Pints With Aquinas - A Meditation For Ash Wednesday by Thomas Aquinas

Episode Date: March 6, 2019

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Today is Ash Wednesday. Welcome to Lent. As I said in yesterday's episode, St. Thomas wrote a meditation for every day of Lent. Did you know that? Well, heitations, and I've put beautiful Gregorian chant underneath each one. That way, I thought, you could listen to a meditation from Thomas Aquinas for every day of Lent, which would be a very beautiful way to prepare for Easter. So I'd like to play the very first meditation for Ash Wednesday today, so you can listen to that. And if you'd like to listen to the rest, I'd like to invite you to support me on Patreon. That's how you will get access to all of them. And you'll also get a bunch of other free things in return, by the way, which I'll tell you about in a second. But you'll be supporting the work that I do, and you'll also be getting access to these beautiful meditations. I'd recommend, if you do support me, to download the Patreon app, because that way you could listen to them

very easily. And I think that would just be a really beautiful way to start your morning. Before you get out of bed, just click play and listen to what Aquinas has to say. And by the way, it's not like Pints with Aquinas, where I give you a bunch of commentary around Aquinas' text. All you'll be getting is words from the big man himself. And I think that's terrific. You could listen to it in your car, on your way to work, in the shower, wherever, but it would be a beautiful way to prepare for Easter. So, if you support me on Patreon by going to patreon.com slash Matt Fradd for $10 or more a month, you'll immediately get access to all of them, though I'd recommend listening to one per day. You'll also get my book on Aquinas' Five Ways, which I will sign and send to you. You'll get access to an ever-growing

library of exclusive audio content that we do here at Pints with Aquinas, like my recent interview with Michael Knowles from The Daily Wire, which other people don't have access to. We record audiobooks written by Thomas Aquinas. We record papal encyclicals on philosophy and Thomas Aquinas. You'll get instant access to all of that. You'll get access to our live streams, like we did just last night, just for our patrons, and all other things, a whole bunch of other things, which you can check out there at patreon.com slash Matt Fradd. Look, I know that most people who support me, they're not supporting me so they get these little gifts in return. They're supporting me because they believe in the work that I'm doing. And if you're one of those

people, thank you so very much. And if you'd like to become one, go to patreon.com slash Matt Fradd. As I say, you'll get immediate access to all of these beautiful meditations for Lent. So, enough of that. Here is the very first meditation from Thomas Aquinas on Ash Wednesday. I hope you have a blessed Lent. Meditations for Lent from St. Thomas Aquinas. Ash Wednesday. Death. By one man, sin entered into this world, and by sin death. If for some wrongdoing a man is deprived of some benefit once given to him, that he should lack that benefit is the punishment of his sin. Now in man's first creation he was divinely endowed with this advantage that,

so long as his mind remained subject to God, the lower powers of his soul were subjected to the reason and the body was subjected to the soul. But because by sin man's mind moved away from its subjection to God, it followed that the lower parts of his mind ceased to be wholly subjected to the reason. From this there followed such a rebellion of the bodily inclination against the reason that the body was no longer wholly subject to the soul. Whence follow death and all bodily defects. For life and wholeness of body abound up with this, that the body is wholly subject to the soul, as a thing which can be made perfect

is subject to that which makes it perfect. So it comes about that conversely there are such things as death, sickness, and every other bodily defect. For such misfortunes are bound up with an incomplete subjection of body to soul. The rational soul is of its nature immortal, and therefore death is not natural to man insofar as man has a soul. It is natural to his body, for the body, since it is formed of things contrary to each other in nature, is necessarily liable to corruption, and it is in this respect that death is natural to man. But God who fashioned man is all-powerful, and hence by an advantage conferred on the first man, he took away that necessity of dying which was bound up with the matter of which man was made. This advantage was, however,

withdrawn through the sin of our first parents. Death is then natural, if we consider the matter of which man is made, and it is a penalty inasmuch as it happens through the loss of the privilege whereby man was preserved from dying. Sin, original sin and actual sin, is taken away by Christ, that is to say, by him who is also the remover of all bodily defects. He shall quicken also your mortal bodies because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you. that dwelleth in you. But according to the order appointed by a wisdom that is divine, it is at the time which best suits that Christ takes away both the one and the other, that is, both sin and bodily defects. Now it is only right that before we arrive at the glory of impassibility and immortality which began in Christ and which was acquired for us through Christ, we should be shaped after the pattern of Christ's sufferings.

It is then only right that Christ's liability to suffer should remain in us too for a time, as a means of our coming to the impassibility of glory in the way he himself came to it.