1. The good in human nature.
God created man in His image and likeness. Man, today, acts not according to his image and likeness. He acts below the level of his human nature. He does not even act as an animal. Just look at his sins; from abortion to terrorism to same sex to transgenders. Animals don’t do that. Let us explain this behaviour by first looking at the three levels of being man is capable of.
2. There are three levels in man.
The supernatural, the natural and the unnatural.
The highest level is the supernatural. It is a gift from God and completely unattainable by human efforts. It is called the gift of original justice. This is the highest good God gave men.
It was given to Adam and Eve when they were in Paradise before the fall. This was the gift that should have made them deserving of eternal life in heaven. After the fall, Adam and Eve, lost the highest God-given good; while the second the first remained intact but gravely wounded.
The second level is the natural level. In this level, man, naturally tends towards the life of virtue. Thus, all men must naturally be good and this characteristic is commonly seen in the most primitive tribes but it is not universal.
A tribe here, the Tasadays, did not even have words that express anger and they lived in community with perfect charity. Though very primitive they lived like religious monks and nuns. First discovered, they are untouched by civilisation. This is the next good of human nature and also a gift from God.
The first level is purely the natural level universally common to all men. And this is man possessed with an intellect and free will.
This is, also, a gift of God and a good in the nature of man.
3. These three goods in the nature of man was portrayed in the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man was traveling. He was fully healthy. On the way some thieves came upon him. Beat him up and stole his possession. That is man with three good things in his human nature. But way laid on his way, the devil came upon him and stole the goods of his human nature.
4. Here is an ascetical principle stated by St. Thomas of Aquinas; in order not to regress in the spiritual life; a soul must progress continuously. If a soul stops progressing, he will regress automatically.
Let’s see how the above principle can be seen in Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were created with the three goods of human nature. They had the gift of original justice; they had kept the good of a life tending towards virtue; and they were using their good gifts of intellect and free will in the service of God tending the garden of Paradise.
With those three gifts of human nature they should have passed their God -given test and deserved to go from Paradise to heaven.
But by the devil’s wiles, Adam and Eve misused their original justice thus regressing down to the natural level of the life of virtue. Then due to further carelessness they regressed further to the pure natural level of just having the good of their intellect and will. And with their original sin, they further misused this good of human nature
So at the end, Adam and Eve lost the good of original justice. They lost the good use of their natural tendency towards a virtuous life. And they lost the ordered use of their mind and will. They found themselves in the unnatural level. And this can be seen in the unnatural sin of Cain killing his own brother Abel. It is not natural for a brother to kill his own brother for no reason than envy. Animals do not envy. So man has suddenly gone lower than the animals. But let us just call it unnatural.
The principle is that if man does not exert effort to progress upwards towards God, he will automatically regress downwards towards the unnatural level. That is automatic. He does not have to exert effort to regress downwards. He will just regress down automatically. This must be very clear to understand the evil state of the world today.
The great evil state of the world today is not caused by the activity of the devil, though, that is, also, the case. It could easily have happened even if the devil did not do anything to cause it. The devil could have just allowed man to naturally descend to the level of the unnatural through pure inactivity. How much more if this happen with the help of Lucifer.
5. The unnatural sins.
From history here are some of the unnatural sins committed by men. Murder, the first sin of Cain. This deteriorated to the mass murder and human sacrifice of the Aztecs. The mass sacrifice of children to Moloch. The abortion clinics today. Terrorism and unprovoked wars. Genocide. Same gender and transgender practices. Drug addiction. Ambition to be very wealthy and famous. Many of the psychological illnesses are consequences of this level of life. Suicide. Practically everything we are doing today is the result of men having regressed down to the unnatural level.
The gay priest phenomenon is the result of a seminary training where they do not progress; therefore, they automatically regress. Since the seminaries were in this state since 1000 AD, for every 10 graduates, 5 are gays, 4 get married and one becomes an ordained heretic. A Holy priest is a miracle these days.
