Chapter 31: The Landscape of Reality

1. The Object of “Theology and Sanity”
   • The Twofold Goal of This Text
     • Recall that the goal of this text, as stated in the first chapter (see 30-2), is sanity, the health of the intellect. There are two aspects:
       • First, to enable us to see the material and spiritual universe as it really is. In other words, to see reality (420-3)
       • Second, once we are able to see reality, we are to come to know it so well that we habitually conduct ourselves according to its laws without making a special effort to advert to them (421-1).
     • Our situation is analogous to one who is attempting to learn a new skill, such as riding a bicycle.
       • The beginner rides awkwardly, slowly, and with much difficulty, concentrating intensely on not falling over, and does not enjoy the ride.
       • The experienced rider rides smoothly and effortlessly, enjoys the ride and has no concern about the possibility of falling over.
2. What We See
   • A Survey of Reality
     • Based on the material we have covered up to this point, it should be clear that the fullest possession of the “vision of reality” is only made possible when we receive the supernatural virtue of faith and the Holy Spirit’s gift of understanding (421-2).
     • Since the greater part of reality is not visible to us (e.g., God, angels, and all other non-material beings), and because these realities are only known to us by revelation, it follows that without the virtue of faith, by which we believe all God has revealed to us, we see only a fraction of reality.
   • What Do We See in Our Vision of Reality?
     • The virtue of faith opens to us an enlarged universe that goes far beyond the limits of the material universe. But even within the material universe we see a whole new world of profound mysteries (e.g., existence of everything, union of body and soul, the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ) (421-3).
     • “There is an increase beyond measure in the range of things we are aware of and in the vividness of our awareness” (421-3).
     • Things we should now be aware of as a result of our study of theology:
       • We are aware of God, infinite and eternal, with whom we are in vitalizing contact by way of sanctifying grace (421-4).
       • We are likewise aware that we are an abyss of nothingness at our core and that this nothingness is always tormenting us and drawing us toward it (421-4).
       • We are aware of the spiritual world that is filled with angels and the souls of the living and the dead, all of which “are greater realities than the bodies which throng upon our awareness so powerfully by way of senses and imagination” (422-2).
       • We are aware of the human race, its movement through time and our place in its movement, and we are aware of our membership in the Mystical Body (422-3).
       • We are aware of ourselves and the war that goes on in the depths of our souls (422-4).
       • We are aware of the grandeur of human nature, being such that it could be assumed by God Himself (422-4).
       • We are aware of that we are on a journey, that our life takes place on a road with a beginning and a goal. “We know the realities from which, through which, and to which it proceeds” (422-4).
       • We are aware that both spirit and matter are real and valuable, and we know how valuable each is (422-5).
       • “We know totality, so that we do not mistake parts for wholes, giving them a sufficiency which they have not and expecting from them a satisfaction which only the whole can give” (422-6).
3. Religion: Complexity and Simplicity
   • The Plain Blunt Man and Simple Religion
     • The “plain blunt man” finds the truths of revelation to be too complicated for him. He prefers that matters of religion be simple so as to free up his mind for other “more pressing matters” (423-1).
       • The reality is that he doesn’t want to think of religion at all; he wants to leave it to the realm of his emotions (423-1).
       • The plain blunt man has a sense that if he took religion seriously, it would require changes to his lifestyle.
     • “Observe that it is only in regard to religion that men demand this sort of barbaric simplification” (423-2).
       • In matters of science, mystery and complexity are taken for granted, and no one complains that they should not be complex (423-2).
       • The plain blunt man would offer a vigorous objection if it were the teaching of the Church rather than science that the sun does not go around the earth, for he “sees the fact” every day (423-2).
       • But when science teaches what appears to be contrary to everyday experience, the plain blunt man accepts the fact without objection. “He not only does not snort [at the teaching], he actually purrs and delights in the teaching (423-2).
     • The material universe is complex and science rightly tells us so. But the material universe is only part of reality. Hence, one should expect that the discipline that addresses the whole of reality would necessarily be more complex than science, rather than less complex (423-3).
     • We have, then, a paradox in which the lesser part of reality, the material universe, is praised for its complexity and incomprehensibility, “while for the whole [of reality], some rule-of-thumb explanation must be found which calls for no effort of mind at all” (424-1).
     • “Like most vital [i.e., life-giving] functions, religion is complex to analyze but simple in operation” (424-2).
       • Breathing, for example, is a complex biological mechanism that is simple in operation – we inhale and we exhale, and most of the time we give the process no thought at all (424-2).
       • “One leg is simpler than (that is, half as complicated as) two; but to have only one leg would complicate walking” (424-2).
       • “Similarly to explain life by one principle, either spirit or matter, would be simpler than to explain it by two. But it would leave life quite inexplicable” (424-2).
   • Moving Freely in the Context of Reality
     • The mind enabled by faith and its own free cooperation to see reality is not impeded by the complications of reality (424-3).
       • Rather, such a mind moves freely across the landscape of reality (424-3).
       • In the proper realization of our finiteness apropos the infinity of God, we gain a sense of enlargement and confidence (424-3).
       • This is as is should be, for “finiteness is no constraint to a being that is simply trying to be itself” (424-3).
         • For example, one could be psychologically crushed by an awareness of the various evils of the world, both the natural and the man-made sort; however, knowing that Wisdom “reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and orders all things well” (Wis 8:1) we are relieved of that burden.
