On Prayer and The Contemplative Life | Page 6

that question." But Thomas at once
said: "Since you see God, tell me whether you see Him with or without
any intermediate image?" But Romanus replied: "As we have heard, so
we have seen in the City of our God,"[15] and forthwith disappeared.
But the Master remained astonished at that marvellous and unwonted
apparition, and filled with joy at his favourable replies. "O Blessed
Teacher!" ejaculates William of Tocco, who has left us this account, "to
whom Heaven's secrets were thus familiar, to whom Heaven's citizens
came with such sweet familiarity to lead him to those heavenly
shores!"[16]
Nor was this the only warning. For just as in earlier years at Paris he
had received Divine commendation for his writings, so now again at

Naples. For Brother Dominic of Caserta tells us that at Naples he
watched S. Thomas praying at night. He saw him, he says, absorbed in
prayer, and then lifted up into the air about the height of two cubits
from the ground. And whilst for a long space he marvelled at this, he
suddenly heard this voice from the Crucifix: "Thomas, well hast thou
written of Me! What reward wilt thou have from Me for all thy
labour?" But he replied: "Lord, none save Thyself!" At that time the
Saint was engaged upon the Third Part of the Summa, and was treating
of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. But after arriving at that
point he wrote but little more by reason of the marvels that God had
wondrously revealed to him.[17]
Since his soul, then, was thus united to God it is small wonder the
Brethren saw him rapt in ecstasy and with his face bathed in tears as he
stood in choir and sang the Antiphon wont to be sung according to the
Dominican Office for Compline during Lent: "Ne projicias nos in
tempore senectutis: cum defecerit virtus nostra, ne derelinquas nos
Domine."[18]
In the year 1274 the Saint was summoned by Pope Gregory X. to the
Council about to be held at Lyons. He set out, taking with him his
Treatise against the Errors of the Greek Schismatics, for the great
question which the Pope had at heart was the settlement of the Schism
between the East and the West. But the Council was never to see
Thomas, for he fell ill when traversing the Campagna, and though he
was able to reach the Cistercian Abbey of Fossa Nuova he reached it
only to die. "This is my rest for ever and ever," he said as he entered the
gates. "Here will I dwell, for I have chosen it." And here, as he lay
dying, he expounded to the monks who stood round that most sublime
of all the Books of the Bible, the Canticle of Canticles: "Behold, my
Beloved speaketh to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my
beautiful one, and come.... I sleep, and my heart watcheth; the voice of
my Beloved Who is knocking!... My Beloved to me and I to Him Who
feedeth among the lilies: till the Day break and the shadows retire!"
As the time of his summons drew on he asked for the Holy Viaticum.
And, in the words of William of Tocco, "when It was brought with

devout reverence by the Abbot and the monks, he prostrated himself on
the ground, weak indeed in body but mighty in spirit, and so came to
meet his Lord with tears."
And when the priest asked him--as it is the custom to ask all Christians
at death touching their faith in this mighty Sacrament--whether he
believed that That Consecrated Host was the True Son of God, Who
came forth from the Virgin's womb, Who hung upon the tree of the
Cross, Who died for us and rose again on the third day:--with clear
voice, with full attention, and with tears, he replied: "If fuller
knowledge than that of faith could be had in this life touching this
Sacrament, in that knowledge I reply that I believe it to be true, and that
I know for certain that This is True God and Man, the Son of God the
Father and of the Virgin Mother: so I believe in my heart and so I
confess in word." After some other devout expressions he received the
Sacred Host, and then said: "I receive Thee, the Price of my soul's
redemption, for love of Whom I have studied, watched, and toiled;
Thee have I preached and taught; nought contrary to Thee have I ever
said, neither do I obstinately hold to any opinion of mine own. If,
however, I have said ought wrongly concerning this Sacrament, I
submit it all to the correction of the Holy Roman Church in Whose
obedience I now pass from this life!" "O Blessed Teacher! who