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Chapter Two:
Sight
“Every good and every
perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father
of Lights, with Whom there is no change, nor shadow of
alteration. (James I, xvii)
I. The Incarnation and
Sight
For a Catholic, the
single most crucial element required for a complete
understanding or sight of the truth must be supernatural
faith. Such faith is certainly not the only element
which plays an enlightening role. It may often not be
the first, either. Nevertheless, the faith is the
primary contributor to the sight necessary to a proper
understanding of life and life’s purpose. For Plato,
sight involved learning to transcend the limited
perspective and judgment of one’s immediate
surroundings. Such transcendence began when a man (as in
his famous allegory) first tore hmself away from the
deluded conviction that his vision of the back wall of
the cave provided him with all the knowledge of reality
that he needed. Sight, for the Catholic, involves the
continuation of this bold enterprise to its logical
conclusion, as the man of faith transcends the limited
perspective and judgment of the entire material realm,
and sees the world in the full day of supernatural
light.
There would be no
opening to the full day of supernatural light were it
not for the central act establishing the New Covenant:
the Incarnation. The appearance of the Eternal Word, the
Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, on the earth as
Jesus Christ, the God-Man, thus becomes the single most
important act of enlightenment in the history of
mankind. A full vision of the truth therefore must, in
Catholic eyes, be built upon the lessons that are
learned through Him, with Him, and in Him.
It lies far beyond
the scope of this book to delve with theological rigor
into a discussion of the sublime mystery of the
Incarnation and its consequences. What is, however,
necessary for our limited purpose is to call attention
to the emphasis placed by La Civiltà Cattolica upon that
mystery as the key to seeing the full truth about
intellectual, political, and social life. Even a
superficial reading of the main articles of the Roman
periodical reveals its belief that the Incarnation has
had the effect of “shocking” Creation to its very
depths; that it has taught nature truths about itself
that it could and ought to have known on its own, and
then taken it still further, on a journey into uncharted
heavenly realms; that it has revealed to it is mission
of working in union with grace to join everything
together in Christ’s “Mystical Body” for the sake of the
adoration of the Creator God. (1)
God…has established
one sole order composed of two parts: nature exalted by
grace, and grace vivifying nature. He has not confused
these two orders, but He has coordinated them. One force
alone is the model and one thing alone the motive
principle and ultimate end of divine creation:
Christ….All the rest is subordinated to Him. The goal of
human existence is to form the Mystical Body of this
Christ, of this Head of the elect, of this Eternal
Priest, of this King of the immortal Kingdom, and the
society of those who will eternally glorify Him.
2. Seeing Nature
Through Christ
The appearance of
the Word on the earth at the moment of the Incarnation
meant the appearance of supernatural light in its
fullness as a new element in man’s quest to learn the
Truth. Anyone adopting the use of this new element opts
for seeing the universe through the eyes of the very God
who created it, and Who understands it, takes it
seriously, and loves it more than anyone else can. A
person who chooses to see nature with Christ’s eyes
peers into the most hidden recesses of both the general
and the particular aspects of Creation in the most
extraordinary way imaginable. For seeing nature through
the eyes of the Incarnate Word is not a mere spectator
sport involving access to the best seats in the house.
Seeing nature through the God Man means seeing it from
the perspective of a Divine Person Who literally gathers
up into Himself, as a mysterious microcosm, everything
in the universe. Christ, as St. Irenaeus says, is the
New Adam. His recapitulation of all that was, is, and is
to come ensures that those who search for truth in Him
learn of the essences and harmonies of nature, in
general and in their particulars, and live them at one
and the same time. The key to a true knowledge of the
universe is ultimately the Incarnation. Natural law, in
a sense, is an Incarnational Law, in that one needs the
Incarnation to make nature aware even of its own
capacities. It is by referring to the Incarnation that
one learns exactly what one can and should do even with
the natural universe around him. (2)
3. Three Incarnational
Laws
La Civiltà
Cattolica never outlined any precise number of “laws”
regarding nature and its use that were either confirmed
or first taught by the Incarnation. Nevertheless, for
the sake of our argument, we may reduce the list of
these to three: the importance of “giving flesh” to the
messages of nature in society for the benefit of the
individual; the need to correct the flaws of fallen
Creation through the Church; and, finally, the need to
recognize what we might call the mysterious “dance” of
life as a whole.
Law One: The
Importance of “Giving Flesh” to the Messages of Nature
in Society for the Benefit of the Individual
Anyone examining
the doctrine of Creation within a Catholic context must
admit the fundamental worthiness of nature---the fact
that the things of the universe, in general and in
particular, are honestly valuable and lovable in the
sight of God. The Incarnation confirmed the importance
of everything natural, by showing that God so loved the
world that He was ready to send His only begotten Son to
die for it. Nothing is superfluous to God, and the
messages of nature all have something valuable to say
and must be attended to if the full truth of life is to
be known. All must be preserved and cherished if man is
to live life fully.
The highest of
nature’s messages is the reality that human beings exist
as individuals. God created men as individuals and not
as abstract “human natures”. They exist as individual
creatures of flesh and blood, as well as of intellect
and soul. God showed by means of the Incarnation that
sentient individuality was central to the Divine Plan.
He made the Word flesh with one human body, one human
soul, and one human will. Christ entered our lives as an
individual, seeking the acceptance of His teaching by
individuals who could see, hear, touch, eat, and, hence,
think about Him in a manner proportioned to a single
human person of body and soul. He came for the
individual’s well-being, so that he might know the full
Truth, become free, and have life more abundantly, body
and soul, for all eternity.
All of the other
messages of nature are arranged hierarchically to serve
the individual human person as he seeks to learn life’s
meaning, and thereby have life more abundantly. But for
these messages to have their effect on real men, they
must conform to the model of the God Who created the
universe; for they are meant for individuals composed of
flesh and blood, as well as of intellect and soul.
Rather than being presented in abstract form, as though
human beings were mere walking brains, they must be
incarnated, given palpable forms, shapes that could be
seen, heard, and touched, like Christ Himself.
This is where
society plays an essential role in the betterment of the
individual. Natural truths, natural messages, require
bodies, or---to use a medieval term central to Catholic
counterrevolutionary thought---corporations to incarnate
them. Only thus can they be proportioned to individual
sentient beings. Each of the natural corporations does
an immense service for men, pinpointing in a different,
physically concrete way, the meaning of virtue. Each
makes it possible to “see” moral duties more vividly;
each manifests the precise material and emotional
assistance it offers the individual striving for
perfection. The more thoroughly the natural truth in
question is embodied by the corporation concerned, the
greater the likelihood of the truth’s being understood,
and the more perfect the imitation of God, Who taught
“those who have eyes to see and ears to hear”. (3)
Everything from customs regarding food and clothing to
public ceremonial aids the process of giving flesh to a
specific corporation’s natural message. Nevertheless,
this process of incarnation is most effectively
represented by the existence of a clear, flesh-and-blood
authority.
Men throughout
history have displayed an undeniable propensity for
identifying the entire life and competence of a given
corporation with the authority at its disposal and the
alacrity with which this authority is obeyed. When
authority within a corporation has been incarnated
clearly and is manifestly confident of itself, men have
treated seriously the truth that that corporation
teaches. When authority within a corporation has become
obscure and confused, then the truth that is at stake
comes to be ignored. This is why one of the things that
most impressed men about Christ was the clarity and
confidence with which He commanded them to seek God; the
fact that He spoke “as one having authority”; as one in
Whom the very principle of authority was given flesh.
