Today we celebrate the feast of one of the greatest doctors in church history. A doctor of the church is one who excels not only in academic study, but also in the study of God and his relationship with his creation!
Albert, a German, Dominican priest, who lived in the 13th century, was noted for his expertise in the physical sciences - biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geography and mathematics; he was also very learned in biblical studies and theology. He studied at Padua in Italy, and received his doctorate from the University of Paris. No doubt he noted and demonstrated the correlation between the natural sciences and matters of faith! After all - God is the essence behind, underneath, above and inside the reality of everything that exists.
It was Albert the Great who could probably most effectively describe just exactly what the image of the “vine and the branches” from our “alleluia verse” this morning actually means!
One of Albert’s most noted students was a man named Thomas, Thomas Aquinas. It was Thomas’ gift to emphasize the spiritual side of things; while relating them to the natural and the academic. He wrote the monumental Summa Theologica - The Great Summary of the Study of God - which has been influential in philosophical and theological thought since the 13th century.
Though trying to resist, Albert was made a bishop - of Ratisbon - and strove earnestly to establish peace among people and between cities. He died at Cologne in 1280.
Our first reading today from the book of Wisdom must have been such a delight to both Albert and Thomas Aquinas. In Wisdom is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstrained, certain, not baneful, loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly; firm, secure, tranquil, all -powerful, all-seeing, and pervading all spirits, though they be intelligent, pure and very subtle.
She is an aura of the might of God and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty; therefore naught that is sullied enters into her. For she is the refulgence of eternal light, the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness…She is fairer than the sun and surpasses every constellation of the stars, compared to light, she takes precedence … Indeed, she reaches from end to end mightily and governs all things well.
No wonder Albert, Thomas, and men and women throughout the ages have prayed for, sought after, and dedicated their entire lives to the study and acquisition of this amazing gift from God.
Jesus tells us in the gospel passage not to spend our time “looking up into the sky” trying to foretell his second coming - but to seek the Life of the Spirit - the Life of the Soul - the Soul of Wisdom - that will prepare us - for whenever that Day will be and whatever that Day will bring!
May we enroll in the School of Wisdom! A School whose halls are decorated with portraits of the saints - among them being Albert the Great! And if all goes well, there is no reason why our portraits cannot be hanging there one day as well!
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