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Thomas Aquinas, Humble and Indomitable Youth

Thomas Aquinas, as his biographers tell us, was a young man of great stature and strong complexion. At first sight, he was a fighter like his parents and siblings. Nevertheless, it is said that he was an amiable and courteous youth. It suffices to consider that, having a privileged, above average, intelligence, what stood out in him, to those who knew him, was not his intelligence but rather his humility.

From his classmates in the university during his student years in Cologne, there are conserved some remembrances of his life which speak of his gentleness, discretion, and meekness. Once, to mock him, since he was always lost in his own thoughts, they wanted to play a trick on him. One of his classmates looked out the window and said to him, “Look, Brother Thomas, a flying ox!” Thomas, coming out of his concentration, went over to the window and strained his eyes in order to see the prodigy. All of the students burst out into laughter, having ascertained Thomas’ simplicity. But he calmly replied: “Why do you laugh? I find it easier to believe that an ox can fly than a Dominican lie.”

This humble condition, which captivated the hearts of the great and the small, didn’t save him, however, from the miscomprehensions of his family nor the harsh oppositions which they posed to his vocation. Saint Thomas was certainly not understood by those at home. At the beginning of the year 1244 (Thomas was 19 years old), a year before the death of his father, he asked the Prior for admission into the Dominicans at Naples. He did so without consulting his family, foreseeing the hostility that such a decision would receive.

His mother, the duchess of Aquinas, having heard what her son had done, did indeed not wish to allow her distinguished son to enter into a mendicant order. The noble lady does not waste time thinking: she sends her two other sons to forcibly capture Thomas and bring him to her presence. They find him on the way to Rome, where the friars were taking him in order to save him from the threats of the duchess. They throw themselves by surprise upon Thomas like lions, trying to wrest his habit from him. However, he holds onto it so tightly that it is impossible for them to take it off. Habit and all, they seize him and take him to their mother, who literally locks him in a fortress which belongs to the family. There, for a year and a half, he suffers all types of attempts and (immoral!) temptations against his vocation. In the end, he frees himself from the imprisonment of his family by being lowered in a basket from the tower’s window with the help of his sisters. Thomas comes out of this trial very strengthened in virtue and in his vocation.

The saint’s doctrine is also forged by his own experience. Saint Thomas does not doubt in affirming: “In this matter (the vocation) neither family nor relations are consulted, because in this they are not friends, but enemies, according to what Our Savior teaches us: ‘A man’s foes will be those of his own household.’ (Mt. 10:36)” (Contra retr. a relig., c. IX).

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori is of the same train of thought. At 72 years of age and suffering the illness which would take him to death, he wrote in his “Practice of the love of Jesus Christ: If a young person is called to religious life and his parents are against it, he is obliged to obey God and not his parents, who for their own interests oppose the spiritual good of their children. And they prefer that their children be condemned for all eternity - as St. Bernard writes – than that they abandon and leave their house. It is a frightening thing to see certain mothers and fathers, who in spite of having a great fear of God, they being, led by passion, tire themselves in inventing thousands of ways to hinder the vocation of their son who desires to become a religious. This way of acting, except in very strange cases, cannot be excused from being mortal sin.”

And quoting St. Thomas, he said, “And if, in order to obey the calling of God to a state of greater perfection, children are not obliged to ask for their parent’s advice, even less obliged are they to ask their parent’s consent or permission, especially when there are valid suspicions that their request will be unjustly denied, or that they will put obstacles to their vocation.” St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Peter of Alcantara, St. Francis Xavier, St. Louis Beltran, and many more, entered into religious life without the knowledge of their parents.”

Only the authority of the saints and doctors of the Church can speak with this strength. Thanks be to God that there are also families who willingly give their consent (even though they still suffer the pain of the separation) to their children who wish to follow their vocation. But those who have a family who neither understands nor defends their vocation must see these saints as their elder brothers that understand, defend and sweeten the trial with their light.

There is no doubt that St. Thomas possessed, in the greatest amount, audacity to seek the truth, freedom of spirit to affront new problems, and intellectual worthiness. ("Lumen Ecclesiae", Paul VI)

In order to be a good minister of the divine wisdom four qualities are necessary: innocence, wisdom, zeal and obedience. (St. Thomas Aquinas)

By Sr. Isabel Cuesta, S.H.M.