(4)
How is
authority---which is, at base, an idea; an intellectual
concept founded upon a recognition of the need to unity
a variety of souls who are capable of seeing the
universe in a dazzling array of diverse ways---given
flesh or incarnated within a specific corporation? How
does one know when it is legitimate? Historical events
are required, since the embodiment of something that is
in itself an intellectual principle can only happen in
human ways through human history. Historical events of
infinite variety take the essentially fleshless idea of
authority and “clothe” it in order to proportion it to
individuals and make it work for them. Even though the
knowledge of the exact historical events incarnating
authority within a given corporation may be
limited---the origins of legitimacy being very often
lost in time---such specific events were nevertheless
always involved. If human beings existed as “human
natures”, then, perhaps, a “fleshless” cause for
legitimacy might be argued. But since they exist only as
individuals of flesh and blood, concrete individual
causes for legitimacy are essential.
Enough examples of changes of legitimate authority are
available to give a clear idea of the path to
“incarnation”. One need only point to one of the many
historical instances when an existing authority failed
to do its job properly, thus leaving the members of the
corporation leaderless. The less the authority did its
job, the less “real” it became, the less it was seen and
felt by its subjects of flesh and blood. When it “lost
flesh”, the truth that the corporation taught came into
doubt, and was reduced to requiring a constant set of
miracles, events outside the natural order of things, to
survive.
One can see in such
a situation other forces filling the gap left within the
leaderless corporation. Such forces might lay claim to
leadership owing to their possession of physical
strength, wealth, wisdom, blood line, popular support,
or literally anything that could be in some way
impressive. If these new elements had no interest in the
common good of the corporation concerned, then they were
merely possessors of raw power and could not be
considered legitimate. If they began to act even
occasionally and unconsciously for the common good, then
they were in what might be called a pre-incarnational
state, and must be obeyed, selectively, by the still
uncertain members of the corporation. If this new force,
whatever its origins, began to act so often for the
common good that attempts to dislodge it would cause
harm to the well-being of one’s neighbors, then it had
become truly incarnate, and had to be regularly obeyed.
Initially brutal and illicit power might eventually so
well teach a corporation’s message that “the desire to
change would be a desire for the public harm, in which
circumstance it would truly come to be thought of as
real and durable sovereign authority”. (5)
Hence, the common
good of the corporation, and, along with it, the
effective transmission of the natural truth this
particular society is intended to teach, is the ultimate
determinant of the incarnation of legitimate authority.
So crucial is this transmission that unwilling superiors
who are nonetheless essential to its maintenance are as
morally obliged to rule as the people are to obey. (6)
In sum, since the
right of command is not naturally given to a
specific person, it is necessary that it be specified by
some fact. And this fact---which is not the ground of
authority, but the reason for its investiture---can many
times (whatever the opposition says) not depend upon the
will of those who obey. This may be the case any time
not obeying would be a violation either of the rights of
the law-giving Creator, expressed naturally or
supernaturally, or of the rights of a man {in authority}
understood through the common laws of natural order.
This is the theory
of the Civiltà with regard to the importance of
corporations and the authorities that govern them for
teaching truths to individual men. Let us now examine
what we have discussed with regard to a particular
aspect of human life: the realm of sexual love.
Nature certainly does send the individual a clear
message regarding the power of such love, but it just as
obviously generally leaves him in a muddle with respect
to its proper use and ultimate significance. All that
one needs to do to prove this is to review the
disastrous problems and contradictions of the unaided
individual confronting the sexual realm throughout human
history, a review admirably conducted by all the great
literatures of the world.
How then can the
correct approach and full meaning of this powerful
individual natural drive be unveiled to the whole
person---a creature of intellect and soul as well as
flesh and blood? Individual perceptions of sexual love
are best tested within the discipline of a corporation
whose customs, ceremonies, and legitimate authority
incarnate age-old natural wisdom: that is, the
corporation called the family. The family is a union
effected not only by two mutually loving spouses, but in
a sense also by their long-dead forebears, whose
accumulated judgments and time-tested traditions are
always alive and relevant. Within the family, the
espoused lovers “see” that their love consists in more
than mere pleasure. The spousal act is placed in a
context which shows it to be simultaneously a thing most
intimately personal but also, as the children conceived
of the union direct the attention of the parents to
questions involving economics, education, religion, and
every other possible facet of community life, rich with
social ramifications.
Love is thus seen
to involve something much more complex than the mere
satisfaction of physical desire; it is seen to require
the development of the virtues of patience, devotion,
obedience, self-sacrifice, and mortification. Moreover,
the understanding of these manifold spiritual
characteristics is not emphasized in the family by words
alone, again, as though human beings were mere “walking
brains”, but is institutionally incarnated, given flesh,
made real, so that individual men of flesh and blood can
see the importance of these virtues and the benefits to
be derived from them. This understanding is sealed with
rings, is reinforced by the family’s dining together, by
their gestures of respect, and their care for weaker
members of the familial corporation. Most importantly,
it is underlined by the legitimate authority exercised
by the parents and the regular obedience given to them.
All such things give flesh to the idea of love for
another person by going beyond the purely abstract
realm. By virtue of their being perennial and habitual,
they shape a man to feel and think correctly of the
value and meaning of love, without his having to
rediscover them over and over again. He is spared the
effort of having to learn each morning everything that
people have learned about the meaning and practice of
love from the time of the Sumerians to the present.
No corporation
other than the family could undertake the work of
elucidation of the meaning of sexual love without
arriving at a twisted result. Similarly, there are
different corporations best suited to the elucidation of
other messages of nature. And there are as many
different corporations and different authorities
engendered by nature as there are natural messages that
can best be proportioned to individuals by means of
societies.
Individuals,
therefore, are meant to gain knowledge through the
workings of what can be called a “corporate society”, a
society composed of many legitimate corporations, each
with a natural right to exist. Individuals may---indeed,
must---belong to many of these corporations
simultaneously, since they need to give ear to a variety
of natural messages at one and the same time.
Is there a
corporate entity embodying a natural message concerning
the importance of having a family and a home that
stretch beyond the narrow confines of a private dwelling
or a community of close blood relations? Is there a
corporate entity that embodies the special union of all
the natural human activities of a particular group of
people? This question was a very important one in the
nineteenth century, given the emphasis placed on the
subject of the patria---the fatherland---by
nationalists, and the peculiar difficulty posed for the
Church and the Temporal Power by the Italian unification
movement, the so-called Risorgimento. Taparelli devoted
much attention to the issue in his Saggio teoretico, in
the pages of the Civiltà, and in letters to his
brothers, who were active participants in the
Risorgimento. In doing so, he inevitably touched upon a
second question: the relationship of the homeland, the
patria, the nation (all of which terms can be used
interchangeably in the Civiltà’s argument) with another
crucial corporate entity: the State.
Taparelli insisted
that the patria, a homeland in which all the human
activities of a specific group of people find their
special niche in the world, is a necessity attested to
by all of history. In this niche, men learn the virtue
of fraternity with a large variety of people on a
natural level and in a fashion that prepares them for
the supernatural communion of the saints. If this
concept of the homeland is real, it cannot remain in the
realm of pure ideas. It must have some corporate
expression with incarnate manifestations to impress
itself clearly on creatures of flesh and blood. The idea
of the homeland is indeed rendered incarnate.
Ironically, it is so effectively incarnated in the
variety of particulars that become part of the
background of every human life that these are very apt
to be taken for granted and forgotten. Among such
particular incarnate facts are geographical and
climactic conditions; a common language; the common look
and bloodline of a people; a similarity of customs and
daily modes of behavior subtly shaped in the very midst
of a diversity of different specific activities in life;
and a common affection for these same conditions,
similarities, and customs, regularly expressed in word
and gesture, which then deserves the name of “love of
patria”; i.e., patriotism.
