Hope on Earth: The Sacraments of Jesus Christ | Fr. Dominic Langevin, OP
The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute
4.8 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 19 June 2019
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This lecture was offered at Vanderbilt Medical School on May 9th, 2019. For more information about upcoming TI events, visit: thomisticinstitute.org/events-1
Event Description:
The Christian virtue of hope orients persons toward the God-given happiness promised in heaven: indeed, toward God himself. But how does this hope take shape in our lives now? This lecture will explore how the sacraments of Jesus Christ are means toward heavenly bliss. The Catholic sacraments are instruments of hope. Indeed, they give a taste of heaven on earth. The lecture will give special attention to how these Catholic realities apply to patients as well as to medical personnel in their professional and personal lives.
About the Speaker:
Fr. Dominic Langevin is an assistant professor of systematic theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, and editor in chief of the journal The Thomist. He specializes in sacramental theology. He did his undergraduate studies at Yale University and his doctoral studies at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He entered the Order of Friars Preachers in 1998 and was ordained a priest in 2005. He was formerly assigned as a parochial vicar at St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish in Charlottesville, Virginia, serving the University of Virginia.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The carrot at the end of the stick dangling before the mouth of a donkey or horse |
| 0:07.0 | works pretty well in cartoons that we would have seen as kids. |
| 0:13.0 | And it doesn't work too badly as a metaphor for what we have to do as adult human beings |
| 0:18.0 | in the race that is life. |
| 0:21.6 | Running for the carrot is a lot better than getting hit by a stick as a motivational technique. |
| 0:28.6 | The poor irony for the cartoon horse is that he never gets the carrot, especially if there's |
| 0:34.6 | some slapstick comedy whereby Bugs Bunny runs along and steals the carrot. |
| 0:41.7 | What if there were a way to be motivated by the carrot for the difficult journey ahead, |
| 0:48.3 | with the assurance the carrot is attainable and without having to deal with the antics of a bug's bunny. |
| 0:56.2 | By very loose analogy, that's what I want to talk about this evening. |
| 1:03.1 | Hope is the ultimate carrot at the end of the stick. |
| 1:08.6 | It keeps us going to our goal, heaven. |
| 1:13.1 | The carrot can come in different sizes and different tastes, |
| 1:16.7 | personalized ways to keep individualized horses going. |
| 1:21.6 | And better yet, we do get to eat part of the carrot along the way. |
| 1:26.5 | We're going to look this evening at the Catholic sacraments, the sacraments of Jesus Christ, |
| 1:32.5 | as helps toward hope, helps toward heaven, hope on earth. |
| 1:38.2 | We do so through the moral and sacramental principles of St. Thomas Aquinas, a theologian |
| 1:43.8 | of the 13th century, |
| 1:45.9 | and will develop these principles a bit more than he did. |
| 1:50.1 | I present this material cognizant that you here at Vanderbilt as present or future medical |
| 1:56.6 | professionals will be interacting with the sick, those who often struggle to see hope in the |
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