Memorial of Saint Albert the Great, bishop
(II Maccabees 6:18-31; Luke 19:1-10)
Conventional wisdom sees old age as a time of relaxation. The aged should not have to work and may be excused from the disciplines other adults are expected to keep. St. Albert the Great shunned this kind of thinking for himself at least. When he saw that the legacy of St. Thomas Aquinas under attack, he left the leisure of his cell to defend Thomas’ teachings. It was hardly a matter of pride in Aquinas as his former student. Albert realized as much as anyone that Thomas’ writings would be one of the richest treasures in the Church’s storehouse.
In the first reading we hear of another senior who refuses to allow himself to be seduced by comfort. Eleazar could avoid torture by flaunting the Jewish Law along with the masses. His sense of righteousness, however, does not permit it. He further rejects causing scandal by refusing to feign eating pork in order to escape death.
We owe the elderly respect and in many cases thanks. They have given us life and built a society recognized for justice and development. But their work is not finished. In our age of wavering virtue we need them to exemplify faith in God and commitment to righteous living. Without these the gains of the previous generation will be lost in the next.
Showing posts with label St. Albert the Great. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Albert the Great. Show all posts
Homilette for Thursday, November 15, 2007
Thursday, Memorial of St. Albert the Great, bishop
(Wisdom 7:22b-8.1)
The poet T.S. Eliot in 1934 felt the anxiety that grips many in our Information Age. He wrote back then, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Wisdom tells how to live happier, more meaningful lives. Yet too many people today lack it as the multiple medical problems attest to even as medical knowledge has allowed us to live longer.
In the first reading the sage who wrote the Book of Wisdom finds twenty-one attributes of wisdom. The number is considered absolutely perfect because that it is the product of the perfect number (seven) and the number of divine attributes (omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence). Of these attributes he includes “loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, firm, secure, tranquil” – qualities that we might use to describe a wise person.
Such a person was St. Albert the Great. Although he lived in the thirteenth century, Albert was canonized in the twentieth as a patron for scientists. He performed scientific experiments and developed a system of classification for the plants and animals he studied. He also taught philosophy and theology, served as a diocesan bishop, and later advised kings and popes. Very significantly, he recognized and encouraged genius in his student St. Thomas Aquinas whom he later defended against charges of heresy. But he may be considered a saint because he was “loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, firm, secure, tranquil.”
(Wisdom 7:22b-8.1)
The poet T.S. Eliot in 1934 felt the anxiety that grips many in our Information Age. He wrote back then, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Wisdom tells how to live happier, more meaningful lives. Yet too many people today lack it as the multiple medical problems attest to even as medical knowledge has allowed us to live longer.
In the first reading the sage who wrote the Book of Wisdom finds twenty-one attributes of wisdom. The number is considered absolutely perfect because that it is the product of the perfect number (seven) and the number of divine attributes (omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence). Of these attributes he includes “loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, firm, secure, tranquil” – qualities that we might use to describe a wise person.
Such a person was St. Albert the Great. Although he lived in the thirteenth century, Albert was canonized in the twentieth as a patron for scientists. He performed scientific experiments and developed a system of classification for the plants and animals he studied. He also taught philosophy and theology, served as a diocesan bishop, and later advised kings and popes. Very significantly, he recognized and encouraged genius in his student St. Thomas Aquinas whom he later defended against charges of heresy. But he may be considered a saint because he was “loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, firm, secure, tranquil.”
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