In Taparelli’s
argument, a true corporate entity must have a clear,
incarnate authority. What is that of the patria? One
might claim that it is a joint authority exercised by
all corporations united in their concern for the daily
lives of their members; but in saying this, one might
miss (as often happens) the truly obvious authority of
the fatherland: the “spirit of the place and times in
which one is at home”, which concretely expresses its
will in everything from architecture to slang, and which
thus exercises a direct and almost overwhelming control
over every second, conscious or unconscious, of an
individual’s life. Once more, the power of this
authority is so enormous that recognizing it seems
hardly worth the effort; but a failure to do so leads to
dreadful consequences, as we shall see later in this
work. The authority of the place and times, enforced by
the affections of patriotism, is a palpable and
ferocious authority indeed.
The corporate entity called the patria is not the same
thing as the State. Yes, the State is also concerned
with all human activities in a given area, but it exists
to coordinate them and harmonize them, based on
naturally ascertainable principles of justice. Since
coordination is its function, coercive authority is its
most characteristic feature, not fraternal love. Like
all authorities, it must act in an incarnational manner,
function in a way that is analogous to Christ, and serve
as a “sacrificial lamb”, working not for itself but for
the benefit of the subsidiary corporations it
coordinates. The State does this when it confirms the
value of all the corporations coordinated by it, the
specific tasks of which it must never directly usurp.
The State is coordinator and might, in this role,
sometimes have to step in to “correct” the deficiencies
of a less general corporation, such as would happen if
parents neglected a child to his detriment and that of
the rest of society.
Hence, the State
may also have to coordinate and correct patriotism and
the manifold concrete expressions of the spirit of time
and place. Still, when the State does intervene, this is
to assure that the corporation “below” it, which is
directly concerned with the problem, does its own job
properly. If the State plays the role of coordinator and
corrector, rather than that of prime mover of the
corporate embodiment of a specific natural message, then
“the whole body operates with vigor, ease, and speed”,
and the central organization is not overburdened. “Each
member then performs itself its specific function, and
the head has nothing more to do than to subordinate that
function to the good of the whole body”. (7) Individuals
thus learn the truths that nature teaches in a
harmonious, peaceful way.
Corporate society
is in terrible danger if authority within its
coordinating corporation, the State, comes into
question. The State’s authority is incarnated and
rendered legitimate in the same fashion as any other
authority. This means that forms of government within
the State will differ according to the historical facts
and events incarnating them. A State whose authority is
given flesh through conquest will necessarily differ
radically from one whose authority is given flesh
through respect for wealth. All types of governmental
forms or polities dictated by the facts of history are
valid, so long as they regularly work for the common
good. They are valid in and of themselves, and not as
mere make-shift operations on the road to some better
system, because historical facts have already precisely
enshrined them as the proper instruments for clarifying
possession of authority. (8)
The Civiltà
repeatedly emphasized this Catholic respect for the
variety of politics, although it is true that the
editors themselves did have a decided preference for
hereditary monarchy. A hereditary monarchy, they argued,
most clearly embodies authority in a flesh-and-blood
fashion understandable to the individual and to
families. It limits ambitions among competitors for the
supreme authority, and the evils springing from doubt
about the next ruler---a doubt that more often than not
causes infinitely more woe than the actual failings of
the existing superior. So long as the monarch acts in
accord with “incarnational” models and leaves autonomy
“to the organic people, to its provinces, to its cities,
to its families, to its collegiate institutions, to its
religious corporations, and to all those organic
elements that are by their essence conservative”, it is
on the right track to doing what the people want to have
done anyway. (9) Indeed, precisely because a
person---the monarch---is the center of the system, he
gives the essentially coercive power of the State the
chance of being loved by the people he coordinates.
Finally, Heaven, which is always a model for a man
viewing things from the perspective of the Incarnation,
is also a monarchy: and its Ruler commands subjects
enjoying eternal love and eternal bliss.
Still, preference
is one thing and legitimacy is quite another.
Constitutional and republican systems, the Civiltà
insisted, are clearly incarnated by historical facts in
various countries, and thus are entirely valid. The
United States and Belgium are noted as cases in point.
Similarly, coups d’état also incarnated military men and
those with family reputations, such as the Bonapartes,
as legitimate authorities. Moreover, the flux of events
always makes changes in governmental form possible.
Nevertheless, whoever wants to change an incarnated form
of authority where it legitimately rules simply out of a
lust for change or a personal preference is “a felon to
the fatherland”. (10)
The State, then,
coordinates a society. But, again, it is not itself a
homeland, a patria, a nation. A patria is the cradle in
which a variety of people, bound together by a complex
of biological, economic, geographical and cultural
experiences shaped through history finds its niche in
the world. A State is essentially a coordinator of
corporations, including that of the patria. If a man
tried to replace the homeland with the State, the
Church, or anything else, he would as surely leave a
gaping hole in the corporate structure and the human
heart, as surely cause malfunctions in society, as he
would in trying to replace a monastery or an army with
an economic corporation. A homeland is a cultural
entity, essentially domestic and affectionate in
character. A State is a political entity, essentially
coercive and physically strong in character. A man
without a homeland is deprived of a beneficent fraternal
entity crucial to preparing him for communion with
diverse groups in the Church. A man without a State is
deprived of a political force that can right an
imbalance within a society due to the destructive
narrowness of an individual or corporation or, indeed, a
destructive parochialism of one homeland in its
relations with other nations.
This distinction
was absolutely crucial to the Civiltà, for it explained
what exactly the State ruled over. A State is a
coordinating authority given its right by facts of
history. These facts may offer it the authority to
coordinate a part of a homeland, the whole of one, or
many different homelands. Indeed, it is possible to
envisage a State that, in response to the growth of a
global, interconnected society, comes to rule over all
homelands; that is, over the whole world.
If the government
of a patria is divided among a number of states, each
ruling a different geographical area, the patria thus
diversely governed is not by that fact inevitably
vitiated. For example, the German fatherland, before its
political unification in the last century, was not
destroyed by its political disunity. Similarly, if
before the triumph of the Risorgimento one insisted that
Italy was a distinct homeland, with all Italians forming
one clear people, it did not automatically follow that
it must have one State to ensure the fatherland’s
protection. Despite the political division of Italy into
a number of states, it is quite clear that Italian
culture---language, customs, literature, and so on---was
perfectly capable of thriving on its own. The homeland
could happily survive while being politically divided.
One could, of
course, hope and work for political unification. In
fact, as we shall see below, a person might even, in one
sense, be obliged to do so. Nevertheless, from a natural
perspective the only way such work could be seen as
being beneficial is if it were done virtuously, and with
respect for pre-existing rights and history. Historical
events had incarnated the Italian patria in a peninsula
politically divided. One might lament this history, even
think it unjust. But to act as if it had not existed was
insane, and highly likely to bring many woes even upon
those desiring a national State.
Of course, there
were always states in Europe that ruled over one
homeland---France, for example. But there was nothing
unusual or harmful about a State ruling over many
nations, like the Hapsburg Empire. Just as a family can
thrive as a family even if the State ruling it is
governed by another family, a kaleidoscope of nations
can be ruled by a foreign people who possessed the right
of State authority. All that was necessary was for that
ruling people to recognize the authority and competence
of all natural corporations within their own sphere, and
maintain favorable conditions for them to thrive.
Taparelli was very
much interested in this question of the international
State and the international community in general, both
with respect to existing multinational states like
Austria as well as to future global developments. Men,
he argued, could only feel at home in a relatively
limited environment, one reflecting their normal
circumstances. Daily life, for the mass of people, could
never be carried on in a milieu of endless different
languages, customs, literatures, and so on. Yet the
various homelands seemed destined to be part of a
worldwide fraternity. How else could the ancients have
spoken of natural law and human nature unless they
understood that all mankind had a common natural
destiny? And what else could one think when modern
scientific communication made regular and instantaneous
communications between different homelands a reality
across the whole globe? The question of the coordination
of all homelands, of all nations, of all fatherlands
under some kind of State authority became more pressing
every day, even if only to prevent brutal, “improved”
scientific warfare.
