Man tries to confront the difficulties of life by listening to the sirens' voices that announce better days to come or by defending illusory humanitarian ideals. He consoles himself by thinking that man is good, because Rousseau said so and because this dark nonsense has become the new creed of our century!
Faith, hope and charity - today lost - are now replaced by the revolutionary doctrines of Rousseau, by optimism and humanitarianism. The Revolution itself is, in fact, a religious matter, despite those who want to see in it only a secularistic notion of human life. This new religion finds its most adequate expression in the concept of "positive thinking."
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
Man tries to confront the difficulties of life by listening to the sirens' voices that announce better days to come or by defending illusory humanitarian ideals. He consoles himself by thinking that man is good, because Rousseau said so and because this dark nonsense has become the new creed of our century!
Faith, hope and charity - today lost - are now replaced by the revolutionary doctrines of Rousseau, by optimism and humanitarianism. The Revolution itself is, in fact, a religious matter, despite those who want to see in it only a secularistic notion of human life. This new religion finds its most adequate expression in the concept of "positive thinking."
This expression is so absurd that it makes us smile - after all, thought is not negative or positive, it is true or false. We should not smile, however, because this linguistic error, voluntarily committed, is a cunning snare that traps man into an erroneous and dangerous system that takes him away from reality. This concept of positive thought forces man to judge things not in virtue of their veracity or falseness but to imagine them as he wishes them to be according to his passions.
In this error we perceive the stench of Masonic delusions. By means of positive thought, man is insidiously subjected to the revolutionary ideals that demand his being essentially cut off from God, from cradle to grave. Reality is, in fact, a tangible proof of the existence of God and of His constant intervention in our world. The man who returns to the land, to the natural order, and respects it comes into contact with God and takes Him as the standard for his own judgments.
Freemasonry wants to prevent at all costs the possibility that man, in contact with reality, might return to God. On the contrary, it encourages the idea that modern man must free himself from any supervision and worry no more about acting according to a higher, established, hierarchical order that exceeds and explains man himself. Man, praised as the equal of God, should subject himself to nothing else but his own laws. His intelligence ceases to be that invaluable faculty that enables him to discover the truth and to subject himself to it by taking it as his rule of life. Instead it becomes itself the source of truth!
Such a theory is truly ridiculous. Those who have created it know it very well. They are conscious that they cannot propose it so crudely without starting a healthy and vital reaction that would result in an immense burst of laughter. Thus, they hide their nonsense under the disguise of positive thought.
What is this new concept, since - in fact - we can affirm that every thought is, in itself, positive? What does this expression, "positive thought," mean? To grasp this purposely vague concept, it is better to remind you here of that unhappy formula that is becoming each day more and more common: "Be positive! You see everything too pessimistically!" It seems therefore that it is simply a question of being optimistic regarding everything and in spite of everything.
Let us gloss over this annoying and pedantic mania of the modern world, over this penchant for inventing new words and for reducing language to a long sequence of disgraceful onomatopoeias. Let us be positive - in the true sense of the word - and consider the subtle and mortal trap concealed in this duality of "optimism-pessimism." Its explanation will allow us to understand the role of this positive thought so popular nowadays.
Let us say it clearly from the start: optimism and pessimism are anti-Christian notions. The Catholic is placed, because of his faith, on a higher plane: he is a man of hope. The judgments he passes on all events exceed infinitely the human level, because he knows that, behind the mirror of appearances, an intense drama is being played that will decide his eternal happiness or misfortune. The notions of optimism or pessimism impede man from rising to the supernatural level.
This rejection of the supernatural profoundly mutilates man, who is daily confronted with misery, starting with his own. Hope, a daughter of Faith, enables us to stand upright in the midst of so much wreckage and to keep sufficient lucidity to admire the plan of God, which is still carried out in the midst of so much vileness. If, on the other hand, we are locked up in this dualism of optimism and pessimism that closes for us the horizon of the supernatural world, we will rapidly sink into melancholy - worse yet, into despair, the antechamber of Hell.
For this reason we condemn "positive thought." This concept is dangerous for our souls. It places us into a world where not only is God absent, but where man has become god. Deceived by the false dualism of optimism and pessimism, modern man throws himself wholeheartedly upon this expedient concept of positive thought, like a famished dog on a meatless bone, in order to forget that there is no horizon in this artificial world.
Against all these errors, we want to return to reality, the only thing that will allow us to recuperate our common sense. We refuse to be fooled by this modern concept of positive thought. Being "positive" matters little to us. On the other hand, we are extremely interested in discovering what is true, in order to live it with our whole heart.
In Christo Sacerdote et Maria,
Fr. Yves le Roux
NOTE FROM THE SEMINARY
* Please note that this year the ordinations to the Priesthood will take place on Friday, June 23, feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.