Today is the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church. He was born in the Kingdom of Sicily around 1225. As a child, he began his schooling at the Benedictine abbey in Monte Cassino. Often, young St. Thomas would question his teacher in his search for truth, asking, "Master, tell me—what is God?”
Advancing in his search for wisdom, St. Thomas studied at the University of Naples. At the age of 18, Thomas joyfully received the Dominican habit. After suffering the opposition of his family toward his vocation to religious life, St. Thomas studied first at Cologne and then at Paris, with St. Albert the Great as his teacher.
St. Thomas was known as a man of great honesty, great purity, and great holiness. Through his diligence in study and devotion to prayer, Thomas wrote many precise and accurate theological and philosophical works. Except perhaps St. Augustine and Shakespeare, there is no other writer whose work has been commented on, compared to other thinkers, and subjected to criticism more than the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.
St. Thomas also had a great devotion to the Holy Eucharist. He composed many hymns which the Church still uses in honor and adoration of the Holy Eucharist. In his very devout hymn “Adoro te devote,” Thomas expresses his humble adoration of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist:
I devoutly adore you, hidden deity,
Who are truly hidden beneath these appearances.
My whole heart submits to You,
because in contemplating You, it is fully deficient.
After he finished writing a theological work about the Eucharist, Thomas placed his notebook on the altar. Then, lifting his hands toward the crucifix, he prayed earnestly that he might teach according to the truth. Christ appeared to him, saying, “You have written well concerning the Sacrament of my Body and my Blood.” Our Lord also asked him, "What reward will you have for your labor?” Thomas lovingly responded, "Nothing but You, O Lord!”
Indeed, communion with God is the overriding necessity in anyone's life: “One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: To dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, to gaze on the Lord’s beauty, to visit his temple” (Psalm 27:4). And so, like St. Thomas, we must keep our eyes fixed on Him, saying, I will have nothing but You, O Lord!