"Thomas Aquinas's contribution to the church and to Western culture in general has been so great that it is exceedingly difficult even to approach him, much less to understand him completely. He was a philosopher, scientist, mystic, theologian, scriptural commentator, and in all things, a saint. For me, that last title is at the same time the most overlooked and the most illuminating. When one interprets Thomas merely as a rationalist philosopher or theologian, one misses the burning heart of everything he wrote. Aquinas was a saint deeply in love with Jesus Christ, and the image of Christ pervades the entire edifice that is his philosophical, theological, and scriptural work. Above all, Thomas Aquinas was a consummate spiritual master, holding up the icon of the Word made flesh and inviting others into its transformative power.
Toward the end of his life, after having struggled to compose a text on the Eucharist, Thomas, in an act of spiritual bravado not in keeping with his quiet nature, hurled his book at the foot of the crucifix, inviting Christ himself to pass judgment. According to the well-known account of this episode, a voice came from the statue of the crucified Jesus announcing that Thomas had written well concerning the sacrament and offering him a reward in recompense for his labors: "What would you have?" the voice asked. "Nil nisi te" (nothing but you), responded the saint. It is my conviction that this mystical conversation between servant and Master is a sort of interpretive to the whole of Aquinas' life and thought: he wanted nothing more than Christ, nothing other than Christ, nothing less than Christ. He strove to walk in the path of discipleship and, in all of his writings, to show that path to others."
