Fr. Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P., professor emeritus of the University of Fribourg, is one of the world's leading scholars of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. His two-volume biography of the Angelic Doctor, St Thomas Aquinas : The Person and His Work (vol. 1) and Spiritual Master (vol. 2), is already a classic.

Like all theologians (at least, I think it's true for all), I pay close attention to the work of exegetes, and frequent recourse to their scholarship has taught me much. Even so, I am not always fully satisfied by their explanations. Take, for example, today's Gospel (Mk 1:29-39). After having passed a night in prayer, Jesus says to His disciples: "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." The Ecumenical Translation of the Bible thinks to make this more plainly precise: "came out of Capernaum." I find this to be a bit too plain, and not only because I can reach that conclusion myself, but rather because it forgets that the verb "to come out" acquires a much more profound meaning if one brings together all the passages where the Christ of St. John's Gospel uses it. "I have come out from the Father and have come into the world." The disciples know this well: "We believe that you have come out from God." And there are yet other passages that likewise say that if Jesus has come out from the Father, it is because He has been sent by the Father.

Saint Thomas is not wrong about this. In interpreting the parable of the sower - who also "came out" early in the morning - Saint Thomas applies it to Christ without hesitation, returning to precisely these same passages of St. John. But he also extends what is said of Christ in order to apply it to everyone who announces the Gospel in Christ's name. They also should "come out," out of the world, out of sin . . . but above all, these sower-preachers sent by Christ should themselves leave the hiddenness of their prayer for the public square. In effect, what they drink in by contemplation is what they should then pour out in their preaching.

The signature of a friar preacher could not be more clear. Thomas loves to blend the image of Christ announcing the Gospel with that of his Dominican brothers who discharge the same mission. And he underlines with force that their "coming out" should resemble as much as possible the "coming out" of the Word leaving the bosom of the Father for the visibility of an earthly life.

To describe a bit better what has taken place, Thomas displays his genius: he turns to the lover's speech in the Song of Songs: "I belong to my beloved, and His desire is for me." In secret, the soul turns itself towards God by fervent prayer and contemplation, and God turns Himself towards the soul by the secret word that He inspires in it. But the Song of Songs also says that one cannot remain in the sweetness of this intimate exchange: "Come, my beloved, let us go out to the fields." One must "come out," "out to the fields," that is, to the people who await this preaching; yet the preacher does not go there alone. "Let us go out." This means: I am with you; I inspire you and you speak (ego inspirando et tu praedicando).

May it please God to grant to us also the grace to approach this ideal! Amen.

Fr. Torrell preached this homily on Jan. 12, 2011 at the conventual Mass at the Albertinum (an international Dominican priory in Fribourg, Switzerland associated with the University of Fribourg). It has been translated from the original French.