"What should we say to men?" wondered Antoine de Saint Exupéry, as he suffered to see his contemporaries deceived by the fallacious promises of hedonism. It is, indeed, quite difficult to speak to those men who, believing that happiness can be reduced to pleasure, turn the latter into the only reason for their existence. Blinded, they are unable to realize that pleasure is only a means used by our sensitive nature to help us in the pursuit of happiness. Thus, if we seek pleasure for itself, become satisfied with what it gives us, and remain there, we introduce a deadly confusion between end and means. This confusion rapidly provokes a radical incapacity to think and to will.
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
"What should we say to men?" wondered Antoine de Saint Exupéry, as he suffered to see his contemporaries deceived by the fallacious promises of hedonism. It is, indeed, quite difficult to speak to those men who, believing that happiness can be reduced to pleasure, turn the latter into the only reason for their existence. Blinded, they are unable to realize that pleasure is only a means used by our sensitive nature to help us in the pursuit of happiness. Thus, if we seek pleasure for itself, become satisfied with what it gives us, and remain there, we introduce a deadly confusion between end and means. This confusion rapidly provokes a radical incapacity to think and to will.
Indeed, we cannot refuse to respect the order of the things without suffering the consequences. Thus, if we seek pleasure as an end. we will be promptly enslaved to it and obliged to increase its frequency and intensity to maintain in ourselves a certain degree of excitation which is, in the end, but a poor counterfeit of happiness. The example of a drug addict is the best illustration, but not the only one! Man, stupefied by the tyrannical power of the pleasures to which he is dedicated, lives in the disorder of his passions. Having become unable to realize this, he falls into a tangle that could become his grave.
What can we say to men to prevent their burying themselves alive? The atrophy of their intelligence, subject to the dictates of their passions, does not allow them to distinguish what is true from what is false, what is good from what is evil. The artificial excitement in which they live creates a multitude of sensual images that block the intelligence, as greasy foods clog the arteries. The man dedicated to pleasure does not think any more, but lapses into an unhealthy delirium.
This unrestrained race towards pleasure is not only synonymous with the ruin of the intelligence; it also rings the death-knell of the will. Pleasure, seen as happiness, develops in man a destructive selfishness which does not allow him to forget himself in order to give to others and to attain in this way true happiness. Exclusively concerned with pleasure, he constantly seeks himself and rejoices pathologically in this perverted love for himself.
Does Saint- Exupéry 's question still make any sense? Before even wondering what it is necessary to say to men, would it not be appropriate to ask oneself: "What remains of man?" Or more simply: "Are there still men?"
Let us be wary of falling into a dark despair. Is not despair also a practical negation of the intelligence and a disguised refusal to face up to things? Is it not a refusal to fight and thus to will?
In spite of being obsessed with pleasures that cripple his intelligence and his will, man has not lost his human nature. He is not an animal. He never will be. It is true that sometimes, by his behavior, man brings himself down to a level even lower than that of an animal. But this terrible fall is still a shining proof, if one is necessary, that man remains man and still preserves the qualities of his human nature, since in falling he commits acts that exceed the capacities of an animal devoid of reason.
Even in these darkest hours of history, when there hardly remain men worthy of this name (so much have they wallowed in the mire of their turpitude), human nature remains intact in its essential properties. Although man makes little use of them, these two noble faculties - the intelligence and the will - remain. The greatest decadence will never be able to cause man to cease being man.
Saint Exupéry's question retains today all its pertinence, because even if most men have surrendered their intellects and wills, some still try to remain faithful in spite of the wounds inflicted by the hedonism of our age. What should we say to them to awaken in them the sense of reality, the knowledge of the truth and the love of the good?
Modern man is affected by a serious illness that brings him to the threshold of death. It is necessary to go to the essentials if we want to save him. It would be useless to launch out into vain and lofty considerations. Intellectualism never cured anybody - which should not astonish us, since intellectualism itself is no more than a disease of the soul. Resolutely turning our back on this error, we simply want to preach "Jesus, and Jesus crucified".
•nly the Cross, planted in our hearts, can give us again the sense of the Love of God. Jesus Christ crucified preaches to us the Love of His Father, Who did not hesitate to deliver His Only Son to redeem us. The transpierced Heart of Christ dead on the Cross proclaims this same Love. The Sacred Heart gives us again the sense of God and, therefore, that of man. The sorrowful way that leads to Calvary is a path of transcendence that makes it possible for man to understand that he is gratuitously, divinely loved and that his life has no meaning unless it is a response to this Love.
What could we tell men but the secret of the Heart of Christ? To receive it and to show ourselves faithful, let us have recourse to Our Lady and Her Immaculate Heart. Learning from Her, we will find again the sense of the honor due to God, the sense of, a profound humility and the sense of fraternal charity.
"What should we say to men?" That they are not worth anything by themselves, but that they have cost much and that they must from now on behave as worthy heirs of the Divine Blood shed for them. In this way, they will recover the sense of their ascent toward eternal beatitude.
In Christo Sacerdote et Maria,
Fr. Yves le Roux
NEWS FROM THE SEMINARY
• On the three days preceding the Feast of the Ascension, the Seminary observed the annual Rogation Days. The ceremonies marking these venerable days of petition began each morning at 6:30 AM. The entire community chanted the Litany of the Saints in a solemn procession to beg God's blessings both spiritual and temporal.
• Throughout the month, the Seminary hosted a larger than usual number of visitors. This would seem to bode another large incoming class for the upcoming fall. Please pray that God will preserve the generosity of these young men.
• The month of May concluded with the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. On this day, the Seminary community enjoyed its annual end-of-the-year outing. The Sung Mass in the morning was followed by a short six-mile hike to the cookout site. After the meal, the seminarians played the traditional "two dozen players" vs. "two dozen players" softball game.