It was made more humbling yesterday. We received a call from Nancy Zumwalt in the morning; I was able to call her back in the late afternoon. Nancy and Bill have stood by Nancy's mother, Peorl, for the past five years as her physical body dwindled and her mental capacities left her. Even as Peorl left them, they stayed with and by her in the nursing facility. Nancy called to tell us that the hospice personnel told them that Peorl had most likely entered her final days.

Nancy called last night at 11:15ish to tell me that Peorl had passed from this life to life eternal. I had the profound honor of meeting Bill and Nancy and Peorl in the room where she had died within 45 minutes of her death. We gathered, I read from John 12 and committed Peorl and her body to God through Christ in whom Peorl had lived in faith. We slipped off to a small chapel and we shared and I listened to stories about Nancy's parents and life as we waited for the body to be taken to be prepared for internment. From dust we come; to dust we shall return.

Today I will travel to Vista for a rehearsal for tomorrow's wedding of Liz Brostrom and Chris Schoenthal. It is interesting to move from the experience of last night to the planning for today. From God we come; to God we shall return. The gift of the Zumwalt's and the life of Peorl help to understand what is really the significance of the next couple of days for Chris and Liz.

Yet this also takes place during the Christmas season -- and we understand amidst the flow of life, that it maintains its significance, its meaning, because "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory." As a theologian I also have begun reading a new book by Rudi te Velde, Aquinas on God: The 'Divine Science' of the Summa Theologiae. So far it is a brilliant analysis. At first sight, such an esoteric, technical reading of the overall structure of the Summa seems far from the teaching and pastoral experiences of my past twenty-four and anticipated future twenty-four hours. But I've been struck by the descriptive profundity and truthfulness of te Velde's analysis of Thomas' program in the Summa. According to te Velde:

"Thomas begins by stating that man is directed to God as to an end that surpasses the grasp of reason. . . . Thomas adds a sharp sense of the mystery of God, who is inaccessible to the natural faculties of man. God exceeds the graps of human reason. But human beings cannot live their lives in ignorance of the ultimate end of lie in order to direct their intentions and actions towards it. 'It was therefore necessary for the salvation (ad salutem) of man that certain knowledge about God, which exceeds human reason, should be made known to him by divine revelation.' Thus considering the necessity for men of having some foreknowledge of the end of tehir life in order to live and act in correspondence with that end, and considering the transcendence of God, the idea of a revealtion, of God who reveals himself to men as their beatifying end, makes sense. This reasoning does not prove the truth of the Christian claim to have nkowledge of God received from God himself, but it does point out it intelligibility. Without some sort of instruction on how to orient one's life towards God, as the ultimate truth of the universe, there is danger of getting lost, as a result of which a human life is wasted" (p. 20).

Neither a fideism nor a reason closed to faith can account for these life/pastoral experiences that the past hours have brought and the future hours will bring. The academic, theological, and pastoral life merge together as Thomas so profoundly recognized.

Thus, te Velde speaks about the overall programme of the Summa. It is worthwhile to share an extended quote:

"sacred doctrine teaches the knowledge of God revealed by God for the sake of man's salvation; this knowledge is received by man in faith, through which he has a certain anticipatory foreknowledge of the final and perfect knowledge of God, in which eternal happiness consists. Knowledge of sacred doctrine does not concern only the moral practice of human life on its way towards God as the end; it is also, and primarily, speculative knowledge of God himself, as God himself is present in his revelation as the source and object of man's beatitude. . .. it is also knowledge by which man is led effectively through the work of Christ (and the beneficial gifts of his sacraments) to an eternal life of beatitude in univety with God. . . . sacra doctrina is, in fact, the doctrine of Christ, and that in Christ the fullness of God's grace and truth has become manifest. For Thomas, Christ is the full and final revelation of God whose saving grace is effectively present in Christ and in his sacraments" (pp. 21-22).

To share with others in life and death and life eternal requires a knowledge of our true end in God through Christ. Christmas, death into life everlasting, marriage in Christ, are all intensely theological experiences in which we experience the fullness of their turhfulness through the mystery of God in Christ experience through the church and its sacraments.

Last night when I came back into the house around 2ish, Tony, my sixteen year old, was "bedding down" on the couch in the living room as has been his habit during break. He reached out his hand over the couch to hold mine for a few seconds to ask how things had gone. I had chatted with Johnny, oldest son, on the way home, who was working the 11:00 pm - 3:00 am shift in the "Wecome Center" at PLNU, about working together next week on the quickly approaching interviews with Professors Lindbeck, Burrell, and Hauerwas -- in which I intend to emphasize the medieval, Thomistic background of their work that ties them together in a Thomistic notion of friendship. I crawled into bed, where Kathy was deep asleep and read more on Thomas to get sleepy after the early morning adventures. Each one of these simple gifts of my life took on added signicance in light of the other gifts God has given me -- including Marcos Rodriguez's call this morning to encourage Kathy and I to take some time off together.

Sacra doctrina is not abstract intellectual gymnastics; it is the mystery that opens us to the depths of the truthfulness of our experience. It is the doctrine of Christ.

Merry fifth day of Christmas.