Through the Church Fathers: January 9

In today’s reading, we move from the pastoral urgency of Clement of Rome, through Augustine’s piercing self-examination of education and desire, and finally into Aquinas’s careful demonstration of God’s existence. Clement pleads for repentance, humility, and sacrificial love, showing that true unity in the Church is preserved not by power but by confession, submission, and willingness to suffer for peace (Psalm 24:1). Augustine then exposes the moral danger of pagan education, arguing that poetic eloquence without truth trains the heart toward vice rather than virtue, and that brilliance without devotion becomes “smoke and wind” (Psalm 118:18). Aquinas completes the day by clarifying that while God’s existence is not self-evident to us, it can indeed be demonstrated from His effects—inviting us to move from the visible world to its invisible cause, as Scripture itself affirms (Romans 1:20). Together, these readings teach us that Christian formation requires moral humility, disciplined love, and reason rightly ordered toward God.

Readings:

Clement of Rome, The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, Chapters 51–59

Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions, Book 1, Chapter 16 (25)–Chapter 17 (27)

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 2, Article 2

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