Homily for the Feast of Saint Albert the Great, November 15, 2021

Given at Saint Dominic Priory, Saint Louis Missouri. (Note: On the Dominican Calendar, the Mass for Saint Albert the Great is a Feast. There are different readings used. They are: Sirach 6:18-37 (or James 3:13-18), Psalm 119:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, Matthew 25:14-30.) At the risk of causing diehard Thomists to pelt me with rotten tomatoes, let me suggest that there is a good reason it is Saint Albert the Great and it is not Saint Thomas Aquinas the Great. Now I am not putting down such a brilliant mind as Thomas. Would that I had a tiny microscopic part of his intelligence! But Saint Albert the Great was great I would argue because he studied absolutely everything he could, from theology to natural science to philosophy and psychology, but he worked hard to take very abstract concepts and to make them accessible to all. But in a world where more and more people are like Pilate in asking "What is truth?", the Church needs a Saint Albert the Great more than ever before.