Grief and glory

I’ve been on the road traveling today, and just learned that we lost a great man from this world as Dr. Ralph McInerny slipped away into eternity.

“One of the marks of a virtuous character, according to Aristotle, is the performance of virtuous acts with ease and delight. On that basis, as well as others, Ralph McInerny was a remarkably virtuous man.”

Yes, he was, and it was a singular pleasure and honor to meet him and know him on even the most incidental level. What to say of such a brilliant and humbly faithful servant…

“What distinguished Ralph was not just his fidelity, his intelligence, and his astonishing productivity, but his gracious and ready wit. He possessed a knack for conversation with everyone—from philosophers and politicians, to the elderly and children. Unlike most gifted individuals, Ralph was never burdened by his gifts. He engaged in serious pursuits joyfully, almost playfully.”

He was a great Thomist and applied his wit and wisdom with admirable agility.

“His distinctive approach to Thomas Aquinas is most evident in his supple account of natural law (see Ethica Thomistica, for example), and in his defense of natural theology in the text of his Gifford Lectures, published as Characters in Search of Their Author, the thesis of which Ralph states thus: “for us it is all but inevitable that, however momentarily, we feel ourselves to be part of a vast cosmic drama and our thoughts turn to the author, not merely of our roles, but of our existence. Natural theology is one version of that quest.”

For those with no words right now, that suffices.