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Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

November 15th: Memorial of Saint Albertus Magnus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
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Gospel text (Mt 13,47-52): Jesus said to his disciples, «(…) Every teacher of the Law who becomes a disciple of the Kingdom is like a householder who can produce from his store things both new and old».

Saint Albertus Magnus, bishop and doctor of the Church (1193/1205-1280)

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, the Gospel reveals very well the work of St. Albertus Magnus, bishop and Doctor of the Church. He devoted himself to the study of the so-called “liberal arts”: grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, that is, to culture in general… During his stay in Padua he attended the Church of the Dominicans, whom he then joined with the profession of the religious vows.

After his ordination to the priesthood, his superiors sent him to teach at various theological study centers. His brilliant intellectual qualities enabled him to perfect his theological studies at the most famous university in that period, the University of Paris. From that time on St Albert began his extraordinary activity as a writer that he was to pursue throughout his life. He brought with him from Paris an exceptional student, Thomas Aquinas. His gifts did not escape the attention of the Pope, Alexander IV, who appointed Albert Bishop of Regensburg. As a man of prayer, science and charity, his authoritative intervention in various events of the Church and of the society of the time were acclaimed.

—Pope Pius XII called him "Doctor universalis" precisely because of the vastness of his interests and knowledge. St Albert the Great reminds us that there is friendship between science and faith. St Albert opened the door to the complete acceptance in medieval philosophy and theology of Aristotle's philosophy, which was subsequently given a definitive form by St Thomas: it was an authentic cultural revolution in that epoch!