Historical
circumstances must give to different homelands,
different nations, some similar political authority,
whenever two or more of them “for whatever reason, find
themselves in reciprocal contact”. (11) If this contact
is constant and necessary for the common good of the
homelands concerned, then, as a consequence of this need
to secure that common good, a concrete, incarnate,
international State authority is already in existence.
And this is true even if that international authority is
so negligent as not to perform its proper function or so
unenlightened as not even to be aware of its own
reality!
Now the facts of
history had made national states of France and England
and had allowed the Austrian Hapsburgs to create a
functioning international State. Yet all of these states
were perforce parts of a supranational European order,
which was real even if it only occasionally controlled
its member nations. What is the European order’s
legitimate, incarnate state authority? It is the
leadership, exerted by the member states in league,
which “even when…administered by one man alone…will be
the property of the associated peoples”. (12) Each
member of this order is obliged to obey that
supranational authority “every time it orders something
that concerns the good of all”. (13) And this State,
presently limited to Europe, could conceivably extend
the world over.
Just as the
function of the sub-national and national states is to
give the respective corporate orders they coordinate
more abundant life, the purpose of the international
State is to assure the national development and
perfection of each homeland; “the salvation for each
nation of its own essence”. (14) This follows from the
model of the Incarnation, given that national
distinctions, as existing natural realities, must have
intrinsic value in the eyes of God. In consequence, the
legitimate authorities of a homeland---its corporations,
joined together---or of a State coordinating a homeland
or a part thereof, have the right and the duty to ask
international authority to aid them if the essence of
that nation is threatened. International authority has
the right and the duty to intervene to protect national
cultural unity; to protect the national homeland. For
international authority to deny this request is to deny
its only real purpose for existence. (15)
Here, then, is
Lesson One of “Incarnational Law”: All nature knows
itself and serves its purpose in God’s plan through the
activity of the individual human person, to whom the
Almighty first directs His message. The individual,
however, is himself taught what his purpose is through
the very natural world he is meant to direct. He is
taught this purpose within a variety of authoritative,
flesh-and-blood corporations that incarnate different
natural messages, all of which together reveal the
numerous contours of human action and urge him towards
fulfilling his mission in life; towards becoming
virtuous. These corporations range from the family
through the fatherland, and are coordinated by states
that, given historical circumstances and scientific
developments, may ultimately have to have worldwide
extent. All social entities---the individual, all
corporations, all homelands---are part of God’s plan.
None of them may be ignored or abolished, none of them
dispensed with, none of them have their functions
transferred to different corporations. “Higher”
corporations, like the State---higher because possessing
wider responsibilities---must always function for the
benefit of “lower”, subsidiary corporations, because
their rights to exist are exactly the same. There is a
true complementarity between society and the individual,
and the individual can be certain that his dependence
upon society and authority is for his real benefit.
In theory, all this
could be known naturally, through human reason. In
practice, man needs a flesh-and-blood incentive to use
that natural reason and take it seriously. That
incentive came from the Incarnation, and its original
impetus is continued in the Roman Catholic Church.
Law Two: The Need to
Correct the Flaws of Fallen Nature Through the Church
All this brings us
to a second lesson that a man eager for a full sight of
the truth about the world around him must learn from the
Incarnation. Yes, the individual human person is the
height and chief glory of a visible nature, which is
loved in its entirety by its Creator. Yes, all the
messages of nature are valuable, and serve the
individual. Yes, their truths are rendered more clear by
corporations that, like Christ, incarnate the specific
teachings at stake, especially through their possession
of clear and active authority. Indeed, the corporate
society thus created within a given homeland must be
coordinated by the State, the legitimacy of which is of
dramatic importance for the peace and well-being of the
whole society.
But the individual,
society, and nature in its entirety are limited. They,
too, must be transcended in order to be completed and
understood. Original Sin has weakened everything by
weakening man. No matter how much the individual must
wish to perfect himself and unite himself with the
Godhead, he cannot accomplish this on his own. He must
be strengthened and guided by God, and by God in His
direct relationship with men: in Christ. Only in this
manner can the “meat” of the various messages of nature
be cleansed of the poisons making the proper use of them
highly problematic.
Corporations were
always the most effective means of teaching natural
truths, and Christ confirmed the importance of society
by willingly subjecting Himself to authorities far
beneath His own. So important was society to the God-Man
that He actually became a society Himself,
recapitulating and gathering up all of nature within
Him, and insisting that all individuals join His Body to
achieve the end for which He made them.
Christ’s first
disciples encountered Him and their chance for
completion through Him in the most direct way
possible---indeed, as the Word Incarnate, but walking
among them and capable of being seen, heard, and touched
as any other man. We, their posterity, encounter Christ
in the institution of the Church. Our individual
completion, which is the purpose of Christ’s mission,
can only be achieved through submission to the
flesh-and-blood society of the Church. But Christ’s work
of completion in a corporeal Church that we may see and
hear and touch can only be accomplished because that
Church is, actually, the God-Man continued in time.
The Church is no
mere mediator between God and man in some purely
legalistic fashion. There is no way to understand the
relationship between the individual who is being
completed and the Church that is working this completion
without grasping the reality that the Church is the
visible side of what St. Augustine calls the “whole
Christ”---the Christ encompassing the glorified God-Man
in heaven and His visible Body on earth. She is,
literally, Christ-alive-on-earth, acting for us here
below, through human persons and with human as well as
divine tools. The Church “is Jesus Christ, but Jesus
Christ spread out and communicated by means of charity
and faith in the totality of the Sons of God”; “a
perpetual and universal sacrifice offered to God by the
great Priest who offered Himself”; “a second Incarnation
of the Son of God”. Hypostatically united with God, the
Church in its simultaneous humanity and divinity
confuses and enrages the world in the same way that
Christ confused and enraged the Jews. (16)
Christ, then lives
in the Church as the principle of the life of this
Church, and as a principle so joined that it yields an
image of the Hypostatic Union, producing, accordingly, a
human-divine life, in imitation of the life that Christ
Himself led on the earth, notwithstanding the continued
existence of the human elements in their entirety.
{The Incarnation}
is a miracle repeated in a manner equally ineffable,
although diverse, in the great body of the Church,
divinized by the life that Jesus Christ lives in her,
and still left with all the human characteristics,
because composed of men. And thus, things are also true
of her that seem contradictory, but are only opposites.
In this way, it can
be understood that Christ is united with His Church not
like any other founder with respect to a society of
men…but in the way the head is joined together with the
body in a man, and thus blended as the vital principle
with a living thing.
The theme of the
Church as the continuation of the Incarnation was argued
by the Civiltà from every conceivable standpoint. The
trials of the Church were “a continuation of the
tribulations and of the sufferings of Christ”. (17) That
which Christ once suffered in Israel in His physical
Body, “He now suffers in His Mystical Body”. (18) The
pope’s official pronouncements were “in some way a
continuation of that first creating Word’. (19)
Councils, operated with “the same authority as Christ”.
(20) Excommunications, absolutions, and every other form
of ecclesiastical action were exercised by ministers of
the Church only because it was really Christ Who was
performing them. Even the Temporal Power was considered
from this standpoint, as the independent base of
operations from which Christ’s right were defended; that
Christ “whose Mystical Body is the Church and to Whom
rightfully belongs all of its property”. (21) A correct
appreciation of the Church as Christ-continued would
transform one’s understanding of everything, so much so
that “the very carriages of the cardinals would change
their appearance in your eyes”. (22)
Clearly, then, the dogmatic direction of nature by the
Church, her active involvement in practical daily life,
is “perhaps the most precious gift to mortals”, and
“certainly the most secure guarantee against the
aberrations of the intellect”. (23) Not just
individuals, therefore, but the corporations and
homelands which transmit nature’s messages to them and
are thus crucial to human persons as they make their
procession to possession of the truth, must submit to
the active “cleansing” guidance of the Church. And the
State itself, as the coordinating society within the
corporate order, is not exempt from this need for
purification either.
