WANTED A VISION

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 23, 24 June 1925, Page 33

WANTED A VISION

The great: ones of the earth are so busy giving advice that, they have -no,; time to take any themselves.; They think, of course, that they do not'need any, and that human per--fection will be won by the noise-made by.lanky tongues v which ; wag, unceasingly in ; empty heads.; The : politician imagines that his vri. views . upon : subjects ;■ beyond his comprehension - are rendered par--ticularly "valuable -because of -the fact that he c has managed to get into; Parliament on the suffrage of those who either- 1 vastly, over-rated his ability and sincerity or else voted for him in desperation as the .bad ■ best of a hopeless gang. .Agnostic, philoso- 1 pliers think they are exceptionally well qualified to enlighten the world about God because. 1 they -believe God to be; a Being '".'about Whom no one can know anything. One and all deplore the lack of vision which prevents the', common people from perceiving the Millennium in the nostrums of quacks; But whether % it is , the Evolutionist; talking "about '■'[ 'Miss--ing Links,'' the Communist preaching up the. 'class war, or Rationalist cleric advocating birth control, the chief object is to' draw the thoughts of men from the 'affairss of the soul and direct their attention to an , abundance of food and clothes as the" goal of'' human happiness. ; But the world" with all its abundance could not satisfy even one per- ; son out of /the .millions who seek their.' heaven 1 in the f our-pound loaf. The desires I' and; needs of man. can be satisfied /ati best only temporarily and incompletely. Thus Monday morning's breakfast will not satisfy : Tuesday evening's appetite, and the hunger that was appeased by fish might have been gratified better by roast beef. But the body, itself, the body that uses food and wears clothes, can neither be satisfied nor dissatisfied with anything. : ; Satisfaction belongs" to the mind, which is part of the soul. The hungry man, if ho were surrounded' by the most tempting dishes, could not eat a single .morsel unlesshis. will first gave -consent and the 'food lie eats/ the clothes he wears, the pleasures 'lie* enjoys, are all subject to ; the/judgment/ofj the mind. Aristotle, or < one of the pagan philosophers, :\ defined / complete happiness as % that state in which there is nothing tc be desired. Now as long as man has a body,". .with its sver-recurring waht9> complete satisfaction is unattainable. But the soul is im- ' mortal; and possesses the desire and 'capacity > for-complete happiness. Therefore, complete happiness is attainable only-; after the death of/the body;' God", made eternal .happiness conditional upon human : olxdience to S the moral law under which He placed all men; but the blind preachers of "Vision", contrive

to keep the people in poverty and woe by ■ lashing them on in. pursuit of the ghost of .-••riches,! of the shadow of happiness, of the vain pleasures which beget despair. Inor-" i\ . dinate attachment to material goods is bound ';. to create a great ' scarcity of them. Greed always . can exploit covetousness, - envy, and vanity. The; brilliant iMgem/ in the world has its value only in the desire of many women to il§see~ : it sparkle on their breasts; In the cell'. : of a' monk it could not command its price as there would be no ■. demand for it. Similarly, -;' the fact that material, welfare is looked upon as the only thing worth' striving for has the effect of placing such - a fictitious value upon |jj||prosperity that only the very few manage to pay- the price.. if ; people fixed their

;;.; eyes : on a point lugh'; above the gross T things for which they strive so bitterly, those things v would lose a great part of their fictitious value, and would therefore be 'attainable by'all to be :used in the manner and for/the purpose designed-by God. General prosperity ' Vill not. be won, so 16ng as'everyone looks upon;prosperity as ..the chief good. -, It will r be won only when people, have learned to - divert' their attention from it in order to .;-.' behold the face of .'God .in the sky. Thus, to. ; know, love, and serve God is the royal road :.':'. to perfect^ happiness both here and hereafter. '■ - . It was this knowledge that moved St. Augus- • > tine-to write: "Thou hast created us for Thy-. ',- self 'and ■ our heart knows no rest until it ■repose in Thee.." -'' -/-.'■ ">■ "■'•' >'- . - ' /I .'/ , -":".' '■;';-'- ■ "