Together on the Journey:
A Weekly Blog 

On January 28, we celebrated the Dominican Friar Thomas Aquinas. I have to admit, I was not all that familiar with Thomas’s story, but I became more familiar this week when I told his story in chapel.

In Godly Play, Thomas Aquinas is one of the saints who is celebrated, and as I learned about him, I was more intrigued by who he was as a person.

Thomas was a 13th century Dominican Friar who spent most of his life teaching in universities and writing about God. In the Godly Play story, we are told that he had questions about God all of his life, and that is how he wrote. He would write a question, and then research everything everyone else had written about that question, and then he’d write what he thought the answer was. At the end of the story we are told that we remember Thomas because he asked questions for God.

And I love the fact that we remember a saint who is fundamentally remembered because he asked questions. In some faith communities, asking questions can be frowned upon because it is somehow in contradiction with faith. But Thomas shows us that this is not at all true. In fact, the opposite is true. It’s important to ask questions about God because that is how you come to a deeper understanding and a deeper faith.

So this week, and as we start to journey towards Lent, I would invite you to ponder what questions you have about God. Maybe they’re questions you’ve been afraid to ask, or always wondering about, and maybe it’s time to look at those questions a little closer.

When I was a kid, some of my favourite books were the Berenstain bears books by Stan and Jan Berenstain. These picture books chronicled the lives of Sister Bear and Brother Bear, and their parents Mama Bear and Papa Bear as they went through all of the normal kids’ things, like going to school, or the doctor, or having a birthday party. When I was older, and perusing through a bookstore, I noticed a new Berenstain Bears book that hadn’t been available when I was a kid. It was called, The Berenstain Bears and the Big Question. These books always begin with a little rhyme on the first page, so I opened it and read the rhyme, and it went like this, ‘While some cubs’ questions might strike parents as odd, one of the biggest is Mama, what’s God?’

I was hooked, so I read through the picture book which started with Papa Bear trying to give Sister Bear a big theoretical explanation for God, which was super confusing for a kid. And then Mama Bear takes Sister Bear outside to do some gardening, and they talk about how God made everything we see in nature. Then the whole family goes to church, and the priest asks everyone in the congregation to say something they are grateful for. When they are leaving church, Brother and Sister Bear are asking all kinds of questions, like ‘Did God make cartwheels?’ or ‘Did God make trees?’, and their parents are doing their best to answer them. Clearly, learning about God made Brother and Sister Bear think of lots of questions.

At the end of the book, Sister Bear turns to Papa Bear and asks, ‘Papa, did God make questions?’ And Papa Bear turns to Sister and says, ‘Yes, Sister, mostly questions.’ I’ve always taken this as an invitation to keep pondering, keep doubting, and keep questioning, just like Thomas did, confident that especially here God is with us, loving us, and helping us deepen our faith. Amen.

– Jess