Obviously, the
Church’s primary effects are on individuals, the
pinnacle of Creation. Understanding what happens to
individuals who deeply plunge into the life of
Christ-continued requires from the very start some sense
of the Hypostatic Union itself.
The Incarnation of
God’s Only Begotten Son as an individual man drew forth
from Christ’s human nature everything of which it was
humanly capable. It also enabled that nature to be
divinized, to become, from the very moment of
conception, a Sacred Humanity. Both of these effects
were possible owing to the mystery of the Hypostatic
Union, the existence of Christ’s human nature in
conjunction with a divine nature in the single
personality of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
What effect does
the Hypostatic Union, continued in the Church, have on
individual human beings possessing only a human nature
and only a human personality? What happens to them if
they are baptized in, believe in, follow, and eat the
Body of Christ offered to them by the Church? What takes
place within them if they join Christ, live Christ’s
life, and see things with Christ’s eyes?
The editors of the
Civiltà had direct contacts with Giovanni Perrone and
indirect contacts with Johann Adam Möhler. (24) Like
these writers, who delivered a message that was so close
to the hearts of the Fathers of the Church, they
insisted that union with Christ offered the believer the
possibility of being taken up into the Sacred Humanity
and being “divinized” himself. Individual believers in
Christ could thereby win a prize that “a person could
scarcely conjecture in the abstract”. (25) Laity,
priests, and the pope could, as individuals, become
Christ Himself, “the living image of the Nazarene”, by
participation. (26) “The more fully a man lives the life
of the Incarnate Word, the more deeply he penetrates
into its unity and perfects himself”. (27) He who
progresses in “Divine Life” (28) attains to “a
perfection that surpasses all that is innate in him”
(29), and becomes “a participant in Christ”, becomes “in
a sense, initiated into His substance”. (30)
“Divinized” men
thus see the whole of Creation from the transcendent
position of God; from the very ground of Being Himself.
They have access, through the God-Man, to all of the
knowledge, virtues, talents, and glories of every
individual person and object in the universe, and,
simultaneously, to the harmonious union of these goods
as well. Christ’s recapitulation of the things of the
world ensures that miracle. And just as the existence of
Christ’s Humanity in the Person of the Word confirmed
the value of His created nature, in and of itself, the
man whose own human nature is glorified in submitting to
the Church loses nothing of his unique individual
character. Rather, he more perfectly draws forth from it
all of its “natural” personal elements. In other words,
in the free gift of supernatural grace bestowed by the
one, true, transcendent God, men do more than gain
divinity: they also come into the full possession of
their humanity.
One need only refer
to the whole question of the individual search for
wisdom to see what the Civiltà editors meant. In theory,
individual natural reason should be able to provide much
of the information needed to deal with the “ordinary”
problems of life on earth, and to pose most of the
fundamental queries with respect to the extraordinary
ones. Hence, we have the remarkable work of
academicians, peripatetics, and stoics, a work that was
itself useful to the Church when she eventually had to
express supernaturally revealed truths in human
language.
Still, the value of
the individual human mind and the acceptance of its
valid judgments were only justly appreciated and
accepted by what amounted to a fringe group in the
ancient world. It is undeniably true that the Greek
tradition, both in literature and philosophy, offered
insights into some of the most profound truths.
Nevertheless, owing both to sin and to a lack of a
consistent corporate confirmation of these nobler
thoughts, many of those who did express or adhere to
these truths often combined their enlightened literary
and philosophical achievements with false speculations
or murky pagan superstitions. Moreover, the ordinary man
in ancient society continued to look upon the universe
itself as a dangerous, unfathomable god beyond the
ability of the human mind to approach and rationally
order.
It is only the
confirmation that faith in the Incarnation gives to our
minds of the fact that God has made life ordered and
purposeful that enables us to treat our own thinking
seriously. It is only the Incarnation, with its clear
demonstration of support for the individual, that gives
us the strength to believe in the importance of
everything the individual does---including the act of
thinking. When Christ died for the world, His death and
resurrection taught anyone interested in the search for
wisdom that the knowledge he was seeking was lovable,
useful, worth suffering for, and, most importantly,
truly capable of being found. Without the Incarnation,
individual seekers of wisdom or “sight” were like
dancers unsure of their routine and consequently
reluctant to take the stage. Even the greatest of them
were unsure of themselves and watched their feet and
stumbled as they moved. With Christ, however, we have
that extra sight offering God’s assurance that our minds
are honestly capable of accomplishing what they seem to
be able to accomplish. How true to the historical
record, then, are the experiences of some classicists
who became Catholics after realizing that they needed
faith-based arguments to convince themselves and others
even of the importance of Greek and Roman culture. (31)
“Divinized”
individuals are the chief agents of passing the rest of
the world through the purgation that the Church
administers. As one enemy of the Civiltà
ironically---but correctly---commented: “in a theocracy,
it is God Who dominates; in the system of the Jesuits,
it is man considered as God who dominates”. (32) There
would be a true perfection of the world only when it was
“transfigured vitally through individuals”, “by means of
the individual operation of each member of the
faithful”, “no longer by the finger of God, but
{indirectly} by that of man, divinized by grace”. (33)
Full knowledge
depends upon divinization, but from the outset one must
remember that the process of divinization is a subtle
one. For saints do not emerge from the shrubbery, as if
by magic. God may, of course, directly intervene in
someone’s life to reveal the course of action he should
take; but such an occurrence cannot be expected along
with the coffee on the breakfast table. The desire for
deification by participation in Christ, like the desire
to fulfill any vocation, great or small, has to be
nourished by an individual’s natural corporations, which
are the first things that shape him.
Natural
corporations exist to prepare men for the full light
that comes from Christ. If they form men eager for
divine light, then God’s plan will be nurtured. The
grace of the Incarnation will take root, become
fruitful, and work back through individuals to perfect
the very corporations that set men on the path to
deification in the first place. If, on the other hand,
natural corporations place obstacles in the path to
divine light and even form men for a life of darkness,
the battle for deification will be fought against
extremely bad odds. Hence, it is of crucial interest to
Catholics that the natural corporations in which they
know themselves better should go through the same
process of purgation that they do; that corporations,
too, should submit to the guidance of the Church. The
Church provides the infallible dogmatic sketch for this
cleansing; the faithful both complete the practical work
of purgation and are rendered more fit to do so as the
corporation is raised to God and aids them in this
enterprise. Both the dogmatic sketch and the practical
work are required for success. (34)
In becoming
Catholic, corporations undergo two salutary changes.
First of all, they are purged of their parochial
tendencies, their frequent lack of concern for the rest
of society, and their self-deification. Secondly, once
shown the eternal significance of the natural function
they perform, they gain a religious certainty and
self-confidence regarding their own intrinsic
value.Three examples relating to the family, the State,
and the homeland may be given to illustrate this point.
The family, left to
its own devices, can degenerate into a rigid,
mechanical, materialistic instrument demanding
self-immolation from its members and caring nothing for
the needs of other families or for the rest of the
world. Rather than effectively teaching the message of
love, it thus belies it. But the medicine that comes
from Christ softens the hearts, expands vistas, and
propels the family outside of its own selfish borders.
