the Faith, yet he knew that the deepest truths are received not only by intellect but by grace.
And so today, as we continue our Lenten pilgrimage to the Roman station of the martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, the Church invites us to imitate both kinds of witness.
The courage of the martyrs.
The wisdom of the Doctor.
The repentance of the prodigal son.
If these three take root in our lives—fidelity, wisdom, and conversion—then we too will become what Christ calls us to be: salt for the earth and light for the world.
May St Thomas Aquinas obtain for us a share in that true wisdom which leads not merely to knowledge, but to the vision of God Himself.
Amen.
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