       • The mind is not baffled by the multiplicity of things once it sees them all related to God and, thus, to each other (424-3).
         • “A heap of human features tossed pell-mell onto a table . . . would be very baffling indeed; but in their proper order in the human face they are not baffling” (424-3).
   • The Miraculous Principle of Simplification
     • In the same way that the mind finds freedom in the ordered complexity of reality, “so life and action find freedom and not frustration” in the ordered complexity of reality (425-2).
     • The reason for this is the “miraculous principle of simplification” to which everything in human life can be related. The principle is this:
       • “The significant movement of life, to which all other movements are secondary, is according to whether we are going toward God, the logical end being sanctity, or toward self as distinct from God, with the logical end of damnation” (425-2).
     • This is the principle that concerns the Church, to the bewilderment of those who consider the world to be their true home and are thus unable to see this simple principle (425-2).
       • “The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).
     • For example, “in the light of natural justice, we tend to see men primarily as exploiters and exploited . . . [whereas] the Church sees them primarily as saints and sinners, and her business being that of converting the sinners into saints and the saints into greater saints (425-2).
     • “The practical consequences of this way of seeing are enormous and frequently disturbing” (425-2):
       • Where the world sees a tyrant, the Church sees a stunted soul (425-2).
       • The world finds arrogance to be a provocation against which it rages, whereas the Church finds arrogance to be a disease of the soul that needs to be healed (425-2).
     • Even when the Church is placed in a position where it must resist the tyrant, the arrogance of men, and other such evils, it is still guided by this simple principle, that what matters is the movement of souls toward God (425-2).
       • Since this is the principal question of life, it is good that someone (i.e., the Church) specializes in it so as to bring it to the attention of the world lest it be lost in the “myriad motives for which people act” (425-2).
4. The Laws of Reality
   • The Knowability of the Laws of Reality
     • Through this study of theology we have gained an expanded vision of reality. We see more now than we once saw.
       • We may not see the whole of reality, but we have acquired the tools to see the whole, at least in outline form.
     • One aspect of having an understanding of this expanded universe that we now see is knowing how to conduct ourselves in it, for “reality has laws, and we can know them” (426-1).
     • If the whole of reality were not governed by laws, then God would have created a chaotic and unordered world that would be contrary to His own nature (426-2).
       • “Since all things owe their existence totally to Him, all that they have is from Him and therefore all the perfections that they have must in some way be in Him” (57-3).
       • Order is a perfection found in nature. Recalling that all perfections found in the created order must exist to a greater degree in God allows us to conclude that the nature of God must be that of the highest order, which requires a complete absence of chaos.
         • “[Wisdom] reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and orders all things well” (Wis 8:1).
       • Because God is the supremely rational being, a chaotically complex universe would not be a fitting expression of the Divine Nature. Such a universe “would not have conveyed God but betrayed Him” (140-3).
         • A chaotically complex universe would appear to us as a universe of confusion but “God is not a God of confusion” (1 Cor 14:33).
     • Clearly, it would be impossible to live intelligently in a world without laws, that is, a chaotic world (426-1), and the situation would be the same if the laws were unknowable.
       • One only has to consider the simple example of traffic laws, without which driving could become an extremely hazardous activity.
   • The Laws of Reality: Statements of Cause and Effect
     • Laws, in general, must be seen in two ways:
       • Primarily, they are statements of cause and effect (i.e., a particular effect always results from a particular cause). These statements are for the intellect (426-2).
         • “As statements they tell us what the relations are between one [element of] reality and another” (426-2, 3).
         • In other words, each element of reality has a particular set of characteristics, and it relates to other elements of reality in a particular way.
       • Secondarily, they are commands. These commands are for the will (426-2, 3)
         • “As commands they order us to act in accordance with reality thus shown to us: reality being so, do so” (426-2).
         • In other words, because of the particular way in which each element of reality relates to every other element, we must conduct ourselves in a particular way in order to be in harmony with reality.
       • Sheed refers to these laws of cause and effect as “mechanical laws” later in the chapter (434-2).
     • Consider an application of the foregoing regarding the intellect and will with respect to the moral law, which is a law of cause and effect.
       • The natural law tells us that “fidelity in marriage is right for the kind of being man is; from this law it follows that if we commit adultery, we must suffer damage to our soul” (426-3).
       • This is a “cause and effect” statement about man that is graspable by the intellect. An act of adultery [the cause] results in damage [the effect] to the soul of man (426-3).
       • God has made a command of this cause and effect statement: “You shall not commit adultery.” This command is directed to the will; hence, to disobey the command is a sin (426-3).
         • “The Decalogue contains a privileged expression of the natural law” (CCC 2070).
       • “Obviously our obedience to the command is aided enormously by our awareness of the reality about ourselves upon which it is based” (426-3).
   • The Effect of Unlawful Acts on the Soul
     • When seen as a statement of cause and effect, the laws of reality tell us that a particular sort of conduct is best for man because of what he is (426-4).
     • An act that is contrary to this law damages a man in at least one of two ways (426-4):
       • First, the effect could be the positive damage of a wound in a man’s nature (body or soul) (426-4).
       • Second, the effect could be the stunting of a man’s development (426-4).
     • When the act concerns the material body, the effect is not difficult to see, such as in the case where one acts in a manner contrary to the law of gravity.
     • When the act concerns the spiritual soul, the effect is not so readily visible and, for this reason, the law is not so readily apparent (427-1).
