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Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Unperceived Ideol. Transship. and Dial. IntraText CT - Text |
I. Importance of the Emotional Aspects of Irenistic Utopianism
Certainly important to this study is the analysis of the emotional state correlative to this utopianism since ‑‑ as shown below ‑‑ in order to destroy the Western world, communism exploits the emotional circumstances in which irenicism thrives more than the ideas upon which it is based.
Man, created for the earthly paradise and a state of integrity lost through sin, deep down feels a living desire for those conditions which according to the Divine plan he never should have lost. This appetite is quite explainable since each being, because of the legitimate love of self, loves what is good for itself.
In addition, the end of the aspirations of man, whom God has invited to a superior destiny, is neither in the integrity of his nature nor the earthly paradise, but in the perfect and eternal happiness of the celestial paradise.
Thus, the tendency for what we could generically and perhaps somewhat loosely call the paradisiacal throbs with a burning and unquenchable force deep down in every man. He feels this force always, though in different degrees, and it is mixed, at times consciously and at times not, with everything he thinks and desires.
Oriented by the Faith, elevated by grace, and developed according to the norms of Catholic morality, this desire of the paradisiacal constitutes an indispensable and fundamental force for the ennoblement of man in every aspect. It invites him to elevate and to perfect his soul and to improve the conditions of his earthly existence as much as possible. Above all, it invites him to aspire to Heaven and to think of it frequently. However, the Catholic must understand that although error, evil and, consequently, pain can be circumscribed, they are not eradicable from this world, as taught so well by the parable of the wheat and the chaff (cf. Matt. 13:24‑30). This life has a fundamental meaning of trial, struggle, and expiation that the faithful knows to be in accordance with the highest designs of God's kindness, justice, and wisdom. The end of man and his glorious, complete, and perennial happiness is only in Heaven.