BTW the most accessible (heck, even I sometimes almost understand him!) modern exponent of Scholastic Realism is Feser, whose The Last Superstition very good. He write like the love child of Aquinas and Ann Coulter. So he's fun.
A blessing in my life is that after an adolescent flirtation with the Existentialists, my serious encounter with philosophy began with Plato. So "my system was flushed " enough that when I came to "substance " in the Scholastics, I was thinking hypostasis " and "ousia " not "hyle" or "materia".
I think that the modern confusion (by "modern " I guess I mean Post-Reformation) largely arises from the triumph of Nominalism, which has not been utterly useless but has prompted a lot of erroneous thought.
For example, my FIL, who is fighting his last battle as I type, THOUGHT he believed in transubstantiation. In fact, he believed in something the Church never taught, a kind of trans-materialization!
I hope I get the chance to talk more with you about this, but in a few hours I will be driving to be with him.
MD, you are up too late! And I wish you and your father a time of blessed fellowship.
As for your comments, I will be happy to engage them after I’ve thought about them for a while, and at a time of convenience to you, considering the circumstances.
Peace,
SR