BELIEF IN God and rational thinking are not mutually exclusive and are even complementing each other in aiding the human mind in its journey to God as the source of truth, a University official said.
In his homily during the mass commemorating the death anniversary of St. Thomas Aquinas on Friday, March 7, UST Vice Rector Fr. Isaias Antonio Tiongco, O.P. said human intellect itself is a gift from God to guide His children.
“God as the source of all truth has given us both the type of revelation and the gift of the human intellect. Through reason, we come to understand the nature of the world and its laws. Through faith, we ascend to the divine mysteries that surpass human comprehension,” Tiongco said at the Santisimo Rosario Parish.
“We have secular ideologies that attempt to separate faith from reason, [but] St. Thomas serves as a guide, reminding us that our unending search for truth will always lead us to God,” he added.
Tiongco noted that Aquinas’ teaching on the formative relationship between faith and reason, which he considers as one of the Dominican scholar’s greatest contributions to the Church, has propelled Catholics to always seek the truth.
He emphasized the importance of the objective nature of Aquinas’ works “in a world often confused with relativism.”
“Through reason, we come to understand the nature of the world and its laws. Through faith, we ascend to the divine mysteries that surpass human comprehension,” he said.
Aquinas’ pursuit of knowledge, Tiongco said, was not born out of self-interest but of reverence for Christ.
“He knew that the highest wisdom is not formed in human education, alone, but in the harmony of faith and reason,” the vice rector said.
Tiongco cited the famous last words of Aquinas, who likened everything he had written to straw. According to him, the saint recognized that the divine truth and God “surpass even the greatest human thought.”
“All human knowledge, however profound, must always lead us to a deeper worship and adoration of God… St. Thomas teaches us that true wisdom does not puff up, but draws us into a greater love and reverence for God,” Tiongco said.
Aquinas, the University’s patron saint, was a Dominican friar who dedicated his life to studying ethics, morality and the systematization of the Catholic faith. Considered one of the greatest theologians and philosophers of the Church, the Italian Dominican saint died on March 7, 1274. F
