St. Anthony the Abbot Catholic Church

It is the focus on God's glory that has given all the saints such remarkable energy and courage.  St. Thomas Aquinas, one of my top 5 favorite saints, was perhaps the greatest intellect the world has ever known.    A member of the first generation of Dominican friars, he lived in the 1200s and died in his 40s. He was so far above his peers in philosophical and theological knowledge and understanding that he was given the title "Angelic Doctor."

During his short life, he produced an entire library of works defending and explaining the Catholic faith - a library which remains to this day the pillar of Catholic theology. His mind was so remarkable that he would write five books at the same time. He would sit at a table with five secretaries and dictate a paragraph to one of them.  While one secretary wrote down that paragraph, he would dictate another paragraph of another book to another secretary - keeping all five scribbling for hours.

Soon before he died, he was praying in a chapel, kneeling beneath a large wooden crucifix.  The sacristan heard a strange noise and peeked into the chapel.  He saw our Lord appear to the saint and say to him: "You have written well of me Thomas; what reward would you have?" To which the Angelic Doctor replied, "Nothing but yourself, Lord." That was the secret to his incredible output, to the total development of his natural and supernatural potential: he was doing everything not for his own glory, but just for Christ.

Spiritual writers refer to this aspect of our Christian lives as purity of intention. In all that we do, we should be striving not for praise and recognition from other people here on earth, but for God's reward in heaven.  We should strive simply to love God and to love our neighbor, to do good to others so as to be mirrors of God's own goodness in this fallen world.

God is like the sun, giving off heat and light to all people, the humble and grateful, and also the wicked and self-serving. Purity of intention makes us like that. It frees us from being slaves of other people's fickle opinions, bringing peace and equanimity to our souls. This doesn't mean we shouldn't take pleasure in the gratitude and recognition that sometimes comes to us even here on earth - that's fine and healthy.

The dangerous thing is to make such recognition our goal.  There is one very easy way for us to take the temperature of our purity of intention: look at our reaction when we do something for someone and they don't say "thank you".    The natural reaction is to give into feelings of resentment and anger, and maybe even vengeance. The supernatural reaction, the one that shows purity of intention, is to let those feelings pass by, like clouds, and keep the eyes of our soul focused on Christ's cross.  When others don't appreciate us, we are being treated a little bit as Christ was treated. And if we are true followers of Christ, that alone should give us deep spiritual joy. Let us renew our commitment to Him, and ask Him to give us the interior peace that comes from learning purity of intention.