       • However, it would be illogical to think that the soul, which is the higher and nobler part of man and is closer in likeness to God than the body, would be less ordered than the body (427-1)
       • It follows that if the soul is ordered as least as well as the body, then it is governed by laws and these laws are more vital because the soul is the nobler aspect of man (427-1).
     • Because the laws that concern the spiritual element in man are more vital (i.e., more life-giving) than those that govern the material element in man, it is important that we know them so we can live by them (427-1).
     • In general, “knowledge of law is a condition of freedom [be it] material or moral” for freedom comes from being within the law (427-1).
       • “If you continue in my word [His commandments], you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (Jn 8:31-32).
       • We cannot “break” any law established by God, whether it be a moral law or a physical law. We can be broken by laws (i.e., be harmed by ignoring them), but we cannot break them (427-1).
     • The Law of God shackles the mind no more than the law of gravity shackles the body (427-1).
   • The Inconvenience of the Moral Law
     • The moral law is always a condition of our freedom, but it is not always convenient to our human way of thinking. However, the same is true of physical laws (427-2).
     • If you are on the top of a high cliff and you see a man drowning in the water below, the law of gravity requires that you travel a long winding road to get down to where the man is, rather than jump off the cliff into the water (427-2).
       • Jumping would be a shortcut, but you would destroyed by the jump (actually by the impact at the end of the jump) and be of no help to the drowning man.
     • Immorality also is a shortcut and it, similarly, always damages us and is capable of destroying us (i.e., by leading us to a state of final impenitence) (427-2).
       • Man’s trouble is that he finds moral shortcuts to be almost irresistible (427-2).
     • Let us consider some examples “where the sin is all the more tempting because it does not appear to damage some other person” (427-2).
5. Moral Shortcuts and “Victimless” Sins
   • Euthanasia
     • There are elements in society that present an appealing case for euthanasia but we, “as Catholics, know that there is a plain command of God by which it is murder” (428-2).
       • “You shall not kill” (Ex 20:13, Dt 5:17).
     • “Yet, quite apart from the command of God according to which it is murder, there are certain plain facts of reality by which it is madness” (428-2).
     • The case for euthanasia is usually clinched by an analogy: “We would not let a dog suffer so, but would put him out of his misery” (428-2).
       • However, a man is not a dog; the case of a suffering man is vastly different from the case of a suffering dog. Hence, the argument is based on the logical fallacy of a false analogy (428-2):
         • When the dog is put out of its misery, the case is closed, the story is over (428-2).
         • When a man is put out of his misery, the case is not closed. Rather, it continues in another venue, which raises the question: What do we put him into (428-2).
     • If the man who is euthanized is in a state of mortal sin, unrepented rebellion against God, we have put him into hell (428-2).
       • Recall that repentance is only possible while we are “viators,” that is, in a state of journeying. At the moment of death, our destiny has been definitively determined (428-2).
       • We can never know for sure what state a man’s soul is in. For this reason, “we should not take an action which might involve a catastrophe so vast and so final” (428-2).
         • “A question [was] posed [to Joan of Arc] as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: ‘Asked if she knew that she was in God’s grace, she replied: “If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep me there”’” (CCC 2005).
     • Even if the man who is euthanized is in a state of grace, and would, thus, go to heaven upon his death, it is still possible that his suffering will benefit him in two ways:
       • First, it could account for some or all of the temporal punishment due his sins, thus sparing him time in purgatory.
         • “The souls in Purgatory endure a pain so extreme that no tongue can be found to tell it” (“Fire of Love,” p. 24, “Life Everlasting,” p. 174).
       • Second, it could result in his spiritual growth that will give him a “far greater capacity to live the life and receive the joy of heaven” (428-2).
       • The euthanized man is deprived of both of these benefits.
       • Note also that his suffering can benefit others as well, for it can take on a redemptive aspect:
         • “In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col 1:24).
     • Societal impact: In addition to the effects that follow upon a person in the next world from an apparently victimless sin, there are also effects in this world (429-1).
       • The tendency of modern western societies is to estimate the number of people benefitted by a particular instance of moral conduct and the number of people who are harmed by that conduct. If the number benefitted is sufficiently significant (according to some arbitrary standard), the conduct is deemed acceptable and no further discussion is needed. This is the erroneous philosophy of utilitarianism (429-1).
       • “A society lives or dies by the values it holds. . . . Only a society which values life so that it will not sacrifice it save for values indubitably higher is a healthy society. Escape from bodily suffering is not a higher value. To allow that a man’s life may be taken, even with his own consent, in order to save him from bodily suffering is to reduce the value of life; and the whole of society lives in the shadow of that diminished value” (429-1).
   • A Case of Marital Infidelity
     • The situation: A man marries a woman whose husband has left her. Neither party is Catholic and neither is aware of Catholic teaching on marriage; hence, this is not a case of a deliberate action against God’s will (429-2).
       • It is the deliberate action against God’s will that is the destructive element in sin (429-2).
     • The question: Is anyone damaged? If so, who and how?
     • “To the persons concerned, probably, there is not much positive damage, of the kind we have compared to a wound in the body” (430-1).
     • However, note that the law of monogamy is a fact of reality just as much as the law of gravity. Acting contrary to any of the laws of reality, even unknowingly, results in personal damage of some sort (429-2).
       • If the couple is unaware of the moral law, prohibiting remarriage after divorce there is no sin in their acting contrary to it.