This medicine is primarily intended for the salvation of
individuals, and it shows the family that it, too, is
meant to nurture individuals, not destroy them. At the
same time, the family’s function, rooted in Christ, is
so seen in its eternal dimension as to give it an
exalted sense of mission and reduce the danger of its
manipulation by those who deny its innate rights. The
family is so glorified because even if its “immediate
end in the material order may be procreation”, “the
ultimate end of conjugal union, according to its nature,
is of the spiritual order”. Its mission is not “the
simple propagation of the human species on the earth”,
but the multiplication “of eternal worshippers of the
divine name in Heaven”. The family’s teaching of the
meaning of love is rendered more precise, demonstrating
the final purpose of love to be the creation of lovers
of God. Its burdens are seen to be “of such a force as
to raise bodies towards the heavens”; indeed,
corporations of consecrated virgins, bound by vows
within their own communities, “bend their verdant palms
before it {the married couple} in a sign of honor”. (35)
Similarly, by means
of Christ’s medicine the State is purged of the false
glory accorded it by men believing it to be a god
holding the key to all truths, divine as well as human.
It is made aware of the eternal glory and significance
inhering in the proper performance of its own natural
function--- the “coordination”, in unity and harmony, of
a social system in which men are capable of responding
to higher truth. It sees a world develop in which
Catholics are grateful for the order it provides, and
give praise, even without police pressure, to the
beneficent, virtuous actions of its authorities. The
State could no longer be worshipped as a god in a
Catholic order of things; but by being directed to its
proper functions, it could finally live with the
security of something divine. (36)
It is impossible to
overestimate the effect the Church’s guidance has on the
question of the patria, patriotism, and the manifold
authoritative organs of the spirit of place and time.
The peculiar authority of the corporation of the
homeland is all-encompassing and intense. It is also
subtle, jealous, and not infrequently parochial and
unjust. Perhaps more than any other authority, it needs
close tutelage by a well-ordered State lest it be seized
by perverse ideas and individuals and become a means of
destruction rather than one of attaining virtue. So
dreadful is its power when gone astray that those under
its influence---as everyone certainly is under its
influence with respect to the common language of his
homeland---will generally not even know how to phrase
their complaints against it. How could they under
ordinary circumstances? Even the very means of
expression are provided and determined by it.
How could the
Church, the most perfect cleansing agent of all, not
have the responsibility of guiding and correcting the
patria, just as she has this responsibility with regard
to individuals? If she failed to assume this
responsibility she would leave untouched something that
could become her greatest enemy or her greatest friend.
The Church must show the patriot that his homeland is
not the only homeland; that it is not infallible; that
he has another homeland in the Mystical Body, in God,
through Christ, in heaven; a homeland with its own
language, customs, and affection in the form of divine
love. The patriot must be taught that patriotic love and
sacrifice for the glory of his nation has moral limits;
that the spirit and authority of a specific place and
time must bend to Christ.
When cleansed, the
earthly homeland finds its proper and truly exalted
niche in the universe. The homeland becomes a school for
solidarity, always engaged in building saints. The
Church supports it as the most obvious realm in which
self-sacrifice extending beyond immediate affection and
self-interest can take root. She teaches that in
submission to Christ the homeland’s peculiar customs
will be recognized for all of their eternal value, and
that its people may realize a commitment to one another
that without grace they would never have had the
strength to fulfill. Hence, the Church becomes the glue
of a politically unified nation like France, and the
chief cultural force behind a politically divided one
like that of the Italian peninsula. Moreover, in showing
them their eternal significance and duty, she shows them
how they may perform special missions for God earning
them unique honors in the eternal fatherland of all men.
Perhaps nowhere is
the importance of the Church’s assistance to the
corporate entity of the patria more obvious than with
respect to the unity of all men in international,
world-wide fraternity. Yes, such a universal
super-homeland is philosophically conceivable; there
were, after all, stoics and other cosmopolitans in the
ancient world. Yes, there could be a love of mankind as
such. Still, it is very hard to give any natural
incarnate expression to this concept in a way that could
have impact upon creatures of flesh and blood.
The Church alone
has been able to incarnate this concept, because she
alone, as Christ-continued, can really recapitulate
everything in herself: all men and the whole of nature
that serves them. Moreover, the Church had demonstrably
made worldwide fraternity possible. No member nations
loved the Roman Empire, but diverse nations of different
races from across the globe have, in fact, loved the
Church. In addition, the Church, through the Papacy, has
offered a clear authority that has worked for
international union in peace and justice, and in the
most pragmatic way possible. The Papacy does not indulge
in utopian dreaming (or at least it did not do so in
Taparelli’s day). Its claims are universal indeed, but
specific in their scope and goal, and so absolutely
clear that everyone can find them discussed and
enumerated in conciliar decrees and theological texts.
It had worked practically to lessen warfare in the
Middle Ages by giving support to and preaching the Peace
and Truce of God. Despite the sins and errors of many
individual popes, its institutional earthly needs did
not reach levels threatening to the temporal interests
or security of the various peoples of Europe and the
world. After all, the Papacy only needed a small slice
of territory to operate with some sense of independence.
Hence, the idea of
a just international order---a just homeland for all
mankind in which both its common nature and its true
national differences are simultaneously respected---was
far more than merely “helped” by Christianity. It was
within Christianity that it first became an effective
natural force at all; an effective natural force
designed for the benefit of individuals who were meant
to be divinized in submission to Christ. (37)
Here, then, is the
Second International Law: the need for nature’s messages
to be cleansed by a Church, which is, in fact,
Christ-continued. This cleansing, far from robbing
nature of anything that belongs to it, leads nature away
from dead ends, opening its eyes to its own glories. It
exalts nature in a fashion exceeding anything it could
ever have fully imagined on its own.
Law Three: The
Incarnation, Sacralized Nature, and the Dance of Life
We are now brought
to the third and final lesson the Incarnation teaches
us: that gaining knowledge about nature, and using this
knowledge properly, cannot be reduced to iron-clad,
mechanical, “scientific” rules. Knowing even the most
sublime principles, the most profoundly true doctrines,
does not, by that fact alone, automatically solve the
difficulties of living. Three reasons explain why this
is the case.
First, in affirming
the value of all created things, the Incarnation teaches
us that each and every individual life adds its piece to
the mosaic of God’s plan, and in each and every
unrepeatable moment of its existence. There is nothing
in authentic Christianity of knowing the rules and then
treating the actual living of life in accordance with
these guidelines as an unnecessary side-light. It is in
and through the application of Christian principles to
life that these principles have their salvific effect
and bring about the recapitulation of nature through the
Body of Christ. Indeed, our actual living of the
principles involved teaches us something that not living
them would not do. In other words, history---individual,
corporate, and sacred---teaches us. It does not make up
the principles that need to be applied to history, but,
in using them, it teaches us more about them than if
history---English or Italian, for example---and specific
persons---St. Paul and Blessed Pius IX---had not
existed. A society living Christianity knows more than
one that does not. Moreover, it knows more about life
through living it; not by mere description of living it
alone. Nature does operate by rules, but one of these
rules is the drama of individual and corporate life
itself.
Secondly, knowledge
about life cannot be reduced to a battery of fixed,
iron-clad rules, precisely because it involves God. God,
as St. Augustine rather succinctly notes, is, after all,
God; and this, by definition, places Him beyond the
power of man to put Him and His works in a neat little
package. Whatever could be so packaged would not be God
or of God. The Incarnation is obviously a mystery, even
though partly susceptible to human reasoning. Just how
the Word is related to the Father, the Human Nature to
the Divine, the Church to Christ, the world of things
recapitulated in Christ to Christ who recapitulates
them, cannot adequately be explained in any textbook.
Indeed, even the limited manner in which these things
can be explained is mysterious. It is the complex work
of a Reason, enlightened by a gift of divine Grace which
operates differently from the processes of the
intellect, but which makes the mind take itself
seriously in the first place!
