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Page 25
VIII
CORPORATENESS AND INDIVIDUALISM
_He that shall lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what doth it
profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own
soul?_--MATT. XVI. 25, 26.
No recorded word of our Lord better illustrates than does this the
startling and paradoxical manner of His teaching. For He Who _knew what
was in man_, Who spoke always down to man's deepest interests, dwelt and
spoke therefore in that realm of truth where man's own paradoxical
nature is most manifest; where his interests appear to flourish only by
being ruthlessly pruned; where he rises to the highest development of
self only by self-mortification. This is, in fact, the very lesson
Christ teaches in these words. To _find the life_ is the highest object
of every man and the end for which he was created; yet this can be
attained only by the _losing of it for Christ's sake_. Individuality can
be preserved only by the sacrifice of Individualism. Let us break up
this thought and consider it more in detail.
I. (i) Catholics, it is said, are the most fundamentally selfish people
in the whole world, since all that they do and say and think is
directed and calculated, so far as they are "good Catholics," to the
salvation of their own souls. It is this that continually crops up in
their conversation, and this that presumably is their chief
pre-occupation. Yet surely this, above all methods, is the very worst
for achieving such an end. One does not pull up flowers to see how they
are growing. The very secret of health is to be unconscious of it.
Catholics, on the other hand, scarcely ever do anything else; they are
for ever examining themselves, for ever going to confession, for ever
developing and cultivating the narrowest virtues. The whole science of
Casuistry, for example, is directed to nothing else but this--the exact
definition of those limits within which the salvation of the soul is
secure and beyond which it is imperilled; and Casuistry, as we all know,
has a stifling and deadening influence upon all who study it.
Again, see how the true development and expansion of the soul must
necessarily be hindered by such an ideal. "I must not read this book,
however brilliant, since it might be dangerous to my faith. I must not
mix in this company, however charming, since evil communications corrupt
good manners." What kind of life is that which must always be checked
and stunted in this fashion? What kind of salvation can there be that
can only be purchased by the sacrifice of so much that is noble and
inspiring? True life consists in experience, not in introspection; in
going out from self into the world, not in retiring from the world
inwards. Let us therefore live our life without fear, lose ourselves in
humanity, forget self in experience, and leave the rest to God!
(ii) So much for the one side, while from the other comes almost
precisely the opposite criticism. Catholics, it is said, are not nearly
individualistic enough; on the contrary they are for ever sinking
themselves and their personalities in the corporate life of the Church.
Not only are their outward actions checked and their words guarded, but
even their very consciences and thoughts are informed and made by the
collective conscience and mind of others. It is the highest ambition of
every good Catholic _sentire cum ecclesia_; not merely to act and speak
but even to think in obedience to others. Now a man's true life, we are
told, consists in an assertion of his own individuality. God has made no
two men the same; the mould was made and broken in each several case.
If, therefore, we are to be what He meant us to be, we must make the
most of our own personalities; we must think our own thoughts, not other
people's, direct our own lives, speak our own minds--so far, of course,
as we can do so without interfering with our neighbour's equal liberty.
Once more, therefore, we are bidden to live our life to the full; not in
this case, however, because we all share in a common humanity, but
because we do not!
We Catholics are wrong, therefore, for both reasons and in both
directions. We are wrong when we put self first and we are wrong when we
do not. We are wrong when we launch out into the current of life, and
wrong when we withdraw ourselves from its waters. We are wrong when we
insist upon our personal responsibility, and wrong when we look to the
Church to undertake it.
II. (i) Here then, indeed, is a Paradox; but it is one which our Lord
Himself expressly emphasizes. For, first, there is nothing on which He
so repeatedly insists as the supreme and singular value of every soul's
salvation. If this is not attained, all is lost. _What shall it profit a
man if he shall gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own
soul?_ All else, then, must be sacrificed if this is in peril. No human
possession, however great, can be weighed against this. No human tie,
however sacred, can hold against its claim. Not only must _houses and
lands_, but _father and mother and wives and children_ must take second
place, so soon as eternal life is at stake. And yet, somehow or another,
this salvation can only be attained by loss; self can only live if it be
mortified, can only be saved by its own denial. Individuality, as has
been said, can only be preserved by the loss of Individualism.
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