MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN
PAUL II
TO THE PARTICIPANTS
IN THE INTERNATIONAL THOMISTIC CONGRESS
ON "CHRISTIAN HUMANISM IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM"
TO THE PARTICIPANTS
IN THE INTERNATIONAL THOMISTIC CONGRESS
ON "CHRISTIAN HUMANISM IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM"
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. I am delighted to address this
Message to you, distinguished theologians, philosophers and experts,
participants in the International Thomistic Congress that is taking place in
Rome in these days. I am grateful to the Pontifical Academy of St Thomas and to
the International Society of Thomas Aquinas, Thomistic institutions well known
in the scientific world, for organizing this meeting, as well as for the service
they render to the Church by promoting deeper knowledge of the Angelic Doctor's
teaching.
I warmly greet everyone present,
with a special thought for Cardinal Paul Poupard, President of the Pontifical
Council for Culture, for Fr Abelardo Lobato, President of both the Academy and
the International Society of Thomas Aquinas, and for the Secretary, Bishop
Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo. To one and all I offer a most cordial welcome.
2. The theme of the Congress -
"Christian humanism in the third millennium" - continues along
the lines of the research on man that you began at your two previous
Congresses. According to the perspective of St Thomas, the great theologian
also described as Doctor humanitatis, human nature is in itself open and
good. Man is naturally capax Dei (fit to receive God) (Summa
Theologiae, I, II, 113, 10; St Augustine, De Trinit. XIV, 8; PL
42, 1044), created to live in communion with his Creator; he is a free and
intelligent individual, integrated in the community with his own duties and rights;
he is the connecting link between the two great spheres of reality, the
material and the spiritual, and fully belongs to both. The soul is the unifying
part of the person's being and makes him a person. In man, St Thomas observes,
grace does not destroy nature but fulfils its potential: "gratia non tollit naturam, sed
perficit" (Summa Theologiae, I, I, 8 ad 2).
3. The Second Vatican Council made
room for Christian humanism in its documents, starting with the fundamental
principle that "man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his
very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world.
Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise
their voice in praise freely given to the Creator" (Gaudium et Spes, n. 14). Yet another striking
insight comes from Vatican II: "It is only in the mystery of the
Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear" (ibid., n.
22).
With profound anticipation, Aquinas
had already placed himself in this perspective: from the very beginning
of the Summa Theologiae, which focuses on the relationship between man
and God, he sums up the plan of his future exposition in a concentrated but
clear formula: "primo tractabimus de Deo; secundo de motu
rationalis creaturae in Deum; tertio de Cristo, qui secundum quod homo, via est
nobis tendendi in Deum" (Summa Theologiae, I, 2, Prologue).
The Angelic Doctor probes reality
from the point of view of God, the beginning and end of all things (cf.
ibid., I, 1, 7). This perspective is an unusually interesting one because
it permits us to penetrate the depths of the human being in order to grasp the
essential dimensions. It is here that we find the distinctive feature of
Thomistic humanism which, in the opinion of many scholars, assures the correct
approach and consequently, the possibility for ever new developments. In fact,
Aquinas' concept integrates and binds together the three dimensions of the
problem: the anthropological, ontological and theological.
4. Now you are asking - this is,
distinguished participants, the theme of your Congress - what specific
contribution can St Thomas make to the understanding and fulfilment of
Christian humanism at the beginning of the new millennium. If it is true that
the whole of the first part of his great work, the Summa Theologiae,
focuses entirely on God, it is nonetheless also true that the second part, more
innovative and longer, is directly concerned with man's long journey towards
God. In it, the human person is considered the protagonist of a precise divine
plan for whose implementation not only natural but also supernatural resources
have been provided. Thanks to them, he is able to respond to the exalted
vocation reserved for him in Jesus Christ, true man and true God. In the third
part, St Thomas recalls that the incarnate Word, precisely because he is true
man, reveals in himself the dignity of every human creature and constitutes for
the whole cosmos the way back to its origin: God.
Christ, therefore, is the true way
of man. In the Prologue to Book III of the Sentences, St Thomas, summing up
humanity's journey in three stages - origin, historical and eschatological -
notes that each thing comes from the hands of God, from which rivers of
goodness flow. All is concentrated in man, and in the first place in the
God-man, who is Christ; all things must return to God through Christ and
the Christians (cf. In III Sent., Prol.).
5. St Thomas' humanism thus rotates
within this essential intuition: man comes from God and must return to him.
Time is the context in which man can bring his noble mission to fulfilment,
making the most of the opportunities offered to him by both nature and grace.
Certainly, God alone is the Creator.
He has deigned, however, to entrust to his rational and free creatures the task
of completing his work with their labour. When man cooperates actively with
grace he becomes "a new man" who, to better respond to God's plan,
draws benefits from his supernatural vocation (cf. Gn 1: 26). St Thomas
maintains rightly, therefore, that the truth of human nature finds total
fulfilment through sanctifying grace, since this is "perfectio naturae
rationalis creatae" (Quodlib., 4, 6).
6. How enlightening this truth is
for the man of the third millennium, constantly in search of his own
self-fulfilment! In the Encyclical Fides et Ratio,
I analyzed the factors that are obstacles in the process of humanism. Among
the most common should be mentioned the loss of faith in reason and in its
ability to arrive at the truth, the refusal of transcendence, nihilism,
relativism, the forgetfulness of being, the denial of the soul, the prevalence
of the irrational or feeling, the fear of the future and existential anxiety.
To respond to this very serious challenge that affects the future prospects of
humanism itself, I showed how the thought of St Thomas, with his strong faith
in reason and clear explanation of the functions of nature and grace, can offer
the rudiments of an effective response.
Christian humanism, as St Thomas
demonstrated, has an ability to preserve the meaning of man and his dignity.
This is the exalting task entrusted to his disciples today!
The Christian knows that the future
of the human being and of the world is in the hands of divine Providence, and
this provides a constant reason for hope and inner peace. However, the
Christian also knows that God, moved by his love for man, asks him to
collaborate in improving the world and in governing history's events. In this
difficult beginning of the third millennium, many clearly perceive, even to the
point of suffering, the need for teachers and witnesses who are able to
demonstrate valid ways that lead to a world more worthy of man. It is the
historical task of believers to propose Christ as "the way" by which
to advance toward that new humanity which is in God's plan. It is clear, therefore,
that one priority of the new evangelization consists precisely in helping the
man of our time to encounter God personally and to live with him and for him.
7. Although St Thomas was firmly
rooted in his own day and in medieval culture, he developed a teaching that
goes beyond the conditioning of the time in which he lived and can still offer
today fundamental guidelines for contemporary reflection. His doctrine and
example are a provident reminder of those unchanging, perennial truths that are
indispensable if we are to foster an existence that is truly worthy of man.
In the hope that your exchange of
ideas in the course of the Congress sessions will be fruitful, I urge each of
you who are taking part in it to persevere in your reflection on the riches of
Thomistic teaching, drawing from the example of the Gospel "scribe",
"what is new and what is old" (Mt 13: 52).
I entrust the results of your
research and in particular, of your International Congress, to the Virgin Mary,
Sedes Sapientiae who gave Christ, the "New Man" to the world,
and I wholeheartedly send my Blessing to you all.
From Castel Gandolfo, 20 September
2003
JOHN PAUL II
