St. Thomas Aquinas' Beatific Vision

January 28th [was] the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the 800th anniversary of his birth. It is the culminating feast of a two-year jubilee that began in 2023, with the 700th anniversary of the saint's canonization. In between those two monumental celebrations was the 750th anniversary of the Angelic Doctor's death, elevating the time spanning these milestones to an important period of reflection on the profound influence Saint Thomas Aquinas has had on the life of the Church.

A particularly interesting devotion that took place towards the end of this triple jubilee was a tour of the skull of Saint Thomas, which visited various spots in the United States, including the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where Father Thomas Petri, O.P., offered a votive Mass. In his homily, Father Petri said:

"We don't believe the body is merely incidental to who we are. St. Thomas was clear. The human person is not just a soul and body. The human soul is such that it needs a body; it's ordered to a body: not only to learn, to remember, to think, and to imagine, but to move, to communicate, to be visible, so to speak, in the world."

Concluding the thought, Father Petri said, "Even now, the soul of St. Thomas retains its ordering to this skull, and this skull is ordered to his soul . . . and it will rise again on the Last Day. . . ."

Father Petri's meditation is inspired by Aquinas' study and development of Catholic doctrine. The saint's endeavor to explain these complex truths of the faith certainly drew him closer to God throughout his life, which seems confirmed in a mystical experience he had just three months before he died. It happened when he was nearing the end of completing his Summa Theologiae, wherein he sought to condense his most important insights about the faith. It was while celebrating Mass on December 6th, 1223, the Feast of Saint Nicholas, that he received this revelation, considered by some to have been a foretaste of the Beatific Vision. Afterwards, he declared: "I can do no more. The end of my labors has come. Such things have been revealed to me that all that I have written seems to me as so much straw."

Three months later, Aquinas died while on his way to the Second Council of Lyon. Though he did not finish his Summa, it nevertheless stands as one of the monumental achievements in Catholic thought. Before he stopped writing, he offered this description of the Beatific Vision: "The most perfect union with God is the most perfect human happiness and the goal of the whole of the human life, a gift that must be given to us by God."

Saint Thomas shared this insight to inspire all people to pursue the Beatific vision as the greatest end of the human soul, and, as he came to realize, that end is far more glorious than could ever be put into words.

Father Petri's meditation is a reminder of how complete our existence promises to be after the resurrection of the body. The veneration of the skull of Saint Thomas Aquinas that created the occasion for this meditation embraces the sign of contradiction at the heart of the Christian faith. We follow in our Lord's footsteps to take on suffering and even death in a spirit of renunciation of the world to pursue the things of the spirit with faith that God will restore all things in Christ.  

This essay is a recent "Light One Candle" column by Father Ed Dougherty, M.M., The Christophers' Board of Directors ; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.

Background information:

The Christophers