The monks invented the first schools. They were called “the school of the Lord’s service.” The subjects they taught were Reading, Writing, a little Arithmetic. . . . and Philosophy. Philosophy for young children? Yes, because it is when they were young that parents sent their children to monasteries. And having the natural God-given aptitude to reason rightly they were trained before they were ruined by worldly education. Those first subjects were very helpful in preparing for the study of Divine Revelation or Scriptures, because grace builds on nature.
Man is a rational animal. First an animal, second rational. Today he seems to be more animal than rational. Thanks to the information highway that has trapped men’s mind on things earthly, preventing him from being rational and from rising up to the supernatural.
Today, the world is filled with evil and, as a consequence, sufferings. Religion must be able to explain why this is so because human knowledge cannot. For us Christians, we have to examine what happened in heaven and paradise once upon a time.
In paradise, man was meant to subdue his animal nature by what was rational in him, namely his intellect and free will. This was frustrated because of the Fall. So now, before he can do this, he must develop his intellect in the natural level through right and sound reasoning. Doing this will enable him to rise to the concept of a prime – mover or creator. Even in the natural sphere he could intellectually suspect that there is a supernatural sphere. His natural quest for this sphere will make him responsive to the grace of God and enable him to rise up to the supernatural. In this level he will discover that God spoke; and that what he said is found in Divine Revelation. With sound reasoning and Divine Revelation he can now dictate to his own free will the good he must pursue. Every decision he makes must now conform to this objective norm to do good.
St. Thomas of Aquinas gives the example of a carpenter who has a ruler. If he uses this tool, he will draw a straight line, his act would be considered right. Comparatively, if we love God more than anything else, then we are acting morally, according to the Divine rule of conduct which states that we should love God above all things. If we disregard this objective norm of judgment, Divine Law and sound reasoning, then it is our concupiscence that would be making the rules on what is straight or moral.
The Holy Father has often described the above scenario and called it the dictatorship of relativism. It is a cruel dictatorship because it is the rule of what is animal within us, as pictured imaginatively in the Planet of the Apes, except that the apes are within us.
A solution has been given by Pope Benedict XVI. We have to use sound reasoning, with a little help, perhaps, from the rules of logic formulated by the Greeks; and with the help of the virtue of Faith, find out who is this God who moves all things. Then we shall find out if that God has spoken, and find out what He has said. Our sound reasoning and what He has said should be our basis for judgment.
Unfortunately, Ronald Knox has observed that man, in his pride, has always been unlucky in guessing who that God is, an unconscious way of denying God in order to substitute himself in His place, as the first angels tried to do and became devils.
In the dictatorship of relativism, we make up the norms, thus making ourselves “like unto God.” Wasn’t this the temptation of Adam and Eve? And we have fallen.
St. Thomas of Aquinas, following St. Augustine, described an act as evil, when it does not follow the external norms put forward by Divine Revelation and sound reasoning. This would mean that the world, especially now, is filled with evil. To be good or holy today would be most difficult. Perhaps this is why it has been prophesied that the saints of the last age would be greater, because inspite of the great evil of our present age, evils that have not been seen in ages past, they will be able to reach holiness. What about those who find evil insurmountable? Well, we should believe that where there is an abundance of evil, there will always be a superabundance of grace.
This present moral state was already described by William Shakespeare with words uttered by Marc Anthony at the funeral of Julius Caesar who was assassinated by Brutus and his friends. “O judicium, ad belvas fugisti brutas. Atque homines rationem perdiderunt.” (O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason.) (Painting by Master Francke, “The assassination of St. Thomas Becket,” fifteenth century.)