     • The personal damage, in the case of one who acts contrary to God’s law unknowingly, is concerned with the loss of spiritual development that would have resulted from living according to the law of reality. There are two items to note here (430-1):
       • First, the moral laws of God are directed to the spiritual maturity of individuals, so it naturally follows that any failure to observe the laws is a missed opportunity for spiritual growth (430-1).
       • Second, we do not need to be aware of God’s laws to benefit from them, as is the case with the laws of science.
         • For example, I do not need to understand the physical laws that cause water to freeze at 32 degrees Fahrenheit in order to benefit from the properties of ice.
     • Societal impact: In addition to the negative effects upon the couple involved in this example, there is also the impact on society.
       • In the euthanasia example, it was noted that the health of a society can be measured by the value it places on human life. The same is true with regard to the value a society places on the unity of marriage:
         • “To assume that a particular marriage may be dissolved is to assume that marriage as such is dissoluble; and everyone’s marriage is thereby weakened” (430-2).
   • A Prominent Witness to the Societal Impact of Victimless Sins
     • We have a prominent witness to the societal impact of apparently victimless sins in regard to the practice of contraception. Prior to 1930, every Christian denomination understood contraception as an intrinsically evil act. Anglicans opened the door to a supposedly licit use of contraception in some difficult cases. Other Christian denominations soon followed suit, and it was not long before the Catholic Church was the lone voice speaking the truth in this matter. The result of widespread use of contraception over the past fifty years is well documented:
       • “The widespread use of contraception in our time is arguably a major cause of societal dysfunction. Since the contraceptive pill was invented in the late 1950s, we have reached the point where about one-fourth of the babies conceived in the United States are aborted and over a third are born to single women. Today one in five Americans has an incurable sexual disease. The majority of couples cohabit before marriage, and these divorce at a much higher rate than those who do not cohabit. Children raised by single parents often live in poverty, suffer from depression and addiction, commit crimes and have unwed pregnancies, abortions and divorces at rates higher than those of children raised by both parents” (Smith & Kaczor, “Life Issues, Medical Choices,” 74).
     • The world sees no relationship between contraception and abortion, but those who study the relationship know better. For example, one Japanese researcher reports that, as a group, women who use contraceptives have six times as many abortions as women who do not (Donald DeMarco, “The Contraceptive Mentality”).
       • http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3417
     • The two articles at the following links make the relationship between contraception and a host of societal ills, including abortion, abundantly clear:
       • https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/04/the-prophetic-power-of-humanae-vitae.
       • https://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/08/002-the-vindication-of-ihumanae-vitaei.
   • Spiritual Maturity and the Will of God
     • The will of God is a reality; it is “the ground-rule [i.e., law] of all things – of man himself who acts, of that upon which he acts, of the universe within which he acts” (383-2).
     • The only rational thing to do, in regard to the will of God, is to learn it and to live by it. Doing anything less is childishness and will result in damage to the individual who so acts, as well as society (430-3).
     • Acceptance of the law of God can be seen to come in three stages:
       • Maturity begins with the acceptance of law; this may begin out of a fear of the consequences of violating God’s law (430-4).
       • As the individual matures, he comes to accept God’s law because he loves God (430-4).
       • Maturity comes to its highest point when the individual develops a love for God’s law itself, for “law is the will of God, and God is love” (430-4).
         • “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15).
     • As noted in chapter 24 (343-1), man was made for union with God by way of the Beatific Vision. It follows that all of His laws exist so as to assist man along the way to that union. Thus, any act contrary to God’s law is necessarily self-defeating with regard to man’s purpose in life.
6. Theodicy: The Problem of Suffering vis à vis the Goodness of God
   • Suffering: A Mystery and a Problem.
     • Suffering is a mystery in that we cannot understand it fully; it is a problem in that it sometimes stands as a challenge to one’s belief in God. But it is typically a problem misconceived (431-3).
     • Suffering is often seen as something that we need to be able to explain in order to defend God, for the accusation is often made that an all-good God would not allow good people to suffer (431-3).
     • However, our real task is to see the meaning of suffering and to make use of it so as to not let it go to waste (431-3).
     • Consequently, our intention here is not to defend God (He needs no defense) but to explain suffering so as to justify the ways of God to men in order to keep suffering from being an obstacle to their coming to Him (432-1).
   • Why Does God Allow Suffering?
     • “The question ‘Why does God allow suffering?’ is all but meaningless,” for it essentially means “Why does God allow us?” (432-2).
       • God made us to be a particular type of being that is the union of spirit and matter. This type of being acquires knowledge in its spiritual intellect by way of its five material sense faculties.
         • These senses necessarily experience pleasure and pain, which are two sides of the same coin, so as to inform us of the world around us.
         • Generally speaking, that which is good for us produces guiltless pleasure, while that which is harmful produces pain; in this way we grow in our understanding of the world in which we live, and in this manner we achieve maturity.
         • Consequently, God could not disallow human suffering without disallowing humans.
     • Given that we are what we are, we are capable of entering into a wrong relationship with reality, and this must have an effect on us. That effect is called suffering. Thus, the first principle of suffering is that it is the necessary result of a wrong relationship with reality (432-2, 433-2).
       • On the material level, the wrong relationship with reality could be the result of a bodily defect attained via inheritance, bodily abuse, or bodily injury that leaves the body incapable of providing for some need that could be filled by a normal, healthy body (432-2).
       • On the spiritual level, the wrong relationship with reality could be the result of damage to the soul that is self-inflicted or inflicted by others (432-2).
