January 26, 2025
Have you ever imagined that God's will will systematically go against even your greatest human desires? Or wondered why faith doesn't spare you from suffering when you're going through a trial? Or while not working hard enough, relying on God's grace to make up for it?
Here you are, at the heart of a beautiful question of Christian life: the relationship between nature and grace. And Saint Thomas Aquinas, often mistakenly regarded as an austere medieval theologian with nothing more to say to us today, has a key for you! The theology of Saint Thomas is balanced because it is based on a realistic philosophy, one that starts from experience. It is also surprisingly modern. Here's the secret St. Thomas holds for you: “Grace does not suppress nature, but crowns it.” The most striking example of this is Christ, who never ceased to be man while being God, and who is even “the most beautiful of the children of men”. God loves your human nature, he protects it, and he needs it like good soil for the seed of grace to flourish.
The challenge then is to use that nature well, to direct it towards the end you wish to achieve (holiness, no less!). Isn't that what it means to become a human and Christian person?