Something similar
can be said of the question of gaining insight into
nature and life’s purpose as a whole. Yes, nature is
theoretically knowable to us, since the created world is
different from God and precisely meant to be an
environment in which we can function as “lords of the
universe”. But nature in general, like human nature in
particular, is something over which the Spirit of God
has always hovered, and in a small segment of which the
Word took flesh during the reign of Augustus Caesar.
Nature, being from its creation a part of God’s order,
is now meant to be a living, vibrant part of the
Mystical Body of Christ. It is a vain effort to attempt
to speak of man abstracted from the context of his
supernatural destiny, of history and human nature
abstracted from the fact of the Incarnation, as though
one could thereby gain a “purer”, “natural”, more
“objective” or “scientific” understanding of history,
human nature, and individuals. To do so is precisely not
to speak of history, human nature, and men as they
really are. One can only discuss nature, therefore, in
its ascertainable, mechanical characteristics if one has
the clearest appreciation that it is still, after all,
an “unbought grace”, a mystery, a place of charms that
cannot be rationally catalogued and placed on library
shelves for “walking brains” to understand. One could
never speak adequately of nature without reference to
the supernatural reality that has always been its
cradle. And this is even more true since the Incarnation
of Our Lord has poured supernatural life into the
deepest recesses of all of nature, offering it a
transformation in Christ that can only be fully
appreciated through the gift of faith.
It is owing to this infusion of the supernatural into
nature that whenever we begin to speak of the role of
the individual, we hit upon the need for society; when
we begin to speak of society, we run across the truth of
the individual; when of man, of woman; when of the
Church, the State; when of reason, faith; when of faith,
reason; of the one, the many; of the many, the one. They
are all mysteriously bound together in a way that a
purely mechanical science will never unravel. One thinks
of Gradgrind in Dickens’ Hard Times as he dictates his
scientific definition of a horse to a student, who knows
the horse as a creature of indescribable mystery that is
much more than the sum of its biological parts. As the
Civiltà repeatedly noted, nature and grace, though
different from one another, are intricately intertwined.
There is another
crucial reason that explains why the life of sacralized
nature defies scientific description. It is the fact
that even though nature, through individuals and their
corporations, has entered into the life of Christ, the
deification of any given individual is, while he lives,
by no means certain. All through a lifetime of working
out one’s divinization, there is always the danger of
its coming to naught through a perversion of individual
will. No one is so well formed as to have found the
precise way of putting the teachings of Christ into
practice every moment of every day without fear of
failure. Temptation to sin and the reality of sin make
the seeking of the restoration of all things in Christ
an activity that must always be undertaken in fear and
trembling. Even if, per impossibile, the rule for doing
things justly could dispense one from the effort of
living justly, one would still have to be prepared for
the possibility of the sinful rejection of that rule
itself. A person must sometimes make odd, unexpected
maneuvers to avoid the pitfalls opened up by his own sin
or by the sins of others. If he is not aware of this, he
just as surely courts disaster as a dancer who takes the
floor oblivious to the abilities and actions of other
people because he has determined for himself the steps
of the ideal twirl. (38)
How, then, does a
Christian put together all the elements required to give
a full picture of the meaning and purpose of life in a
way that works in practice? He takes a cue from the
dance mentioned above. He enters the dance of life and
lives according to its rules with humility, awe, a sense
of mystery, a sense of humor, and attention to the fact
that new things are actually happening, one by one,
around him, which he is required to harmonize with God’s
plan. He realizes that it is not enough for him to learn
the intellectual and religious rules that make for
justice; that he must himself be just; and that to be
just he must enter the dance of life in a Christian
frame of mind and prepare to deal with the stuff of
existence. He could learn perfectly all the rules he
wanted to learn---all that is available to learn---and
still not have the prize of eternal life in the bag. For
part of the key to that prize is precisely the moving
from birth to death, through the never-to-be-repeated
events of his existence, which he must confront with the
truth of the Incarnation in that dance of life that
cannot be fully described with pen and paper.
How does the
Christian deal with the problems and seeming paradoxes
of Faith and Reason? He has them “dance” with one
another, live with one another; and he learns from the
experience. How does he deal with Church-State problems
and paradoxes? He has them “dance” with one another,
because that dance itself is part of the meaning of
life. To treat the individual’s life and individual
events as the only essential elements in the search for
understanding nature is a grave error, because there is
much more to existence than the experiences of one man
and the mere data of history. But to treat them as part
of a picture that includes the other two incarnational
laws is essential. It is only thus that one avoids a
vision of reality in which the entirety of human life
and the whole of the human experience are reduced to
mere incidentals, and Christian order to a pure
mechanical device.
Christianity is the
Way, the Truth, and the Life. Hence, the only manner in
which the fullness of sight can be ensured is if
nature’s messages, purged by the Faith, Grace, and the
work of the Church, are heeded, day to day, with
commitment to the constant battle to be waged, with an
awareness of the possibility of falling, and with hope
in Providence—i.e., with awareness of the complete dance
of life. What insights do Christian saints have? What
did the Christian Middle Ages know about life? We can
read part of what they knew, but we cannot fully know
these insights ourselves unless we do what Christ
commanded: humbly, in awe, run the race for perfection,
be perfect, and live more abundantly in consequence.
The Individual and the
Fullness of Sight
How does the
individual come to know the truth about life, the truth
about the world around him? He does so by understanding
that the path to truth is through the Incarnation, which
gives him the chance to see the world from the
standpoint of the God who created it. He does so by
realizing that seeing the world with Christ’s eyes
involves recognizing the need for living life in
submission to a network of bodies, a corporate society,
all of which, natural and supernatural, are meant to
cooperate in raising him to eternal happiness. He does
so by grasping the fact that the truth about life cannot
be reduced to intellectual formulas, for it has
variegated contours answerable and appealing to the
whole of his humanity, and must be “danced” into with a
sense of joy, humility, humor, and mystery. He does so
by admitting that the more deeply he plunges into the
fullness of life in nature that is a consequence of
desiring life in Christ, the more he will know, develop,
and, hence, progress.
Yes, it is true
that “the Incarnate Word did not teach reading and
writing”, and that it is “a profanation to say that the
mission of the Son of God was a mission…of social
benefit”. (39) Nevertheless, the sight that comes from
Christ and in Christ through the desire of God to save
individual souls has enormous direct and indirect social
consequences. A civilization guided by sight of this
sort will be led “to the height of greatness” (40), and
“the legitimate consequences, not only for the
individual but also for society, for happiness both
individual and social, will be for us the highest that
can be enjoyed on this earth” (41). Civilization in its
most complete, harmonious sense, capable of extending
itself to all cultures without violating their essences,
bring diversity from unity, was born “on Calvary at the
foot of the cross” (42), causing “social improvements
which it would have been insane to presume possible
under the heathens” (43).
Nothing is superfluous in this movement of all things,
through men, in Christ, toward Divine Light, because
nothing is superfluous to God. When each section of
nature plays its proper role, the subordinate submitting
to its superior, the superior sacrificing itself, like
the Lamb, for its subordinate, then the whole of the
universe manifests its desire for restoration in God.
But there is no completion of this movement here on
earth, and even if there could be, for a moment, the
possibility of sin would always leave it open to
corruption once again. When the world is properly
formed, it understands better than ever the fragility of
its situation before the end of time and the tremendous
grace that consists in the constant supernatural
assistance that comes from Christ to keep it in proper
working order. It cultivates every part of nature and
supernature to live as it should, but more especially it
cultivates Christ, since it is only through and in
submission to Christ that its individual lords and
stewards are divinized.
The Catholic world
was once on the path to such a maturity. That world
erected by the Revolution in modern times is not. For
the Revolution decided that parts of the structure of
things were dispensable, the Incarnation most of all.
And it is precisely this assault upon God and Nature
that fixed a blindfold over the eyes of many
well-meaning men and women, changing them into truly
intransigent enemies of truth.