       • For example, a man who wants a particular woman will be unable to have her if she is married to another man, or if she is dead. In the latter case, he comes up against a physical law, in the former case he comes up against a moral law (432-2).
     • We may seek relief from suffering, if there is relief to be had, but we must not imagine that relief is to be had when in reality it is not (432-3).
       • In the face of the moral law, the man we mentioned above may have the illusion that he has the freedom to marry the woman if she is willing to marry him (433-1).
       • The man has the wrong relationship to reality in desiring the woman. If he marries her, he has satisfied his desire by entering into another wrong relationship with reality (433-1).
       • “His felt suffering [i.e., his desire for the woman] may be relieved; but the damage to him is greater [with the unlawful marriage] and not less [than the “damage” caused by the suffering he felt in his desire for her]” (433-1).
   • Our Enormous Capacity for Suffering
     • The first question about suffering (i.e., why does God allow it?) is followed by a second: Why did God make us so we are capable of suffering so much? (433-2).
       • It is interesting to note that with respect to pleasure there is a definite limit. The degree of pleasure that we receive from some created thing always reaches a saturation point so that it no longer affords us pleasure. Pain, on the other hand, does not seem to have such a threshold. It seems as though we can always suffer more.
     • Some part of the answer to this second question comes from an examination of the first principle, that is, suffering is the result of a wrong relationship with reality (433-2).
     • With respect to bodily suffering, the reality in which we live has laws that are “expressive of real and knowable sequences of cause and effect” (433-3).
     • We can collide with these laws through our own fault, through someone else’s fault, or as the result of something that seems to be no one’s fault at all (e.g., cases of sickness) (433-3).
     • If God were to intervene every time we came into conflict with reality so as to prevent the causes from having their effect, then we would not be living in a universe of law at all (433-3).
     • It is true that, on occasion, God does intervene; but His interventions are exceptional in that they are uncommon. They are called miracles because the effects we see have no natural causes (433-3).
       • “It is the law of the wisdom of God never to do a thing by an extraordinary intervention of His power whenever that same effect can be obtained by the natural development of the forces already existing in creation” (De Concilio, The Knowledge of Mary, 74).
       • “To act wisely . . . is to act for a reasonable motive. To act . . . without a reason or motive is to act without intelligence, and could never be supposed of God, who is intelligence itself. Now, to intervene by an extraordinary display of power, in order to produce an effect which could be obtained with the forces already existing in creation, would be to act without a reason – in fact, against reason, as it would be letting forces and energies go to waste. God, therefore, . . . cannot intervene by an extraordinary effort of his action to produce an effect otherwise obtainable from the forces already in existence” (De Concilio, The Knowledge of Mary, 74).
     • If miracles ever became commonplace, we would find ourselves living in a universe of miraculous interventions by God in which there would be no law of cause and effect because the natural effects would be suspended by the interventions or the causes would not produce their natural effect (434-1).
       • In such a world, it would not be possible for us to live intelligently, for we could never be sure that our actions produced the intended result (434-1).
       • There would be no way to master our environment, for we would never be sure of the consequences of our choices (434-1).
       • It is hard to see how we could arrive at maturity if we lived in a universe that was not based on the law of cause and effect (434-1).
7. Theodicy: The Problem of Suffering vis à vis the Goodness of God
   • Interventions to the Mechanical Laws of Cause and Effect
     • The “cause and effect” laws of reality are not merely mechanical laws “acting automatically like a machine long ago wound up and capable of running only as it is wound” (434-2).
     • Rather, there is a personal will involved in the operation of these laws: God’s will. His will makes the laws what they are and enables the laws to function as they function (434-2).
     • Along with the mechanical laws of cause and effect, there is always the possibility of God’s intervention, in one of three ways: unsolicited miracles; an answer to prayer; the action of a higher law, God’s law of love, in which there is the lavishing of gifts as rewards for faithfulness and the lavishing of punishments for unfaithfulness (343-2).
       • Sheed doesn’t define what he means by God’s law of love. It is typically understood as the two great commandments, which is the law by which we are to live.
       • However, in the context of what Sheed is discussing, God’s law of love is the principle by which He creates and sustains His creation and leads it to its ultimate completion.
       • The principle consists in this: God’s activity in material creation is done entirely for the sake of man’s flourishing in this life and possessing the Beatific Vision in the next life.
         • “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10).
       • Understanding what is meant by God’s law of love, it follows that the punishment He “lavishes” for unfaithfulness is always an act of mercy in that it is intended to bring about the healing of the unfaithful person and the restoration of justice (342-2).
     • The mechanical laws “function in the framework of the universal law of God’s love” (434-2).
       • “One of mankind’s tasks is to find the principle of this higher action of God in the universe [i.e., the spiritual laws of the universe]. . . . If we live by the revelation of God, we shall come to see more and more clearly what these laws are” (434-2).
         • Sheed only mentions one of these principles explicitly, but others can be found in the text (and in these notes as well). At the end of this section all of the principles he mentions are collected in one place.
   • As in the Material Order, so in the Spiritual Order
     • As indicated above, in the material order we must maintain a right relation to God in order to avoid coming into conflict with material reality. The same is true with respect to rational action, that is, in the order of our psychological and social lives (435-2).
     • This is not commonly recognized as can be seen by those who have only the beginnings of faith, hope or charity and expect God to act as if they possessed those virtues in full measure (435-2).
