Easter 2026 - Reading #7 - Piety
Reading
Thomas Aquinas defines piety as the gift that transforms our relationship with God from one of reverent awe to one of familial intimacy: "The gift of piety perfects us in our relations toward others. By the gift of piety, a man pays worship and duty not merely to God as his Lord, but to God as his Father. Through piety the Holy Spirit moves us to regard God with the affection of a child toward a father, and to treat all other human beings as brothers and sisters in one family under God."
Aquinas further explains: "Piety extends not only to the worship of God but also to a certain tender affection toward all that belongs to God, toward the saints, toward Sacred Scripture, and toward all human beings inasmuch as they belong to God. It is through piety that we are moved to treat others with kindness and mercy, not from mere natural benevolence, but from a supernatural recognition that they are our brothers and sisters in God."
For Aquinas, piety transforms the entire moral landscape. If fear of the Lord establishes the right distance between creature and Creator, piety closes that distance through the miracle of adoption, we are no longer merely God's creatures but God's children, and this changes everything.
Reflection
We enter the second week of our Easter journey and receive the second gift: piety. Last week, the fear of the Lord opened the door with reverential awe. Now piety enters and transforms the space from a throne room into a family home. The God before whom we trembled is the same God who invites us to call him Father. Both truths are essential: remove the awe and piety becomes casual presumption; remove the intimacy and fear becomes cold religion.
Aquinas's insight is characteristically precise: piety is the gift that lets us relate to God not merely as Lord but as Father. This is not a minor shift in vocabulary; it is a revolution in relationship. A servant obeys out of duty; a child obeys out of love. A servant fears punishment; a child fears disappointing someone they adore. The difference is not in the behavior but in the heart, and the gift of piety is what transforms the heart.
During Lent, we cultivated many of the qualities that make this intimacy possible, honesty, humility, self-knowledge, trust. Those were the preparations. Now the Spirit brings the gift that makes the preparations fruitful: the capacity to experience God's love not as a doctrine but as a lived reality. This week, let piety soften what the fear of the Lord has opened. You are not merely a creature before a Creator. You are a child before a Father who gave everything to bring you home.