The hesitant conclusion: The Evil One !!
There were four of us. We were discussing and easily resolving multiple world problems. It was easy, sitting in a quiet office with friends, relaxed and free associating. Two mid-aged attorneys, a retired physician and a battered old (101 years) priest—me. It was an enjoyable and comfortable atmosphere until the conversation turned to the reasons for the current world insanity.
The three of them ganged up on the old guy (me, again), pressing for my perception of why things went so wrong. Hard pressed, I fell back upon my life long conviction that one must understand the inner realities of the mind to get even a glimmer of understanding of the outer (or extra-mental world). In effect, it is what I think that matters. I deeply believe that Thinking heavily influences behaviour.
The Thinker by Auguste Rodin
I was (am) very aware of many possible factors acting like filters to block knowing the “truth”. DNA, life experience, family, era, poor logic, religion, ignorance, one’s emotional life, and hosts more. All can discolor, distort, exaggerate.
Even as a gangling teenager studying all the branches of philosophy, I was fascinated by Epistemology which asks the basic question: Can the mind accurately grasp what is external to it? Is there such a “thing” as objective truth? Can there be a subjective truth?
Ultimately, no matter what the behavior or policy, thinking generally precedes the ultimate action. (Psychiatric problems are a unique category.) For the most part, it isn’t facts that determine. It is what one perceives to be the fact. The Hitlers, the Stalins, the Maos, the Francis of Assisi mould, Dorothy Day or whoever it might be. All “See” something which they believe to be blindingly clear. There are many dynamics working in all of us and producing what we call our perceptions. And it seems to me that “de gustibus non disputandum est“ really rules our thought process.
I like it or I don’t like it. The reasons for the attraction are often blurred and inaccessible to consciousness. Some people like liver. Some don’t. Further discussion is largely or often useless.
One of the more controversial and fierce examples of this hypothesis is abortion. In one set of thinking premises, every single indication points to the actual termination of a human life….the possible taking of a human life at any stage of gestation. If left alone, the zygote will inevitably, by sequencing DNA, become a fully developed human being…Not a cluster of cells or a blob. Science, religion, experience, common sense, all seem (in this perception) to indicate that an abortion is a brutal, unjust oppression on the most vulnerable and helpless of all human beings. And all the strident demonstrations to make this killing free and accessible seem to be closely linked to the right of free and unlimited sexual choice…. Pro-life movements would tend to limit sexual behaviour, which might mean more personal control of oneself and, in the marital scene, the occasional practice of continence as needed. This apparently is unacceptable.
On the other hand, the Pro abortion mind sees the unborn baby, as a high probablity, as a health (?) risk and feels that, if allowed to develop in its natural course, it could become a burden on the parents and, as such, could become an unhealthy burden for all. There would especially be a negative impact on the woman, though women have been having babies for millions of years relatively safely.
Pro abortion seems to believe that the American Constitution guarantees them the right to evacuate or dismember the unborn child if one so chooses. The child (unborn but still the inevitable child) loses its right to continue living under this legal penumbra. It can be terminated, if the mother so chooses anytime. A most revolting position of some is the grotesquerie of the botched abortion where the child survives the butchery but is allowed to die extra utero.
“Keep your hands off my ovaries” and the like are common chants among many angry protestors. But The real unarticulated protest is “DON’T LIMIT MY SEX LIFE”. The latent reason for protest is the desire to maintain sexual freedom of any kind and at any time.
But the empirical data are available to all. Biological, anatomical, physiological, psychological information is at one’s finger tips. Fetology offers vital information daily. The reasons for differing conclusions have to be the result of differing thought/values. There, then, can occur the inevitable confrontation with the hard facts of personal matrices. If a conflict arises between perception and reality, does one negate perception or does one dump reality? Logically, one cannot have both. If my perception matches the “real”, there is no problem.
The old Festinger term of “cognitive dissonance” surfaces. Two people view the same data and get contradicting conclusions. Why? How come intelligent and good people can accept a bad interpretation to relieve the dissonance? How come Auschwitz and Dachau? How come people can lie to themselves? How come the massive wave of baby killing? and Porno and sexual laxity?
The answer lies in the mind. In the ever popular past time of Rationalization whereby a mind can justify an evil act by masking evil as good.
And the answer is not in Freud or Jung. They may be good people, but they operate on a mistaken level. The answer lies with the Divine Jesus Who allows, for His reasons, another “force” to attack the human mind to its own destruction. The Demonic. Evil personified. Satan. The devil. Nothing physical. Every moral mistake begins in the mind. In thought. From the father of lies…who says that it is all “OK”…
Our approach should not be the “nice guy” style where everyone is fine just as he is, with no need for change, growth, or conversion. The answer lies in the call to the Cross. To think the thoughts of Jesus and sanity. But the road to Jesus is the Way of the Cross. It is cobble-stoned, not nicely paved. This Road is often rough and lonely and painful, even if beautiful.
This is often blatantly flaunted in the sphere of homosexuality. No matter what Scripture, human experience, common sense, science, intelligence says, you hear the loud proclamation of that false equation — “love is love”, “I have a right to love”, “God forgives everything anyway”, and hosts of variations on the same theme………”I have a right to my sexual expression.” “God would never deny me the rights and joys of a lover or ask me to be ‘Celibate’.“ “If I want it, I should have it.” Rationalize one’s way out of the dilemma and pretend that e.g. homosexual sodomy is pleasing to God.
The Immaculate Conception by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo 1768, oil on canvas
I have ministered since 1994 weekly to a group of same-sex attracted men, many of whom once lived the gay lifestyle but have since opted for chastity which they believe is incumbent on every one. They seek real love and real intimacy in healthy friendships, highly compatible with the Plan of God. They do not suddenly become “straight” but they strive to be chaste and find happiness in more spiritually centered matters. They are not “denying who or what they are”, but rather try to live lives pleasing to the Creator. They live in the great glow of truth with the “amazin’ grace” of God. They have learned the deep meaning of the CROSS.
Continually, they generally say that the life of Chastity is far more peaceful and ultimately happier than anything else. It is not being same-sex attracted which is sinful. Sexual acting out is. As it is for “Straights”. Being tempted is no sin. Acting out is.
It seems so clear. How come, then, intelligent and good people will adopt and live out what is so patently evil? How come the self destruction of addictions and hatred? It is all evil—sometimes even on highest levels. It might be the demonic. The evil one which is cast out by prayer and fasting.
St. Michael, angel—defend us in battle. Be our protection against the snares of the evil one. Drive back into hell Satan and the other evil spirits who seek to destroy us. May our Lady protect us to see clearly, to shield us from insane thinking and to hear the voice of the LORD WHO SAYS I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE.