Homily for Saturday of the 3rd week in ordinary time-Saint Thomas Aquinas

Homily for Saturday of  the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time. 

Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas (The Angelic Doctor of the Church). 

Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19. Luke 1:69-70,71-72,73-75. Mark 4:35-41. 

The first reading teaches us that just as Abraham got divine approval as a result of his faith in God, so too shall we have divine approval if we also have faith in God.

Going further, we are told of Abraham's faith that was justified by his action when he was ready to offer Isaac, his son, to God aa a burnt offering.

If only we had faith as strong as Abraham's faith, who moved in obedience to God. When the oceans rise and thunders roar, as we have it in today's Gospel, Jesus will calm the strong winds in our lives.

The fact that with the presence of Jesus in the boat, the disciples were confronted with the problems of life, it simply means that the Christian life is not a problem-free life. However, it is not the problem, but our response to our problems that define us. Thanks to the disciples, at their time of trouble, they cried to Jesus, and He came to their rescue.

We celebrate the memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, popularly known as the Angelic Doctor, a man of deep and strong faith. So deep was his conviction that he spent his entire life writing on the mystery of God.

He was born about 1225, a member of a noble family of Aquino. He studied first at Monte Cassino and then at Naples; later, as a member of the Dominican Order, he completed his studies at Paris and then at Cologne with St. Albert the Great as his teacher. He was an outstanding writer and teacher of philosophy and sacred theology.

He left the great monument of his learning, the Summa Theologica, unfinished, for on his way to the Second Council of Lyons, he fell sick and died at Fossanuova on 7th of March 1274. He is venerated on the 28th of January, for on that day in 1369, his body was reburied at Toulouse. He was canonised in 1323 by Pope John XXII.

Through the intercession of St. Thomas Aquinas, may God increase our faith through Christ our Lord. Amen.