December 2005 - Progress - A Mirage

As another year comes to an end, we reflect upon the passage of time, the succession of events, the multiplicity of changes in our lives and our world. Year follows year, historical cycle follows historical cycle, but one reality always endures: the total opposition between the Christian spirit and the spirit of the world. Affirmed by Christ Himself, stressed by Saint Paul and taught by Saint Augustine, this opposition is not lessened by time. On the contrary, time accelerates and accentuates it.

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

As another year comes to an end, we reflect upon the passage of time, the succession of events, the multiplicity of changes in our lives and our world. Year follows year, historical cycle follows historical cycle, but one reality always endures: the total opposition between the Christian spirit and the spirit of the world. Affirmed by Christ Himself, stressed by Saint Paul and taught by Saint Augustine, this opposition is not lessened by time. On the contrary, time accelerates and accentuates it.

We are called to choose between these two cities and to resolutely enter into the combat resulting from their radically opposed spirits. Pacifism is a lure and neutrality is the weapon that the devil uses to flatter our cowardice. He knows, indeed, that a direct doctrinal confrontation turns always to his ruin. Hence, he prefers us to waver and, by drawing our attention to terrestrial realities so that we forget the need for our personal engagement, he inclines us to a spiritual lethargy so that we fall into a supernatural indifferentism which assures him of his victory.

This power of fascination, capable of diverting us from what is essential seems, today to be wholly concentrated upon the absolute reign of technology.

Technology is something good, indispensable. We do not reject technology itself, but its current despotic grip. It is impossible not to discover here the signs of a higher, but deviated, intelligence – satanic intelligence. This primacy of technology is, in fact, a diabolic weapon which denatures man. reducing him to the status of homo faber, only a maker of material things.

Man has been given a spiritual intelligence that constitutes all his nobility and allows him to be king of terrestrial creation, charged by God to preserve it in order. Thus, the principal function of intelligence is to know the causes of things, thereby enabling man to maintain the divinely intended harmony against the obvious deficiencies caused by original sin, which has introduced a source of permanent imbalance into the world.

This knowledge of causes was not intended to be limited to the natural world but, rather, to extend also to the supernatural universe. Thus, science was not meant to be reduced to physics. mathematics or metaphysics. It was to move beyond them and become theological. By means of real science, man was meant to elevate himself and discover universal laws and immutable principles. Taught by these laws and principles, his intelligence would have become sound and flexible, enabling him to judge and act with an upright intention. Man should be led by science to wisdom along a path marked by prudence.

But when we restrict man's intelligence to the field of technology, which is only a tool of certain practical sciences, we mutilate it. We are no longer in search of the hidden causes of things, but dedicated to the search for the adequate means to use them and obtain the greatest possible benefit. The supreme rule is usefulness. Man is captivated by results and completely absorbed by material concerns, both of which encourage his inclination to let himself go down the slope of comfort, facility, abandon.

This hypertrophy of technology blinds the soul, allowing the spirit of the world to penetrate it without startling it and distil into it its own principles. The soil is ready, the guard is lowered, the heart naturally inclines towards the things of this earth and swells with pride – after all, isn't man abolishing distances by means of computer networks and seeing with his own eyes the most distant stars?

The poor soul is unable to understand that knowledge loses in depth what it gains in extension. It prides itself in its dominion of the world! But the soul has became unable to control itself, not knowing itself any more since it lives perpetually outside itself, eager to discover a world which opens so many possibilities to it. Too tepid now to detect the trap, the soul has already been made a slave of a System where technology is only one more terrible means of servitude. Terrible indeed, as it works as a drug. There is no need for gates and guards, as the soul voluntarily makes itself a slave dedicated to the worship of technology.

Behind the sparkle of present progress, a real destruction of the intelligence is being carried out in a frightening silence. Such injury to the intelligence is most grave because it is the prelude to the establishment of a pitiless slavery. Indeed, technological progress exercises already such supremacy that intelligences are today formed exclusively to help it to advance even more. The intelligence has become the slave of progress, made apt only to serve technology and its unlimited growth. Even today we can see how in many instances technological progress refuses to acknowledge and submit to the limits imposed by the moral law. Thus, sooner or later, it will come into direct conflict with the Faith, and we will be forced to choose.

Although the world does not yet place this dilemma before us, its seeds are already planted. Alas, it is painful to acknowledge that this future confrontation will probably be to the detriment of the Faith, because technological progress brings with it a multitude of natural satisfactions that gratify the carnal man and render him more and more insensible to the hidden riches of the Faith. Progress proposes something concrete, while the Faith opens the souls to spiritual realities. invisible and impossible of being quantified.

How many Catholics have been contaminated by this modem spirit? We all would certainly say that we adore the one and only true God, but our souls are bewitched by our passions, skillfully exploited by the magic of auditory, visual and cybernetic technology.

It is time to shake off this new kind of yoke that whispers in our ears about the end of those times when effort and renouncement were the natural foundations of the soul and about the new era of pleasure taken in the quiet joy brought about by the abundance of our achievements.

But the soul declines as soon as it pays attention to such whispers. Lukewarmness invades it and it cannot reject all temptations. It allows itself to be seduced just a little, telling itself that it is so little that there is no real risk... Alas! The bad habit is thus acquired, and it is all the more pernicious as it seems unimportant. The soul sinks into what is even worse than sin: a numbness that is only the prelude to a paralysis which leads unrelentingly to death.

The remedy consists in shaking off this yoke by means of an interior life based on the theological virtues and by the refusal to let oneself to be imperceptibly caught up and formed by the new totalitarianism of a world ruled by technology – a world that will not indefinitely hide its hatred of God. Georges Bernanos rightly said that "modern civilization cannot be understood if we do not accept as a premise that it is a universal conspiracy against any kind of interior life."

Sursum corda! The tentacles of the modern world will be impotent to seize the souls whose raison d'être is the eternal Love of God. Such souls are souls of Faith. Nothing can bring them down, as their hope and their love are placed on High.

As Christmas approaches, we thank you for your moral and financial support and we pray for your intentions at the foot of the Manger. May the Infant Jesus bless you and your families!

In Christo Sacerdote et Maria,

Fr. Yves le Roux