This abnormality is caused by the absence of all the three goods of human nature, aggravated by the defeat of the plan to impose the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas in seminaries.
Summarizing, one does not have to do anything to sink down to the level of the unnatural. All he has to do is stay natural; and he will regress down.
To go to heaven is an every second difficult up hill daily effort, or else.
6. The concern of the Church in the salvation of souls by reversing this natural tendency of man to regress to the level of the unnatural.
God, indeed, had given us the good of human nature to avoid regressing to the unnatural level. To regress there is an experience of hell here on earth; and will eventually cause the eternal damnation of souls.
So, how do we get out of this rut? Use the same route to go up to God. Our goal must be the supernatural eternal goal of going to God. This must be the ultimate goal of a return, otherwise it will not work. Psychology and psychotherapy will not work. This will only cover up the symptoms but will not cure the illness. A genuine desire to seek God is the only way to enable a person to reuse these three goods to regain sanity and even become a saint.
The solution is the Catholic solution exclusively, only, for those whose ultimate goal is to be united with God. It will not work for pagans nor for Protestants. It will not work for Catholics with other ulterior goals, like to regain sanity. It will not work for priests who do not want to abandon their same sex partners. It will only work for souls who want to be saints. For these people it works perfectly.
7. The 3 goods of human nature and the way to sanity.
God gave man a built-in capacity for sanity just in case he goes crazy. He can use it all by himself, without the aid of anyone. St. Paul had described it and Psychotherapist just learned it from him.
Let us go now and take the first step. Remember, you can do this all by yourself; in fact, it is more effective if done by oneself. It can be called self-therapy; and it is the first step towards holiness.
First step. Since the reason for having regressed to the unnatural level is because the mind and will were filled with unnatural thoughts and desires, then we must begin with putting the mind and will in order. We must have a criteria to judge what is true and what is good. The proven basis for judgment for the truths of the mind is the dogmatic truths of the Catholic Church. And the proven basis to judge what is good is to use the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. We have to accept these for the meantime because we do not have the space to debate this fact.
In this first step, whatever truths the mind has that is contrary to the truths of the Catholic Church must be removed; and it must be replaced with the proper dogmas. And whatever is immoral that is desired by the free will must be removed; and it must be replaced with what is moral. And the God of the Catholic Church had made this very easy for us by revealing to man what is true and what is good.
The moment the human mind has removed all errors contrary to the revealed truths of God and the moment the mind had removed all evil from the desires of the will……than the person rises from the unnatural and becomes natural.
8. Note that this first step will be impossible for all pagans and Protestants because of great defects in their truths and concepts of morality. But sadly, it is equally impossible for most Catholics for the same reason. This is the main reason why it has become impossible to cure the gay problem of the priesthood. Their minds and wills remain polluted with what is false and what is immoral. To rise from the unnatural to the natural there must be perfect knowledge of the truth and perfect love of the good. In the Catholic
Church both the truth and the good is God.
9. It is sufficient to make the first step. The second and third will follow suit. This first step in the early Christian times was called ‘therapeute.’ And these were the men and women monks who entered monasteries precisely to correct their minds and wills, to undergo self-therapy.
Satan had made the world in such a way that everyone is busy making heaven out of the earth. With this constant focus on the things of the world it has become impossible for everyone to enter into one’s own mind and will for house fixing.
As St. Thomas of Aquinas continues; if a man is bogged down in this state he will continue to deteriorate going down and down, becoming more and more a slave of sin and of the devil and committing more and more atrocious crimes towards their neighbour.
The world is in this state today. It had been like this since the 10th century and has gotten worse these days. It has contaminated everything up to the Vatican. Isn’t Pope Francis with his dogmatic errors on grace and the theological virtues; and his moral errors on allowing adultery, divorce and the sacrilegious reception of communion an example of one in the unnatural level?
An example of a man with absolutely no good in his human nature as St. Thomas would put it?