     • We constantly put this strain upon the reality of things (435-2):
       • We act as though we are something less than men but we expect God to treat us as men (435-2).
       • We ignore God’s laws but we expect God to treat us as if we had observed them (435-2).
       • We are selfish but we expect God to prevent wars (435-2).
       • We are sinful but we expect God to prevent the evil effects of our sins (435-2).
       • “All this as though men were to be forever jumping off cliffs and God forever catching them in mid-air” (435-2).
     • Recall that we are members of the human race just as we are of the material universe, and that God sees us first as part of a race and then as individuals. We come from the family tree; it does not come from us.
       • It follows from this that each of us must live in an environment created by mankind as a whole; thus, we cannot expect God to treat us as isolated individuals (435-3).
     • We do not know what problems the race is presenting to God (though we may have some vague idea of them). For this reason, “we do not understand how God’s treatment of those problems must incidentally affect us” (435-3).
       • That is, the treatment given to the human race for the problems that are properly those of the race, may impact those who are innocent bystanders.
       • Even in the natural order because we are members of one another, “the disease of one will bring suffering to another” (435-3).
     • “We must see the conflict of giants in which we are [caught up]” (435-3).
       • It is not clear what Sheed means here. He seems to be speaking of the “giants” as being the angelic body (all the good angels), the human race as one body, and the diabolical body (all of the fallen angels).
         • “We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).
     • “The perspective of individual suffering is all wrong if we do not” have this larger view that enables us to see our individual sufferings, in part, to be due to the corrective “medicine” that God applies to the human race’s conflict with reality (435-3).
8. Suffering Without Loss
   • Suffering Is Convertible to Charity
     • Sheed begins to speak about suffering without loss at this point. Before we hear what he has to say on this topic, we should make note of a principle that is found, though not explicitly expressed, in what he spoke of in chapter 22. The principle is this: suffering Is convertible to charity.
     • We have spoken before about suffering being an intrinsic element of every act of the theological virtue of charity. To love is to suffer; to love much is to suffer much. Apart from suffering, there is no love.
       • Note that the converse of that last statement is not true. Where there is love, there is necessarily suffering, but it does not follow that where there is suffering there is necessarily love.
     • Now, it is through acts of virtue that we will obtain salvation, and the root of every virtue is charity. Consequently, the greatest thing we could ever attain, the beatific vision, will be attained through the suffering we patiently endure through acts of charity.
       • “By your [patient] endurance you will gain your lives” (Lk 21:19).
     • It follows from what has been said that there is a great potential gain to be obtained through suffering. Recognizing this fact, we can now speak of suffering without loss.
   • Benefits in This Life and the Next
     • Though we suffer along with the rest of the race as a result of the corrective action God administers to the human race, we do not have to suffer loss. That is, our suffering does not have to be wasted for two reasons (436-1).
       • First, God can compensate us in the next life for whatever sufferings we experience in this life:
         • “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18).
         • In saying this, Paul knew very well from his own experience about the suffering of this world. See 2 Cor 11:24-27 for a litany of the sufferings he endured in his missionary journeys.
         • The compensation is dependent on our attitude toward suffering:
           • “We are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:16-17).
       • Second, suffering itself is constructive on two counts:
         • First, the suffering of an individual can be used for his own benefit (437-1).
         • Second, as a member of the one body, the human race, an individual’s suffering can be used to benefit the other members of the body and the suffering of the other members of the body can be used to benefit that individual (437-1).
     • There is a tendency to dismiss the idea that suffering is actually an element of God’s providential plan for the universe, and in doing so gain no light regarding God’s providence (437-2).
       • However, “if we continue to study the problem [of suffering] with an awareness of God as the most important element in it, we shall find [that along with the darkness] . . . there is a pretty solid increase of light” (437-2).
       • In reality, suffering only takes on meaning within the context of God’s plan (437-2).
   • Suffering, Maturity and the Will
     • Ordinary human experience shows that suffering can be both constructive and destructive (437-3).
     • Considering the constructive side of suffering, we see that even in the natural order one who never suffers, never matures (437-3).
       • Every worthwhile thing that we obtain in this life comes about with effort, and that effort necessarily includes some level of suffering.
       • The process of maturing involves the acquisition of many of these worthwhile things. Hence, maturity is contingent on suffering.
       • It is worth noting that some of our fondest memories of the past are memories of times that included significant hardship that we were not the least bit fond of at the time the hardship was experienced.
     • Considering the destructive side of suffering, we see that in the case of two men who are experiencing different levels of suffering, “the one who suffers less may be shattered and the one who suffers more may be immensely developed by it” (437-3).
     • The difference in the two men is not the degree of suffering but the response of their wills to that suffering (437-3). We find an example of this in the two criminals who were crucified along with Jesus.
       • “The chief priests mocked him to one another with the scribes, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.’ Those who were crucified with him also reviled him” (Mk 15:31-32).
       • “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’” (Lk 23:39-42).
     • Hence, the beginning of an answer to the question of suffering “lies in the will’s acceptance of it as a part of reality, whether reality seen [merely] impersonally as a matter of the natural order of things, or personally as the will of God” (437-3).
     • It is the will’s acceptance of suffering that “cuts at the central point of man’s profoundest disease,” the over-assertion of self (437-3).
     • Suffering comes to us in many forms, but the element common to all forms of suffering and therefore “constituting suffering as such” is that “something is happening to us which we intensely dislike” (438-1).
     • It follows that the will’s “[acceptance of] what we intensely dislike . . . is of itself and directly a healing and strengthening of the will . . . restoring it to its proper domination of the whole man” (438-1).
       • “By nothing is self-assertion so radically healed as by the acceptance of what the self shrinks from as it shrinks from suffering” (342-3).
     • “No matter how vast an empire a man may have, if he does not control himself then he does not control the empire either: whatever controls him controls it” (438-1).
       • Suffering provides a unique opportunity for a man to begin gaining control over himself.
   • Three Levels of Healing via Suffering
     • The will’s acceptance of suffering can occur at three levels, all of which have a healing and strengthening effect on the soul (438-2).
     • First, the will’s acceptance of suffering can be merely an acceptance of reality (438-2).
       • However, this is difficult for it amounts to accepting suffering that is imposed by blind forces that have no concern for man; this level of acceptance can easily lead to despair and it provides no real motivation to suffer well (438-2).
     • Second, it can be an acceptance of reality as a moral law.
       • “This is only dimly apprehended in conscience and not seen in relation to a personal lawgiver” (438-2).
       • Sheed does not expound on this level further, but it obviously has a defect similar to that of the first level in that it provides no real motivation to suffer well.
     • Third, it can be an acceptance of reality as a matter originating in a personal lawgiver and is, therefore, a “conscious union of the will with God” (438-2).
       • At this level of acceptance, there is reason to think that suffering is also directed by that being, which opens the possibility that there could be value to suffering (438-2).
       • As we have already seen in chapter 22 (The Mystical Body of Christ), if we “[unite] our own will to God’s will, suffering has the chance to do a vast constructive work in us . . . [which] reaches its peak when . . . we reach the point where we can unite our suffering to the redemptive sufferings of Christ” (438-2).
         • “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor 1:5).
         • “We are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:16-17).
         • “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church [i.e., the Mystical Body]” (Col 1:24).
   • Universal Reaction to Constructive Suffering
     • One nearly universal reaction to this attempt to portray suffering as constructive and a source of comfort is that it is merely a “cold-blooded rationalization of suffering by one who sounds as if he has never suffered” (439-2).
     • However, this is the teaching of St. Paul of whom the Lord said “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16), and who clearly knew what it was like to suffer (see 2 Cor 11:24-27).
       • This same teaching is taught in one form or another by every saint who has left written works on the subject, and all of them have suffered intensely.
       • The reality is that joy and suffering are not incompatible. In the transforming union:
         • “The desire for the will of God to be done is extreme” (FW 107-1).
         • “Persecution itself brings great interior joy with no enmity toward those who treat her with ill-will” (FW 107-1).
     • Sheed states that we will not receive more suffering than we can bear, with God’s help, and he goes on to say that we cannot prove or disprove this empirically (i.e., by observation or experiment), which is true (439-3). However, revelation does bear witness to this truth, implicitly. For example:
       • “[God] will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor 10:13).
       • With suffering comes the temptation to impatience that is commensurate with the degree of suffering. Hence, to be given suffering that is beyond our power to endure is to give us temptation beyond our ability to endure. Since Scripture says we will not be tempted beyond our strength, it follows that we will not be given suffering that is beyond our ability to endure.
   • Apparently Non-Constructive Suffering
     • Though troubled by “constructive” suffering, “the mind is more profoundly troubled by suffering that seems as if it could in no way bring growth to the sufferer.” Such is the suffering that comes from a cause that brings about death (439-4).
       • The suffering meant here is that which “is of such intensity that the sufferer’s reaction to it seems little more than an animal reaction to torture in which the spirit is for the moment drowned.” An example is “the death in agony of tiny children” (439-4).
     • How can there be any opportunity for these sufferers to experience a constructive benefit from such suffering?
     • We need to keep in mind this principle: “God loves men more than we do, for He has done two great things for [those who experience such suffering, as well as the rest of us] that we have never done – created all of them, and died for all of them. If [this suffering] really were cruel and unfair, He would know it” (440-1).
       • It follows that if it were cruel and unfair, God would be unjust, but we know from both philosophy and revelation that God is infinite justice; therefore, such suffering can be neither cruel nor unfair, however unpleasant it may be.
         • “He shall judge the world with justice, and the people with his truth” (Ps 96:13 DR).
     • The principle stated above is the greatest thing we can say about suffering of this sort, but it is not the only thing we can say. Consider these sub-principles (440-2):
       • First, recall what St. Paul said of the suffering in this world:
         • “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18).
         • The innocent child who died in agony yesterday is experiencing that glory today (440-2).
       • Second, the acceptance of suffering (i.e., that which we intensely dislike) is a direct healing for the over-assertion of self, the key element in sin (440-2).
       • Third, we are members of one body, the human race. It follows that “God can use the suffering of one [member of the race] for the moral healing of another, or the suffering of all for the strengthening of all” (440-2).
         • “The infant has no sin of his own to be made up for by suffering” but God can use that suffering for others. Hence, “the infant is given the enormous privilege of doing something for others” by, in a sense, dying for others. There is no higher privilege:
           • “Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13).
           • Consider the sheep of Matthew 25 who did not realize they were serving God by serving the least of their brethren. Also, consider the Holy Innocents who did not know they were suffering for Christ and, in doing so, won the crown of martyrdom.
     • Putting all of this together, we can say the apparently profitless suffering of one member of the body can be used by God for the benefit of that individual as well as the body as a whole, and that suffering opens the door to a state of glory for the one who suffers, which makes that suffering insignificant in comparison “with the glory to be revealed in us” (440-2, Rom 8:18).
