The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-07-26

the intrinsic purity and natural eff
ficiency for good of human nature,
while at the same time he proclaims
the absolute necessity of reform The
nephew replies that this necessity is
the work of crafty priests and ambi-
tious rulers, who make it their bust
ness to keep nature in chains. repress
its native energies and restrain it's
pure and noble operations" The uncle
retorts that this was only shifting the
responsibility a step further back, since
the crafty priests and ambitious rulers
We're human nature" wherefore, they
at least stood in contradiction to his
theory of natures innate purity and
sanctity'' He then launches into a
definition of human nature relative,
to the fall, which is continued through
the present publication.
Very likely not. The Lutheran or
Calvinist doctrine of total depravity,
or total corruption of mans nature by
| the fall, is no doctrine of the Catholic
| church. 1t is heresy which she con-
dennis. Mans nature at the fall un-
derwent no physical change, and is in
trinsically what it was from the be-
ginning. 1t lost no natural faculty
and received no new appetite or pas
sion. AS pure nature, seclusa ratione
culpae, it is what it always was, and
always will be in this world. But
what you are to bear in mind is that
our nature never was intended to oper-
ate we'll, or to attain to it's beatitude,
save as the flesh was subordinated to
the spirit. On this point Christianity
| introduces no new law, but simply as
| serts what was the law from the be-
ginning. Always was the same law
necessary and obligatory, and all the
! difference is that before the fall the
flesh did not rebel, and obedience re-
/ quired no effort, no interior struggle;
but since the fall it has become re-
| bellious and it is only by effort, by
struggle, by painful and unceasfnS
| interior warfare, that we can subdue
it. and bring ourselves into conformity
with the law of God. By the. fall we
lost the supernatural grace which ele-
| waited us to the place of our supernat-
ural destiny what theologians call the
indebita; that is, the integrity of our
nature, exemption from sickness and
death, and, more especially to our pres
ent purpose, the subsection of the flesh
TO the spirit, or exemption from that
interior conflict between inclination
and duty, the flesh and the spirit,
which makes our whole earthly exist
ence one continual warfare, and orig
mates all tragedies of life. What was
/ before easy is now painful; what was
before done without effort is now pos
sible only by self-violence, self-denial,
notification interior cruci1xion."
'"There you are again, uncle, back in
your Christian asceticism, preaching
your eternal war against nature, and
matchmaking all that is sweet in our
natural emotions and ravishing in our
! sentiments You will tolerate nothing
that is natural. rYou will not permit a
! bird to sing, or flower to bloom. All
nature must be silent and drab-colored.
No heart must be allowed to expand
with joy, no fresh young love must be
! tasted, no sweet, intoxicating senti-
ments indulged.'h
Il understand you Dick, but you do
not understand the religion 1 profess.
L anathematize nothing that is good,
war against no pure and ennobling
sentiment, and L love, even more than
| in my cold and stormy and heretical
youth, the blithesome song of birds and
the beauty and fragrance of flowers.
To the Christian, nature is neither
drab- colored nor silent 1t is clothed
with the beauty of its Creator, and
vocal with the music of His love.
! Christian love purifies our sentiments
and gives them new sweetness and
power. All experience proves that
! Christian asceticism, as forbidding as
it may appear to you, is the highest
wisdom; nay, the only true philosophy
of life. No life is so miserable as that
of the unrestrained indulgence of our
| appetites and passions, which grow by
Indulgence and become all the more i'm
Fortunate in their demands the oftener
they are gratified. There is no appe-
,Ic Of no I1rn
does not become morbid by indulgence,
and, therefore, a source of torment.
| Heather wisdom taught that if we
would make a man happy we must
study to moderate his desires. The
philosophy of the Porch was defective
because it substituted pride for hui
mility, and, therefore, the self-denial
of the Stoics is not to be named with
the self-denial of the Christian; but it
was far superior to the philosophy of
the Garden. Such is the nature of
man, quarrel with it as you will, that
he cannot attain to real good without
imposing a severe restraints on his ap-
petites and passions, without keeping
them under, and maintaining in spite
of them the freedom of the spirit-that
true freedom wherewith the Son of
God makes us free, and which none
but the true Christian ascetic ever at
| tains to, or can even comprehend.
Freedom of the flesh is the slavery of
the spirit. and the emancipation of con-
cupiscence is only another name for
the subsection or slavery of reason.
These my dear Dick, are only COM
monpIace truths; nevertheless, they lie
at the foundation of all morality, OF
all science of virtue or beatitude, and
that, too, whether you consider man
individually or socially"
you may think So uncle, but you
must allow me to tell you that not so
thinks this enlightened and advanced
nineteenth century. You are behind the
age. We have exploded ali those no.
lions. You still talk of reason, and
profess to respect logic. We have
learned better We do not respect
logic; we place very little reliance on
reason. The reason or intellect, the
logical understanding, is very low
faculty, and, as the inspired Fourier
has taught should serve as a mere in
strument of the passions which are the
springs of action; not as their master.
We have passed beyond the Petrine
gospel, that of authority, attempted to
be realized in your old popish church,
| fit only for women and children, or the
infancy of nations; we have passed be-
yond your Pauline gospel, or that of
the intellect, reason or understanding,
on which Luther and Calvin founded
their churches, and which were fit only
for a certain stage in the development
of society; and we have passed on to
the Johannine, gospel, the gospel of
love, preached by st. John, the beloved
disciple, which never fails, but endures
for ever. We rely on the heart; we
place religion in the heart, and virtue
in sentiment We seek the man who
has a soul, who can feel, who has pure,
lofty, warm, gushing feelings, and who
is moved by their noble impulses, not
by the dry deductions of logic or the
cold calculations of duty. We hate the