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| Paradiso, Canto 33 |
The Need for Supernatural Perspective
by Rudolph Lohse
As is
immediately evident, our world is absorbed by political and secular concerns which seek as an ultimate goal a
human utopia on this earth, failing to recognize that this life is merely a
way-station to eternal life and supernatural happiness in the next. This warped
perspective ignores the character of God and the nature of ultimate reality
professed by the Roman Catholic Church. It gives scant recognition to the
divine or spiritual life. Implicit is a lost vision of Christ, extraordinary
naïveté, and a complete lack of logic. A true Catholic perspective comprehends
that our current natural, physical and material existence is only a part of
reality, and a minor part at that. The essence of reality lies in the supernatural
realm. As our Roman Catholic Church constantly emphasizes, we are on earth to
“know, love and serve God in this world so that we may be happy with Him
forever in heaven”. We are human beings destined for eternal life.
This loss of the essence of Christianity,
namely its supernatural perspective, by Modernist (liberal) Christians was
clearly identified 90 years ago by the famous philosopher, George Santayana of Harvard University,
in his book Winds of Doctrine which made a trenchant critique of the Modernism
of his day. It applies even more aptly to Modernist Catholics today. He wrote:
