June 2008 - The Call of the Summits

Man cannot be satisfied by vegetating in a dull mediocrity; a law inscribed in the depths of his soul pushes him to outdo himself. A healthy dissatisfaction afflicts him and gives him no rest until he rises to the conquest of a goal that both exceeds and ennobles him.

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

Man cannot be satisfied by vegetating in a dull mediocrity; a law inscribed in the depths of his soul pushes him to outdo himself. A healthy dissatisfaction afflicts him and gives him no rest until he rises to the conquest of a goal that both exceeds and ennobles him.

History shows us abundant examples of men engaged in this internal quest without stopping mid-way to enjoy themselves. Likewise, history teaches us that when man stops this progress, he sinks down: from being a conqueror, he becomes a sensualist who refuses to take risks and greedily seeks to be contented. However attractive, this is only a sliding path to a pitiful slavery, where, undergoing the tyranny of passions, man starts a long and sinister descent into hell. He who is satisfied with himself and has made pleasure his ultimate end - the only and unique reason for his existence - is already in hell here on earth, anteroom of eternal hell! This downward path, where any transcendence is excluded, is the only evolution that can be found in man. In fact, it is a devolution - regressive by nature, it hopelessly confuses quantity with quality.

Indeed, the man who wallows in pleasure greedily seeks what flatters his senses and becomes dependent on the quantity of such delights, in a vain attempt to hide their glaring lack of quality. Man is seduced by this disturbing quantity and, not finding any peace in it, tends to divinize it by multiplying it. He who has fallen thus, lives in the disorder of his passions and throws himself wholeheartedly into pleasures, trying to forget that they are momentary, trying to find rest in a happiness that escapes him no matter how hard he tries to capture it through his insatiable, disordered pleasures!

On the contrary, the man who is on an ascending path becomes aware of the absurdity of this search for quantity, aware of the trap that it contains and, turning away from it, opens himself to quality. Quantity burdens the soul, while quality elevates and invites it to a higher quest.

The senses, indeed, cannot give man the happiness he seeks and that was dishonestly promised to him by the bewitching illusions of artificial paradises. He needs more and better. Dissatisfied with that vain quest, but captive of the modern quantitative illusion, man turns to what he believes is the way to happiness: the temptation of the extreme!

He who sets off on this quest for the extreme is, however, only vainly seeking himself! Admittedly, a certain courage not everyone has is required for extreme sports - but this courage is at the service of a personal achievement, altogether limited. Man leaves himself and launches out into a difficult adventure for, ultimately... only finding himself! What benefit has he drawn from this momentary exploit? He has managed to overcome, for a short time, the natural heaviness that afflicts us all, tempting us to turn upon ourselves, inviting us to enjoy a precise material well-being. Admittedly, during the time of his exploit that man has left the routine of a dull life, he has proven that he is still able to go beyond certain limitations.

A secret search for himself directed his choices, however, and this man remains prisoner of himself, of his desire to prove to himself that he still can, that he always can.

This giddiness of the extreme is no more than a poor parody of a beautiful reality: the call of the summits. The end of man is not to be found in the imbalance of the extreme! Man, is not made solely of blood and bone. He has a spiritual soul, which he must care for and nourish so that it does not wilt and become material!

In this call of the summits, man is constrained to get out of himself, to let himself to be led and remade by a higher Will, Who loves him and Who is incarnated for him in the humble duty of state. Nobody needs to launch himself into exploits that defy the imagination. The summit is there, within reach, when the soul, opened to the impulses of grace, finds God in the present moment; this God who loves to veil Himself in the monotony of the moment!

Nothing is small for such a soul ascending the steep path towards the summits, transforming the present moment into an act of love, making out of it a moment of eternity.

In Christo sacerdote et Maria,

Fr. Yves le Roux