Friday – St. Thomas Aquinas

Gospel – Mark4:26-34

Look At Me Now!

Walking the Streets of Jerusalem

For many of us, these almost 2 years of stepping aside from the world and our ‘normal’ routine have been not just a source of loss but of opportunity!  For some of us, there has been the chance for growth.  We may have developed new hobbies and pursuits.  We’ve learned to bake bread, started knitting, or enjoyed the quiet pleasure of reading a good book or assembling a jigsaw puzzle.  Or maybe it was just playing a simple game of cards with a loved one.  Perhaps we have even rediscovered the art of conversation or a sudden passion for cleaning and neatness.

For others, it was not just growth but transformation.  We went on a frenzy of cleaning the house, room by room, top to bottom.  We reorganized and de-cluttered, simplified and tossed out all the ‘stuff’ we used to think was so important and necessary. And in the process, we may also have come across those long-forgotten boxes of old photographs.  And we spent days looking through them, reminiscing about the old days and reflecting!  Wow, look at me now!  Look at how far I (we) have come!  Look at how much I have grown and changed! 

A time of growth and transformation, a time of reflection!  And isn’t that exactly what today’s Gospel is addressing?  You take a seed, even something as small as a mustard seed.  You plant it, it splits, grows, develops, and miraculously transforms into a bud, a flower, a plant, a source of beauty and sustenance.  Growth and transformation!

We celebrate today the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church, one of the pre-eminent theologians in Christian history.  His greatest contributions were his writings, particularly Summa Theologiae, which, while never finished, was an exhaustive study of all Christian theology.  And yet he didn’t just magically appear one day; it was a long slow but steady growth in faith and devotion.  His parents did everything they could to keep him from joining the Dominican Order, even imprisoning him at home for over a year.  He was nicknamed the “dumb ox” not because of his mental ability but because of his rather large physical presence and his shy and quiet disposition.  And yet through all those struggles, he has emerged as probably the Church’s greatest philosopher uniting faith and reason.  Judge him by his (physical) size, do you?

We have had so much time to work on our physical selves and our physical home these past 22 months.  What about our spiritual selves?  Have we taken the time to reflect on our spiritual growth, our spiritual transformation from that little baby at the moment of our Baptism! 

How have we grown?  How have we been transformed?  How have we been graced by God’s presence in our lives?  How has the sacramental life transformed us into disciples of Christ?  Have we taken the time to reflect, to read the ‘good book’?  Can we honestly look back (and forward) and say – Wow, look at me now!