A MOVIE AND ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

A movie was made in our Northern Community two years ago.
A real honest to goodness movie.

There were semi-tractor trailers and immense power generators and food caterers and dozens of extras and folks who shouted cut and action and print that and stuff like that.

And there was security at night. Not much – but enough to make it interesting.

And there were handsome and gorgeous people. I talked to a few.
Even offered to take in a most attractive actress’s little dog on an especially hot day.

Well, I had to think of something to say.

She said not to worry; they had air-conditioned facilities for them just off the set.

And hair salons.

And they filmed for about six weeks. Cannot remember exactly.

And this year the film came out on DVD.

It was terrible – nothing to even think about.

And tonight, whilst walking Sophie Matilda up where the vans and tractors and salons and cooking tents were located, it occurred to me that millions of dollars and hundreds of people and weeks and months and months of planning went into making this hour-and-a-half of nothing.

And then I thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Now, I am not suggesting that St. Thomas is not worth thinking about.
Quite the contrary.

But there is a connection of sorts.

A Dear and Respected Friend suggested to me that near or on his deathbed, St. Thomas referred to his Summa, that Work of Works, as significantly less important than any of my professors in University had ever done.

I am guessing that Thomas knew he was on the brink of the Really Important, that his work was done, that he was now ready for the Real Thing.

And it got me to thinking, as least it did whilst walking Her Honor, that we sometimes put so much effort, so much time and sweat and the like, into things which in final analysis, at the end of our time hereabouts, really are not worth worrying about.

Thomas worked on stuff that really mattered.
So does the airplane jumper.

The parachutist can worry and fret about whether his ‘chute is properly arranged when there are hours or days to go until the jump, and rightly so.

But, as with Thomas, there is little need to worry when going out the door.

The movie folks worked so hard for so little.

To paraphrase a Great Statesman’s commentary during World War 2, “It is common for so many to owe so little to so many” these days.

Our MSM and our advertisers and our politicians and our experts and the like go on and on about so many things - so many things which are often of so little importance.
St. Thomas was so brilliant and had and indeed has so much to say to so many of us today – and yet so few of us even know who he was/is.

But even he recognized that there will come a time when enough is enough, when it is time to reap what has been sewn and not to worry about it.

There is a song – “You have to know when to hold ‘em; know when to throw ‘em; Know when to walk away; Know when to run.”
Or words to that/those effect(s).

Ecclesiastes is full of such wisdom. I will not bore with attempted quotes.

As indicated elsewhere in these pages, C.S. Lewis has rightly observed that many of us are simply not equipped to deal with many of the issues which so often divide us from our brothers and sisters, matters which are amenable only to those familiar with “…the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

And if we don’t know what we are talking about, why should we spend much time doing it.

Blowin’ in the wind.

Sorry about more attempted song lyrics.

You’re right, I’m not really sorry.

And those who stir the pot in which we labor know our relative ignorance.

Wouldn’t it be a grande thing to know the difference between the real and the junk before we are at the end of time, as it were?

How neat it would be to know what we know, to be confident in it, and to have a healthy respect for all the stuff we do not know much about.

It was St. Francis who uttered the prayer, I think, "Lord, help me to know the things I can change and those things which I cannot change, and to know the difference."
Or words to those effects.

As the song says, “What a wonderful world that would be.”