Reflection on October 29, 1980

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb45.htm

As I stated last time, I didn’t think Manichaeism was as much an issue as the degrading of the spirit is. SJPII moves to this type of interpretation in this talk. He focuses on Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche. I have to be honest, I don’t know much about their particular philosophies, so I can’t reflect on any one in particular, but I don’t think that is necessary. SJPII lumps together with an overall attitude that they each look to the heart or the spirit, the conscience of a person, they see that it is flawed, they see the concupiscence at work, and come to the conclusion that it is suspicious. They may have very good insights into the consciousness of humans, but where they fail in their philosophies is that they stop at the flawed consciousness of fallen man.

SJPII offers that they do not take the next step that is necessary for a more complete understanding; they do not take into account REDEMPTION. When you look at fallen man, you must take it in context of all that is there and at his foundation is the first man, before the fall, man in the beginning. That is an essential part of us, deeper than our sinfulness, deeper than any concupiscence. That is why SJPII took so much time in the beginning showing what we can learn and what we need to know about our first parents, about what God intended what He created, why and what occurred with the fall. You must understand the beginning before you can understand redemption, because Christ came to get us back to the beginning.

And far from a Christian idea is this sense of seeking out something more, something better. It is a natural part of us that we can feel. Just because the modern world, led by the 3 mentioned above and their designs, wants us to think whatever makes us feel good will make us happy, from before Christ people understood we were made for something more. I have not studied Aristotle in any depth, but what I know is that he understood humans seek what is beautiful. It more than just fulfilling urges, it is more, we were made for more, it is unnatural to settle for less. SJPII is saying the same thing, but saying that we now know more than Aristotle did, more has been revealed to us because of Christ, and that natural feeling is fulfilled through redemption, a redemption that bridges the gap created by the fall, that brings us back to God.