1) Liberatore,
“L’enciclica dell’8 dicembre”, vi, 1 (1865), 287-288.
2) Some articles to consider in this question are
Liberatore, “Se la personalità abbia da temere dalla
chiesa”, i, 2 (185), 518-541; “Il restauro della
personalità pel cristianesimo”, i, 2 (1850), 367-383;
Taparelli, “Dell’elemento divino nella società”, ii, 9
(1855), 129-140, 385-396; Ballerini, “Il progresso”,
iii, 11 (1858), 129-143, 287-303, 545-571; 12 (1858),
184-203, 417-434, 542-557.
3) See, among many others, Taparelli, “Teorie sociali
sull’insegnamento”, i, 1 (1850), 26-51, 129-157,
257-274, 369-380; “La società”, ii, 3 (1853), 225-242;
Liberatore, “Valore del razionalismo intorno alla
civiltà”, i, 1 (1850), 159-182; Taparelli, “Il superiore”,
ii, 10 (1855), 5-20, 241-256, 369-383.
4) Taparelli, “L’autorità sociale”, ii, 4 (1853), 19-37,
175-189, 291-304; “Trasmissione dell’autorità”, iii, 3
(1856), 369-378; “Il superiore”, ii, 10 (1855), 5-20,
241-256, 369-383; “Ordini rappresentativi”, i, 6 (1851),
497-518, 641-652.
5) Taparelli, “Sul possesso dell’autorità”, i, 3 (1850),
238; “Il superiore”, ii, 10 (1855), 254.
6) Taparelli, “Sul possesso dell’autorità”, i, 3 (1850),
260.
7) Taparelli, “I corpi d’arte”, i, 10 (1852), 379.
8) Taparelli, “Sul possesso dell’autorità”, i, 3 (1850),
19-24, 103-118, 221-283.
9) Taparelli, “Le riforme austriache”, iv, 9 (1861), 552
(citation): For the rest of the argument in this
paragraph, see Curci, “Il MDCCCLII”, I, 8 (1851), 21;
Also, Liberatore, “Note a una lettera di Orlando
Garbarini”, i, 2 (1850), 561n; “La teocrazia”, i, 4
(1850), 369-371; Taparelli, “Epilogo”, i, 11 (1852),
492; “Il papato”, i, 3 (1850), 504-50; “Un bicchierino
di Vermuth”, i, 8 (1851), 92; “Sul possesso
dell’autorità”, i, 3 (1850), 270; Calvetti, “Del
rinnovamento”, i, 8 (1852), 178; “Cronaca contemporanea”,
i, 2 (1850), 211-213; i, 9 (1852), 561-564.
10)Taparelli, “Gli ospiti di Casorate o la nazionalità”,
ii, 1 (1853), 514,
651-652; “Sul possesso dell’autorità”, i, 3 (1850),
227-228; Curci, “Di
alcune difficoltà”, v, 9 (1864), 271.
11)Taparelli, Saggio teoretico di diritto naturale
appoggiato sul fatto
(Ninth Edition, Two Volumes, Rome, 1900), ii, 178.
12)Ibid., 182.
13)Ibid., 194.
14)Ibid., 184.
15)See, also, Taparelli, “Sul possesso dell’autorità”, i,
3 (1850), 116,
125; “Gli ospiti di Casorate”, ii, 1 (1853), 521; “Sulla
emancipazione dei popoli adulti”, i, 3 (1850), 543-544.
16)Liberatore, “Se la personalità abbia da temere dalla
chiesa”, i, 2
(1850), 535; Berardi, “La passione di Gesù Cristo nella
sua chiesa”, vi, 2 (1865), 41, 42, 43 (extended
quotation).
17)Liberatore, “La passione di Cristo e l’epoca presente”,
v, 2 (1862), 5.
18)Berardi, “La passione di Gesù Cristo”, vi, 2 (1865),
40.
19)Taparelli, “Un raggio di luce”, iv, 10 (1861), 293.
20)”Brevi cenni sull concilio ecumenico”, vii, 4 (1868),
562.
21)Liberatore, “Il principato civile dei papi tutela
della dignità
personale”, i, 3 (1850), 99, 210.
22)Liberatore, “Roma e il mondo”, i, 7 (1851), 533; See,
also, Taparelli,
“Il pedagogo supremo del mondo e della chiesa”, v, 2
(1862), 449; Liberatore, “Proposta di dimostrazione
cattolica per gl’italiani”, vi, 3 (1865), 523;
Piccirillo, “Il prete e il sacerdozio cattolico
considerato in tutte le sue glorie per l’abate P.A.
Turquois”, iii, 8 (1857), 87.
23)Curci, “Esclusività”, i, 3 (1850), 476.
24)See, for example, Taparelli, Carteggi, 142-144,
161-162, 393-395.
25)Ballerini, “Il vero ed il falso nel progresso”, iv, 3
(1850), 176.
26)Taparelli, “Un raggio di luce”, iv, 10 (1861), 315,
315-325; Also, “Il
pedagogo supremo della chiesa e del mondo”, v, 2 (1862),
449.
27)Ballerini, “Il vero ed il falso nel progresso”, iv, 3
(1859), 176.
28)Ibid., 548.
29)Ballerini, “Il progresso”, iii, 12 (1858), 432; See,
also, Liberatore, “Il
restauro della personalità”, i, 2 (1850), 369, 536;
Berardi, “La passione di Gesù Cristo”, vi, 2 (1865), 42;
Also, Liberatore, “Se la personalità abbia da temere
dalla chiesa”, i, 2 (1850), 533; Taparelli, Carteggi,
115; “Dell’elemento divino”, ii, 9 (1855), 134; “La
stampa libera”, i, 4 (1850), 256-257.
30)Liberatore, agreeing with a book reviewed in the
journal, “Della
differenza e della somiglianza tra Dio e l’uomo. Cenni
bilico-cattolici di Don Placidio Talia”, iii, 3 (1856),
688.
31)Taparelli, “Il protestantesimo”, i, ii (1850), 391;
“L’autorità sociale”,
ii, vi (1854), 517; “Libertà ed ordine”, i, ii (1850),
632; Curci, “Esclusività”, i, iii (1850), 480.
32)Spaventa, “La teocrazia”, in La politica dei gesuiti
nel secolo XVI e
nel XIX, ed., Giovanni Gentile (Milan, 1911), p. 96.
33)Taparelli, “Dell’elemento divino nella società”, ii,
9 (1855), 135, 134;
Ballerini, “Il vero ed il falso”, iv, 3 (1859), 414-426.
34)See, for example, Taparelli, “Di una apologia
libertina degli ordini
rappresentativi”, ii, I (1853), 616.
35)Audisio, “Teorica del matrimonio”, ii, 3 (1853), 249;
Liberatore, “Il
matrimonio sacramento”, i, 10 (1852), 158-159.
36)Taparelli, “Trasmissione dell’autorità”, iii,
3(1865), 177-178.
37)See, for example, Taparelli, “La separazione della
chiesa dallo stato”,
i, 1 (1850), 652-654; “La tregua di Dio”, iv, 2 (1859),
529-541.
38)See, for example, Taparelli, “Dell’elemento divino
nella società”, ii, 9
(1855), 129-140, 385-396.
39)Calvetti, “Del rinnovamento”, i, 8 (1851), 270;
Parodi, “Scritti varii di
V.M.D.”, ii, 10 (1855), 314; Curci, “La civiltà antica e
la moderna”, v, 7 (1863), 267.
40)Taparelli, “Naturalismo”, i, 4 (1850), 467.
41)Taparelli, “Felicità sociale”, i, 4 (1850), 578.
42)Taparelli, “Teorie sociali”, i, 1 (1850), 41.
43)Ballerini, “Il progresso”, iii, 12 (1858), 432.
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