Worshipping life, by means of death. Unamuno, Life 4.16
Catholic
philosophy, which Unamuno seeks to discover and express in this
chapter of his book, requires us to deduce truth from a principle of
universal kindness or utility. Deduction is a rational process, and
reason is naturally the enemy of life, and so of faith that worships
life. Reason works by limitation and analysis: in
natural terms, these words indicate what we know as death.
Catholic philosophy is thus concerned with making death into an
expression of life.
Y
buscóse como primera piedra de cimiento la autoridad de la tradición
y la revelación de la palabra de Dios, y se llegó hasta aquello del
consentimiento unánime. Quod apud
multos unum invenitur non est erratum, sed traditum, dijo
Tertuliano, y Lamennais añadió, siglos más tarde, que «la
certeza, principio de la vida y de inteligencia ... es,
si se me permite la expresión, un producto social». Pero
aquí, como en tantas otras cosas, dió la fórmula suprema aquel
gran católico del catolicismo popular y vital, el conde José de
Maistre, cuando escribió: «no creo que sea posible mostrar una sola
opinión universalmente útil que no sea verdadera». Esta es
la fija católica: deducir la verdad de un principio de su bondad o
utilidad suprema. ¿Y qué más útil, más soberanamente útil, que
no morírsenos nunca el alma? «Como todo sea incierto, o hay
que creer a todos o a ninguno», decía Lactancio; pero aquel
formidable místico y asceta que fué el Beato Enrique Suso, el
dominicano, pidióle a la eterna Sabiduría una sola palabra de qué
era el amor; y al contestarle: «Todas las criaturas invocan que lo
soy», replicó Suso, el servidor: «Ay, Señor, eso no basta para un
alma anhelante». La fe no se siente segura ni con el consentimiento
de los demás, ni con la tradición, ni bajo la
autoridad. Busca el apoyo de su enemiga la razón.
In
the quest to put herself upon a sure foundation, our faith discovered
first the authority of tradition, and the revelation of God's word;
in time she arrived at unanimous consent. "What many agree upon
is not a mistake, but a legacy," Tertullian has said (†), and
Lammenais adds, centuries later, that "certainty, the beginning
of life and of intelligence, ... is, if you will allow me the
expression, a product of society" (‡). But here, as in so many
other instances, the best expression comes from that great champion
of popular Catholicism, count Joseph de Maistre: "I do not
believe that it is possible to indicate a single opinion that is
universally useful without being also true" (*). This is the
enduring task of Catholicism: to deduce the truth from a principle of
universal kindness or utility. And what is more useful, more in
keeping with the cultivation of supreme utility, than that the soul
should never die? "As all things are uncertain, we must either
believe in all, or in none," Lactantius said. When the blessed
Henry Suso (⁑), that
formidable Dominican ascetic and mystic, asked eternal Wisdom to tell
him in a word what love is, she answered, "All creatures invoke
what I am." And he replied to her honestly, like the dutiful
servant that he was: "Yes, Lord. But that is not enough to sate
the soul's desire." Our faith is not secure, not even when all
those around us consent to her. Nor can she be safe with tradition or
authority. She seeks the support of reason, her enemy.
---
(†)
This quote is from the African's treatise on the persecution of
Christian heretics, De Praescriptione Haereticorum §
28.
(‡)
Hugues-Félicité Robert de Lamennais (1782-1854) was a Catholic
priest, and a powerful advocate for conservative interests in the
French Restoration that came after the Revolution. His Essay on
Indifference in Matters of Religion was
published first in 1817. It argues that the private judgment of
individuals should not be politically or socially sovereign, and
looks to re-establish the authority of the Catholic church in France.
His church career led him eventually to a bishopric (in the
archdiocese of Rennes), but he refused to enter the college of
cardinals.
(*) Conversations in St. Petersburg
§ 10.
De Maistre went to St. Petersburg, where this work was composed, as
an ambassador from the court of the king of Piedmont and Sardinia (a
court displaced from Turin to Cagliari by events in the wake of the
French revolution).
(⁑)
Heinrich Suso (c. 1295-1366 CE) left the German royal house of Berg,
into which he was born, to become a Dominican friar. He took the
surname Suso, German Süs
or Suese, from his mother, and is best remembered for literature he
composed illustrating his marriage to Christ in the persona of lady
Wisdom. He also defended the reputation of his famous teacher, Master
Eckhart, from the taint of heresy cast upon him, and mysticism
generally, by the 1329 bull of pope John XXII. In 1831, Suso was
beatified by pope Gregory XVI.