The natural phenomena are looked upon thru ignorance as manifestations
of the divine wrath which would not have taken place if no one among
humanity had not provoked them by their conduct. Saint Thomas Aquinas,
who with reason is considered as the most scientific man of his
period, believed firmly that the thunder, lightning, and the storms
were punitive manifestations of God enraged against men. "From his
fear of God, the saintly doctor had an unearthly fear of thunder and
tempests, who as a reverent child feared to see wrath in the face of
the Father, hoping only that those tempests were not provoked by his
sins" (Milicia Angelica, Manila, 1907, p. 21).
The blind fear of Saint Thomas led him to conceive a blind justice
of the divinity, because of his sins God released the tempests and
gave lightning which naturally hurt and molested a great number of
persons who suffered by reason of the sins of the saint. To the simple
believer, when the wise saint thought and believed in that manner,
there was no reason for rejecting the explanation, much less to
suspect that to punish justly the sinners was not an act of justice
nor of common sense.