Hope: The Pilgrim's Virtue | Prof. Michael Wahl

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

This lecture was given on February 29th, 2024, at Cornell University.

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About the Speaker:

Dr. Michael Wahl is Assistant Professor of Theology at Providence College in Providence, RI, where he teaches in the Theology Department, the Development of Western Civilization Program, and the Liberal Arts Honors Program. His research centers on Catholic moral theology, with a particular focus on virtue ethics, moral development, and the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. His scholarly work has been published in The Thomist, Nova et Vetera, and Philosophy, Theology, and the Sciences.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.7	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.3	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at
0:22.4	to mystic institute.org. At the very heart of the Christian vision of reality lies the conviction
0:29.2	that we are pilgrims. St. Thomas Aquinas defines a pilgrim as, quote, one who is on the way to
0:36.9	some place.
0:38.3	But this definition possesses more than a merely geographical connotation.
0:42.9	It also posits a profoundly metaphysical and spiritual claim about the dynamics of human existence.
0:49.9	Our life in this world is indelibly marked by transitoryness and incompleteness.
0:56.3	What the 20th century, Thomas philosopher Yosef Piper, calls the inherent not yet of the finite being.
1:03.1	We are journeying, but have not yet arrived. We are seeking, but have not yet found. We are striving,
1:13.2	but have not yet accomplished the task.
1:21.0	This reality is the necessary correlate of our temporality and our freedom. By our choices,
1:30.3	we advance in our journeying, seeking, and striving, or we fail to do so. The Christian language of pilgrimage is intentional, that is to say, it intends or aims at a particular destination. In this way, the Christian
1:37.7	understanding of life as a pilgrimage differs radically from secular remnants of this view that
1:43.3	tend to reduce the so-called journey of life to an aimless wandering, either entirely bereft of direction or generally indifferent to the nature of its destination.
1:54.0	The Christian, however, is on the way to somewhere specific, and that destination exercises a decisive influence on how she undertakes the pilgrimage
2:03.6	of her life. St. Thomas, reflecting on the reality of this pilgrimage, explains that a holy
2:09.6	person does not make his home in the world, but is always striving to tend toward heaven.
2:15.6	While the Catholic tradition posits a whole array of virtues that are
2:19.3	necessary for human beings to advance toward their heavenly homeland, there is one virtue in particular
	...

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