St. Thomas did not questioned everything, as we do: I quote here a short page from the book “Laicità e cristianesimo”:
“The problem I raise is not theoretical. Everyone can be convinced of what he wants, but it is
necessary to deal with the lives and sufferings of men. In fact, the ultimate natural end was brought
to the fore by the essentialist scholastic, for abstract and formal reasons, and then by deism; Nobody
used it in real life before or after, as the heart of culture and civilization.
The problem comes from far and is extremely significant: Saint Thomas, who has set all his great
synthesis on the divine consistency of creation, explicitly pointing to the ultimate natural aim (later
I will quote some texts), did not really have any major problems regarding the unity of divine
design as, in fact, he gave little importance to the content of the ultimate natural aim.
In the Middle Ages, some topics regarding the ultimate natural aim easily felt within the
wise aspect of asceticism and Christian morality. Others, such as work, politics, history, sociology
and psychology, were virtually ignored. A medieval friar did not have an urgent cultural problem
because the use of reason was virtually exclusive to Churchmen. In this way, no one has ever
engaged in developing the potentialities of the human spirit, the depth and transcendence of all
man’s issues, the attachment of human history to a real transcendence which could not be confused
with supernatural gifts.
Wisdom has been overlooked and continues to be so, despite John Paul II’s appalling appeal
in Fides et ratio in favour of wisdom. The God of classical theodicea is not passionate; not even the
God of Descartes. It would generally be said for the God of philosophers, according to Pascal’s
famous exclamation Yet the true philosophers, ancient philosophers, spiritual men of other
traditions, have passionately sought God, the soul, the eternity.
If you see the fragments of the Presocratic philosophers you find that they were wise in
seeking for happiness, of God, of the universe; They did not content themselves with water, air or
fire. With theodicea and rationalistic essentialism, the natural capacity of the human spirit to seek
God existentially and to love him, together with the search for faith and Christian life, has certainly
not developed. That little natural love disappeared immediately into the warm light of faith. Yet
even natural friendship with God is important. As it is important natural the ability to make friends
while trying to live the new commandment.
See also the link on Natural Desire to see God.