In this series, I want to concentrate on prayer and Thomas Aquinas. It seems to me in this terrible time of the destructive of Western Civilization by those very people elected to protect it, that we need to focus on the interior life, as I did in the perfection series, remembering that only a relationship with God will bring us through tribulation to God.
Thomas Aquinas was all but forgotten after the upheavals in seminaries and Catholic higher education after Vatican II. I know this from experience.
I shall share that later.
Today, I want to start with a bit of Thomas from the Summa Theologica on contemplation 2:2;82.1. And this numbering is how I shall do references in this series-Second Part of the Second Part, Question 82, Article 1.
The contemplative life consists in a certain liberty of mind. For Gregory says (Hom. iii in Ezech.) that "the contemplative life obtains a certain freedom of mind, for it thinks not of temporal but of eternal things." And Boethius says (De Consol. v, 2): "The soul of man must needs be more free while it continues to gaze on the Divine mind, and less so when it stoops to bodily things." Wherefore it is evident that the active life does not directly command the contemplative life, but prescribes certain works of the active life as dispositions to the contemplative life; which it accordingly serves rather than commands. Gregory refers to this when he says (Hom. iii in Ezech.) that "the active life is bondage, whereas the contemplative life is freedom."
As you all can see, this could be part of the perfection series, but I want the flexibility to depart from that theme.
What Thomas states here is that paying attention to the interior life and being in communion with God gives one objectivity regarding actions. When one is concentrating on God, all else falls into focus. Most commonly, people allow the active life to take over the mind, heart, soul to the detriment of spiritual growth.
How many conversations does one need on food, travel, daily trivia?
The danger of losing one's soul forever frequently lies in the over indulgence of attention to the actions of the day, rather than being reflective. A disposition of quiet listening to God even during work hours develops this ability to stay in the Presence of God, even though one does not experience Him. He is there and one's Faith reaches out for relationship.
The activities of the day can be secondary and still done well to the interior life.
Gregory's comment, quoted by Thomas, the the active life is bondage seems obvious to me.
Silence creates freedom.
We all talk too much and talk too much on useless topics. Silence allows God to talk to us.
Are we listening? We must.
Now, in the Dark Night, one does not hear God or perceive His Presence, but rests in the passive purification, like Mary of Bethany at the feet of Jesus.
Thomas uses this pericope to show that the contemplative is the higher state, no quantitatively but qualitatively.
Martha could have been in contemplation while she was working, and if she was, she would not have criticized Mary/
This freedom of thought is key and is connected to what John of the Cross states is the loss of memory of all but God.
We do not need to think of the Marys if we are Marthas who remain in contemplation when working. The nuns do this in Tyburn. It is possible to be very busy and recollected in silence. But, one must concentrate on God and not on anyone or anything else. The work flows from the contemplation.
to be continued...