History Book: The first U.S. Congress implements the Constitution

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, March 4th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: the WORLD History Book. Ten years ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears.

On this day 235 years ago the US Constitution takes effect.

EICHER: But first, the death of theologian Thomas Aquinas. Here’s WORLD Radio executive producer Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER: Thomas Aquinas died 750 years ago this week on March 7th, 1274. He was only 48 years old. In his short life, he wrote dozens of religious books and commentaries. He preached hundreds of sermons. He was a dynamic teacher, persuasive lecturer, and effective debater—not just in theology, but philosophy as well.

BARRON: Thomas Aquinas’s contribution to the church and to Western culture in general has been so massive, it's difficult even to get a grip on him.

Robert Barron is bishop of the Winona-Rochester Minnesota Diocese. Audio here from his brand new documentary: “Journeying with Thomas Aquinas.”

BARRON: He was philosopher, scientist, biblical commentator, theologian, mystic. And above all, a saint…deeply in love with Jesus Christ. And the whole purpose of all his writing was to place us on the road to Christ.

Thomas Aquinas was a prolific writer. His most famous work is his systematic theology: the Summa Theologiae. Audio here from a Librivox recording, read by Jim Ruddy.

JIM RUDDY: We purpose in this book to treat whatever belongs to the Christian religion in such a way as may tend to the instruction of beginners…We shall try, by God's help, to set forth whatever is included in this sacred science as briefly and clearly as the matter itself may allow.

Thomas Aquinas views theology as a science, believing that reason, Christian tradition, and the careful, faithful study of the scriptures leads to truth. The existence of God and his attributes are knowable, observable, and certain. Aquinas’s five arguments for God are still used by Christian apologists today.

In 1274, Pope Gregory X convenes the Second Council of Lyon in hopes of reuniting the eastern and western Christian churches. He summons the great thinker and Biblical scholar to attend.

On his way to the council, Aquinas strikes his head on the branch of a fallen tree. He never fully recovers. He dies a few days later.

Thomas Aquinas’s mysticism and spiritual visions make many modern Christians uncomfortable. But according to Evangelical theologian and history professor Carl Trueman, Aquinas’s high view of the scriptures, his love of Christ, and his tenacious search for God’s truth in the natural world make for worthwhile reading.

TRUMAN: He's a daunting figure to think of, he perhaps has a bad press in Protestantism, but he's very well worthwhile reading as a faithful representative of Augustine theology of grace. And as somebody who wrestled with great clarity with the doctrine of God and the revelation of God in Scripture.

Next, 235 years ago today, the 1st U.S. Congress meets and declares the constitution in effect. The founding government includes 9 senators and 13 representatives in Congress and George Washington is President, but no Supreme Court justices until later in 1789. It’s a small start, but the document that organizes the government marks a big change in how the United States governs itself.

Hillsdale College professor Larry Arn:

LARRY ARN: And so, in America, it is different, because unlike Athens, unlike England, unlike even Sparta, all the sovereignty is ours. We may not be governed except by our consent. And we don't give it no governing. All government is illegitimate except with that.

Rather than an aristocratic collection of families making the decisions, majorities with the ability to vote would elect representatives to govern on their behalf.

ARN: And Madison says that it's never happened before. It's so unique…But those people the sovereign are entirely excluded from the operation of the government. Do you see now how the first check on the government is that we must consent. But the second check on the government is that we who have the power to consent, do not run the government. And that second check is a check on us.

And finally today,

NEWSCLIP: Breaking news tonight a Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 people on board including four Americans has gone missing.

10 years ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears, prompting the most expensive search effort in history, and one of the most enduring aviation mysteries.

NEWSCLIP: Saturday March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur for what was supposed to be a six hour flight to Beijing.

Shortly after takeoff, the plane’s transponder goes silent and the plane disappears from radar.

NEWSCLIP: 17 minutes pass before anyone asks about the now missing plane at 1:38am.

Eventually, air traffic controllers in Vietnam ask their counterparts in Kuala Lumpur about Flight 370, but they and other towers around the region confirm they haven’t heard anything.

NEWSCLIP: Meanwhile, we now know the plane made its mysterious turn flying over the Malaysian peninsula, changing altitude disappearing at times from radar only to reappear…

It later turns out the plane stayed in the air several more hours, and a satellite picks up a signal at 8:11am, nearly seven hours after the plane went missing.

Rescue teams spend months looking for evidence of a crash hoping to find the plane’s black box and clues to why it disappeared. Finally, in July 2015, part of a plane wing washes up on the French island of Reunion near Madagascar.

NEWSCLIP: Today Malaysia confirmed what we all suspected, debris on an island in the Indian Ocean is from the Boeing triple seven that vanished nearly 18 months ago with 239 people on board.

In the decade since Flight 370 went missing, experts and amateurs have offered many theories about what happened. A murderous pilot, a cover-up by the Malaysian government, even alien abduction. A multinational investigation spent tens of millions of dollars over four years trying to learn the truth.

On this 10th anniversary of the disappearance, family members want to reopen the investigation.n Audio here from Sky News, Australia.

FAMILY: We need to raise this again to try and get the search started so that we can get those answers. We need that finality for us. You know, it's too hard.

That’s it for this week’s History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.