       • “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col 1:24).
   • A Collection of the Spiritual Principles Sheed Mentions
     • The first principle of suffering is that it is the necessary result of a wrong relationship with reality (432-2, 433-2).
     • The element common to all forms of suffering and therefore “constituting suffering as such” is that “something is happening to us which we intensely dislike” (438-1).
     • We are all members of the human race, and God sees us first as part of a race and then as individuals. We come from the family tree; it does not come from us (227-1).
       • “The whole human race is in Adam ‘as one body of one man’” (CCC 404).
     • God can compensate us in the next life for whatever sufferings we experience in this life (See 436-1).
     • We will not receive more suffering that we can bear. This statement is indirectly confirmed by 1 Cor 10:13 (439-3).
       • “[God] will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor 10:13).
     • The greatest spiritual principle, with respect to suffering, is that “God loves men more than we do,” and He has done two great things for us: He created all of us and He died for all of us (440-1).
       • It follows that if suffering “really were cruel and unfair, He would know it” (See 440-1).
     • Additional sub-principles:
       • St. Paul writes: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18).
       • The acceptance of suffering (i.e., that which we intensely dislike) is a direct healing for the sin of pride, the over-assertion of self, the key element in sin (440-2).
       • Because we are members of one body, the human race, “God can use the suffering of one [member of the race] for the moral healing of another, or the suffering of all for the strengthening of all” (440-2, 437-1).
       • The suffering of an individual can be used for his own benefit (437-1, 438-1, 440-2).
       • Suffering is convertible to charity.
9. Summary Considerations of This Theory of Suffering
   • Testing This Theory of Suffering
     • “For the vast mass of the world’s suffering there is some light in [this theory of suffering],” though there may be an occasional case that it does not seem to explicitly cover (440-3).
     • As with all theories, this one too needs to be tested against real situations of personal suffering in order to determine its worth.
     • When the theory is tested against classic accounts of the various sorts of human suffering we find that these accounts leave the theory intact (441-1).
     • However, our assessment of suffering, in general, and the application of this theory of suffering is affected by our own defects that make “the seen fact of suffering such a temptation not only against trusting God, but [also] against those principles which in tranquility [i.e., when the suffering is not seen] our mind had seen and balanced” (441-1).
     • Two of those defects are (1) that we see the suffering but we do not see the application God makes of it, and (2) we tend to see this life as the whole of life (441-2).
       • Considering the first defect: “We see the suffering, but we do not see the application God makes of it to the soul here and now; still less do we see the glory that is to come” (441-2).
         • Consider God apropos suffering: With the exception of those who are genuinely saintly, suffering causes a vast shuddering in the soul, whereas God causes only a tiny vibration:
           • “Worship the LORD in holy array; tremble before him, all the earth!” (Ps 96:9)
         • “Often enough when we think we are seeing the suffering in relation to God, we are only feeling how much greater the shuddering is than the vibration” (441-2).
         • In addition, “things seen are mightier than things heard; things that can seize the imagination loom larger than those that must appeal directly to the intellect” (441-2).
           • The writings of the saints show that, for them, the vibration (i.e., the trembling) caused by God drowns out the shuddering of suffering (e.g., read 2 Mac 7).
         • This first defect essentially excludes the aforementioned arguments from any discussion with one who does not believe in the existence of God (441-2).
       • Considering the second defect:
         • We have the “almost incurable habit of seeing this life as the whole and judging accordingly; seeing its tragedies as final” (441-3).
         • However, we know from Revelation that this life is transitory; it is a time of preparation for the next life and what occurs at the end of this life is definitive for the next life (442-1).
         • It follows that the only real tragedy in this life is to leave this life unprepared for the next life. That is, to make the fundamental choice of self in preference to God and to carry that choice to the moment of death [i.e., final impenitence] (442-1).
         • We are willing to expend a considerable amount of effort, in this life, preparing for temporal events that will come and go in the wink of an eye.
           • Examples are the preparations athletes make for sporting events, or that singers and actors make for their performances, or the academic preparations we make for obtaining a particular type of work.
           • All of these preparations have value, but not lasting value, whereas the preparations we make for the afterlife have an everlasting value, and that value is incomprehensibly greater than the value of the preparations we make for temporal events.
             • Considering the relative difference between these two types of preparation, one for the temporal and one for the everlasting, we should be able to find great motivation for the latter.
         • Sheed uses an analogy to illustrate the difference between the preparation, which this life is, and the reality that preparation is to bring about:
           • “We may think of [this life] as the tuning of the instruments, so that it gives only a hint of the glory of the symphony when all the instruments are tuned and all are obeying the conductor” (442-1).
   • Suffering: An Appalling Problem without the Context of Reality
     • “Suffering is an appalling problem to one who sees it [i.e., suffering], but does not see the whole context of reality. The believer may find it as unanswerable as the unbeliever; but he is not troubled by it in the same way, for he sees so much, has experienced so much, has quite simply lived so much. His real life is lived consciously in the company of God and of the Mother of God and of the gifts of God. A given patch of experience may be one hundred per cent dark, but it is not ten per cent of the whole landscape. That is the sense in which we have spoken earlier in this book of the necessity of seeing reality as a whole, as a preparation for living wholly in it. Seeing it is not the same thing as living wholly in it, but it is an excellent preparation” (443-1).