St. Thomas Aquinas’ 4 Ways to Grow in Wisdom: Part 4

Today is the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, and so it’s a fitting day to finish up with the fourth of his four steps to grow in wisdom. The four steps are to “listen willingly, seek diligently, respond prudently, and meditate attentively.” But it turns out that when Aquinas wants to understand how to meditate attentively, he turns to someone else … the Virgin Mary. Aquinas suggests that Scripture presents Mary as the model of fruitful meditation. As usual, he gives several reasons.

He begins by coupling the challenge of Psalm 19:14 (“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer”) with St. Luke’s description of Mary in Luke 2, when he says that “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart,” and “his mother kept all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:18, 51). As Christians, we’re called to meditate continuously, and Mary shows us what it is to do this well. He then quotes “a certain Greek” who has a beautiful description of Mary:

Consider how Mary, the most prudent of women, truly the mother of wisdom, becomes the scholar of her child, and furthermore she does not perceive him as a boy nor as a man, but as God, so that as she had conceived the Word itself in her womb, so she then conceived all his deeds and words in her heart.

This idea of Mary receiving (and pondering) the word of God as preparation for receiving the Word of God is found in a lot of depictions of the Annunciation. So what is it about Mary’s meditation that made it so great?

1. It was fruitful. Mary received the Word, who came forth in the Nativity. But what is the fruit of contemplating the word? Aquinas says that “meditation is the key to memory,” and that this is the reason that the Psalmist can say “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation” (Psa. 119:99). The truly wise person doesn’t just listen to a lot of true, good, and beautiful things… he then meditates upon them. As Aquinas says, “just as food does not give you nourishment unless it is first chewed, so you will not be able to advance in knowledge unless, through frequent meditation, you chew upon those things you have heard.” Mary doesn’t just witness the Presentation and the Finding in the Temple, she keeps these things in her heart, and then ponders them.
2. It was complete. Scripture says that Mary kept “all these things.” Mary doesn’t take one part of the truth out of the context of the rest. Likewise, “a man ought to meditate upon all the things he has heard.” Aquinas knows that this is a tall order, which leads to the last point…
3. It was profound. Aquinas points out that we often want to meditate only “superficially,” and to this, Aquinas has some hard words: “if you cannot meditate at one time upon all things, then you should meditate at another time.” Or to put it another way, you need to be in the regular habit of making time for deep, profound meditation. If you’re too busy or distracted to dive delve deep right now, make some time and actually do it. Aquinas turns to the Psalms again: “I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit” (Psa. 77:6). That’s the standard. Can we say that is what our prayer looks like? If not, is there a way that we can give the time, space, and attention necessary to do so?

Thankfully, Aquinas ends this point, and indeed, his whole four-point reflection, with a note of encouragement: “there is no doubt that the person who gladly listens, prudently responds, diligently inquires, and attentively meditates, will advance in wisdom a great deal. This is the way of growing in wisdom.” If you’re willing to do what it takes to do these four simple things, you will become wiser, you will pray better, you will become smarter, and you will become holier.

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!