Monday Musings - Advent Insights of St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P. - 3rd Week of Advent

This is the third week I am posting quotations excerpted from St. Thomas Aquinas – Meditations for Every Day, translated and illustrated by Rev. E.C. McEniry, O.P. These pearls of wisdom are worth pondering during the course of the week. If you missed the last two week's quotes, you can find them here and here.
        

For the first man sinned by seeking knowledge, as is plain from the words of the serpent, promising the man the knowledge of good and evil.  Hence, it was fitting that by the Word of true knowledge man might be led back to God, who wandered from God through an improper thirst for knowledge.

            We hold that from the beginning of His conception, this Man (Jesus) was truly the Son of God.

            Observe that the Apostle John states four reasons whereby the gift of the Incarnation should be pleasing and acceptable:

          Because of the person giving the gift; since He gives from the greatest love and affection;

          Because of the gift given or sent.   When that which is given is great and precious it should be all the more welcome and acceptable and pleasing;

          Because of the person receiving the gift; particularly when the person receiving the gift needs it in the worst way; and

          Because of the person bringing the gift.  For sometimes, because of the beauty, graciousness and pleasingness of the person bringing the gift – as in the case of a beautiful lady – the gift presented is rendered all the more pleasing.  And so, because of the beauty and grace of the Virgin bearing that Divine gift, it should be most acceptable to us.

            For just as our word conceived in the mind is invisible, but is perceived when orally or externally expressed; so too, the Word of God, according to eternal generation, invisibly existed in the heart of the Father, but through the Incarnation, the Word of God became visible to us.

            The womb of the Blessed Virgin is called blessed because it bore Him Who is blessed in Himself in the highest degree possible; because of the highest blessedness and Trinity which it bore; because it conceived without sin; because it bore without labor; because it gave birth to Him without experiencing pain; because it bore the price of our redemption; because Mary had virtues from every state; and because she must be frequently blessed or praised and preached by all.

            John the Baptist admonished us “to do penance for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.

            It is one thing to do penance and another thing to repent.  One repents who turns away from sin, but weeps not for having committed them...A person must resolve not to commit sin again and for this penance is required.  To do penance, moreover, is to satisfy for sins committed.

            There are two things which lead to penance, namely, a realization of our own sins and a fear of the Divine judgment.

            There are two classes of people who are unwilling to do penance, namely, those who disbelieve in the judgment and those who delay their repentance.

            The flower, indeed, of penance appears in sorrow for sin, but the fruit of penance appears in good works.

            There is a threefold fruit worthy of penance.  The first is that the sinner do penance according to the judgment of the priest.  The second fruit is that the sinner flees from sin and the occasions of sin. The third fruit is that the sinner exerts himself as much in doing good as he did in committing sin.

            For the word conceived in the heart (mind) we know through the spoken word (voice), since it is a sign of the word conceived in the mind.           

(Source: St. Thomas Aquinas – Meditations for Every Day, translated and illustrated by Rev. E.C. McEniry, O.P.)

Monday Musings - Advent Insights of St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P. - 2nd Week of Advent

As I noted last week, every Monday during Advent, I will posting 12-15 quotations excerpted from St. Thomas Aquinas – Meditations for Every Day, translated and illustrated by Rev. E.C. McEniry, O.P. These pearls of wisdom are worth pondering during the course of the week. If you missed last week's quotes, you can find them here.
        

Nothing can be thought of that is more wonderful than the Divine fact, that the true God, the Son of God, became a true man.

            God moves man to know the truth, to love good things and to perform just works.

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

            There was no cause of Christ’s coming into the world, except to save sinners.  Take away the diseases, take away the wounds, and there is no need of medicine.

            It was not fitting for God to become incarnate at the beginning of the human race before sin.  For medicine is given only to the sick.

            Nor was it fitting that God should become man – immediately – after sin. Since man’s sin was the result of pride, man was to be liberated in a manner that he might be humbled and see how he stood in need of a deliverer.

            Mary was always immune from sin…Mary’s whole life was free from sin.

            The entire time of the present might be compared to “night”, because of the darkness of ignorance in which the present life is surrounded.  On the contrary, the state of future blessedness is to be compared to the day because of the brightness of God by which the saints are enlightened.

            The time before the Incarnation may be compared to the “night” because it was as yet clear and the world was under a certain cloud of darkness.  On the contrary, the time from the Incarnation of Christ is compared to the “day” because of the power of the spiritual sun which came into the world with the birth of Christ.

            The Blessed Virgin received the fullness or perfection of grace.

            Mary is the dispenser of grace to others.

            God gives grace to each one according to the purpose for which He has chosen him.

            There are three reasons why the ancients desired so much the Incarnation of Christ: because of the flood of earthly miseries from which they suffered; because of the abundance of internal and external peace which abounded everywhere at His coming; and because of the abundance of internal joy which they received.

            The Light of the World, although present in the world and manifest by its effects, is nevertheless not recognized by the world. Thus Jesus “came unto His own” so that He might be recognized through the assumption of human nature.  He Who was invisible came that he might become visible to all mankind.