St Thomas Aquinas - Master of Scripture

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Zane Chu speaks about St. Thomas Aquinas as Master of Scripture. Zane Chu is a PhD candidate at Regis College, the Jesuit School of Theology at the University of Toronto. He holds a Master of Divinity from Regis College and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Toronto.

St. Thomas Aquinas is well known for composing the hymns Tantum Ergo and Panis Angelicus; for his commentaries on the philosophy of Aristotle; and for his unfinished theological masterpiece, the Summa Theologiae. Aquinas was a master of Sacred Scripture, his official title as a professor at the University of Paris in the 13th century. More importantly, however, Scripture profoundly shaped Aquinas in both his person and his work. The writings of Aquinas invite us, under his guidance, to form for ourselves a thoroughly Scriptural imagination, which conforms us to Christ himself, in order to know and love Christ more deeply and imitate his example.

Aquinas was formed in Scripture by two great spiritual movements in the 13th century - the Benedictines and the Dominicans. Both the Benedictine and Dominican ways of life were centered on Scripture. Benedictines stayed in the monastery, where they dedicated themselves to the mission of personal holiness through Lectio Divina. Dominicans went out into the world; having studied Scripture, they dedicated themselves to the mission of preaching and the care of souls.

The 13th century was characterized by a memorial culture in which training of one’s memory is needed for literacy and education. In contrast, our culture may be described as a written culture, or even a digital culture since we depend on physical books and digital media for the transmission of information. Training the memory in the 13th century involved carefully dividing up a text into meaningful units, which could then be commented upon and/or recombined in various compositions, for example, for personal meditation, as the monks did, or for preaching, as the mendicants did.

In his Biblical Commentaries, Aquinas invites us to know more deeply and thoroughly the words of Scripture and to read the Bible from beginning to end. We are invited to read one part of Scripture in light of another, to interpret Scripture according to Scripture. Doing this is what helps us to know more deeply and thoroughly the words of Scripture.

Aquinas' Commentary on the Gospel of John is Christ’s new commandment of love: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34). Aquinas divides Christ’s words into three parts: first, Christ mentions the quality of the commandment in its newness; second, Christ tells us what he commands; and third, Christ gives us an example of what he commands.

Since there is already a commandment about loving one’s neighbor elsewhere in Scripture, how can Christ’s commandment be said to be new? Christ himself knows the Old Testament command to love one’s neighbor. In the Gospel of Matthew, the Pharisees ask Christ, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (Matthew 22:36). Christ replies, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And second is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39).

Aquinas suggest how Christ’s commandment can be said to be new. First, Christ’s commandment is new because it produces renewal within us. Aquinas identifies the root of the new self and its practices: charity, the love of God and neighbor, to which Christ urges us by giving us the new commandment to love one another.

Second, Christ’s commandment is new because of its source and cause, which is a new spirit, the Holy Spirit himself. Aquinas explains that there are two spirits, old and new. The old spirit was a spirit of slavery, and the new spirit is the Spirit of Love. We are renewed in our hearts by a new spirit, the Holy Spirit, who is the cause of the charity that makes us new.

Third, Christ’s commandment is new because it establishes the New Covenant. The New and Old Covenants are marked respectively by a difference between love and fear.

Aquinas’ commentary on the newness of Christ’s commandment to love one another deepens our understanding of this commandment according to the words of Scripture itself. We experience the newness of this commandment when we act from it, namely, when we act out of charity toward our neighbor. The cause of this charity in us is the Holy Spirit himself, the cause of our renewal, who produces the enduring effect of the New Covenant between God and human beings. Aquinas helps us to read Scripture—the Old in light of the New, and the New in light of the Old—in order to understand how God’s Spirit has brought newness to our hearts, a new relation between God and human beings - the intention of Scripture, to which Aquinas invites us as an entire way of life.