THOMAS AQUI NAS ON MYSTAGOGY AND GROWI NG IN FAI TH Piotr Rosz.ak lntroduction ln our world. there is often no distinction between a 'mediator' and 'intermediary'. On the one hand, there are conductors in physics that permit the transmission of electricity; on the otlrer hand. the intermediary is someone who connects two extremes, becoming someone 'in between', ł ike a seller is between a producer and a customer. l ls the mediatory role of superiors (those with more advanced knowledge and understanding) in the process of growing in faith to be understood in tenns of the tlrst or the second model? Is it worth talking about mediation in faith within the context of a culture wlrich wishes to side|ine intermediaries" or is it bętter to propose an individual way of reaching faith in pastoral practice? How does St. Thomas perceive the role of othęr people and their testitnonies ill one's way of faith: is it a vital or accidental element, an additional support for those who cannot reach the truth by themselves? For Aquinas, faith is not a long process of gathering arguments which gradually 'brings some results' (simiIar to 'self--ignition'), but is morę like an act of iIlumination by a teacher who acts under God's inspiration, without eliminating the freedom of the recipient. z According to Aquinas, we corne to tbith through testimony. which is the method of God's action, from the intra- trinitarian life to the Son's testimony continued in the Church. In order to understand Aquinas' view on these themes, I will first show his philosophical horizon' in which the distinction betweęn e.xplicit and implicit faith appears (l): subsequently then I intend to discuss the mediatory character of the act of faith as based on the hierarchy and rThis double perspective of mediation in Christ, inscribed in the firrmulation of esse in nedio, appcars in Aquinas' commenlary on the Psalms. ln Psalmos XXX n. 18. 2Asthe concept olsecondary causality shows. Clf. l-. Bcllamah, "func scimus cum causas cognoscimus: Some Medieval tndeavors to Knorv Scripture in lts Causcs'. in Theology Needs Phibsoplty . Actitlg Agł tinst Reason is Contrary ttl the Nature of God. ęd. M. Lamb (Washington' D.C.: 'fhe Catholic lJniversity of America Press.20l6). |54-11Ż1' P. Roszak, 'Analogical (Jn< lerstanding tll' Divine Causalit1' in T'homas Aquinas'. European Jourttal of Philosophy,oJ Religion 4 (201'7). 133-53.