One of the Most Brilliant Minds in History Said THIS Before He Died

[00:00:00] What's up, you guys? I'm in Toulouse, France. I just dropped off our pilgrims at the airport and got me a taxi to downtown to take you with me to see the tomb of St. Thomas Aquinas before I leave this amazing city. [00:00:13] Guys, Thomas Aquinas is one of the most brilliant minds, and I'm going to go ask him to intercede for our core program as we write it, because we need some. Some brain help. [00:00:22] He's one of the most brilliant minds, not just in the history of the Church, but in the history of the world, truly. And I'll get into why in a second. [00:00:31] But, guys, he wasn't just brilliant. He shows us what the point of knowledge is. [00:00:36] And Jesus also reveals the purpose of all knowledge when he prayed the amazing prayer, I give you praise, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth. For though you've hidden these things from the wise and learned, you've revealed them to the childlike. And although St. Thomas Aquinas was incredibly brilliant, his death illuminates what the purpose of brilliance is. The purpose of all knowledge. You see, knowledge doesn't exist. [00:01:01] It's a heavy old bag today. Knowledge isn't just there so that we can accumulate more and more knowledge. [00:01:08] Knowledge is to lead us to something, and that is the surrender of childlike faith. [00:01:13] I think of it in relation to marriage. Look, I learned a lot of things about my wife, but guys who date forever, they just keep learning about this girl they're dating forever. [00:01:23] And eventually the will has to move the intellect beyond where it can go by itself. You produce a ring when you say, will you marry me? [00:01:31] See, the knowledge leads to the threshold of relationship. And that's true with faith. [00:01:36] The knowledge can lead to the threshold. And skeptics often think that they're kind of smarter than everybody else, but really what they are is people who are too afraid to give themselves to what all the knowledge they've accumulated has pointed to. [00:01:49] Which is the surrender of childlike faith, or another way to say it is the surrender of love. [00:01:55] I see enough. I now give my heart over to the love that all this sight has pointed me to. But back to St. Thomas Aquinas. Now, though he's one of the most brilliant minds in the history of the Church, his friends mistook him for an idiot because he was so quiet in class. And he was a huge guy. I don't mean like huge like this. I mean like huge like. [00:02:13] Like that. [00:02:14] And he just never had anything to say. And they lovingly called him the Dumb Ox and St Albert the Great who was his teacher said, you call him a dumb ox, but you will hear the bellowing of this ox throughout the entire world. And, boy did we. He wrote the famous work the Tantum, Ergo, this song we sing at the end of adoration to this very day. 800 years after his death, he wrote the Summa Theologica. Guys, check this out. The Summa answered every question under the sun. About the faith, about the sciences, and showed how faith and reason aren't at odds. But they're married. Or as John Paul II said, they're two wings of a bird that lift up the soul in contemplation of the truth. The Summa. Guys, the summa is 1.8 million words. [00:02:58] What? [00:02:58] 1.8 million words. And he didn't pull that off. With the help of ChatGPT, he had multiple scribes recording his work. He wasn't just writing the Summa, but other things, multiple things at one time. And letters to kings, all this stuff. [00:03:12] And people who were there and remember how he did this, said the way he pulled this off, he wasn't repeating himself. He never forgot where he was. So apparently, he didn't just have an incredibly brilliant mind. He also probably had really bad adhd, which could be a superpower if you channel it just right. But toward the end of his life, he got a vision of Jesus who said, thomas, you've written well of me. [00:03:33] Ask me for anything you desire. And his response wasn't, more knowledge, Lord. [00:03:39] His response points us to the point of all knowledge. He said, only you, Lord. [00:03:46] I only want more of you. And then toward the end of his life, in December, before he died, he got another vision where he saw heaven. He saw heavenly glory. And he said, everything I've written amounts to strawberry. [00:03:59] And he never wrote again and died. March, just a few months later. [00:04:05] I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for though you've hidden these things in the wise and learned you revealed them to the childlike. The life and death of Thomas Aquinas reveal the point of all knowledge, and it reveals the reality that the smartest thing a guy can do is love. [00:04:22] God bless you. All right, doors are opening. Let me take you in. Okay. Wow. [00:04:35] These relics are right there beneath the altar. [00:04:49] Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.