Hot Wind from the Desert

As stories go, someone once told me Thomas Aquinas had an experience with God that made him quit writing. He was urged to take up the pen time and time again and yet he refused. This was the man who penned Summa Theologica. He was reduced to humility and awe. Yet seminaries around the world spend hours and lifetimes studying Summa, but not trying to have the same experience with the same Jesus. Why?

Why are we scared to go the Holy Mountain? Why do we always plead for a Moses when YHWH is pleading for us?