Facing our own Humanity

Well here we go...I am going to talk about myself.

Anybody who has been around me in the last month has probably noticed a slight change in my mood and especially a change in my energy. This last month, for me and a lot of my close friends, has been an extremely difficult one. Some of my PhD candidate friends are preparing for exams, undergrads preparing for life after graduation a mere 5 weeks away or something like that.

For me, I had the stress of a Senior Thesis, seminary application process, RA duties in my dorm (which are amazingly demanding), classes, and countless student group duties which are quite time consuming. Essentially I had 25hours or accounted for out of every 24hour day. Anywho, I do not wish to rant; I greatly enjoy everything I am doing and wouldn't have it any other way.

But at times, we realize that we cannot do anything...that we are humans. We are created, finite beings and we need a support system (family, friends, God). That coffee a friend will bring me, a smoke break with friends to just get out of the library if only for 3 minutes.

As much as we try to be, we are not self-sufficient. That would be the ideal.  Aristotle argues that there is a self-sufficient nature of the εὐδαιμον (fulfilled) life. Aristotle, in his great book the Politics, discusses self-sufficiency as a natural aspect of our natural ends as humans. Aristotle maintains that the city-state is the most complete community, because it attains the limit of self-sufficiency, so that it can exist for the sake of the good life (Pol. I.2.1252b27–30). Individuals outside of the city-state are not self-sufficient, because they depend on the community not only for material necessities but also for education and moral habituation. “Just as, when perfected, a human is the best of animals, so also when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all” (1253a31–3). 

Aristotle, in Chapter 2 in Book I of the Politics, is provides a single line of argumentation to show that the polis exists by nature, that human beings are by nature political animals, and that anyone who is unfit for a life in the polis is either sub-human or super-human. What will follow is a very brief and quick summarization of this line of argumentation (aka, it is prone to error):



Aristotle provides the following argument for the natural existence of the polis:

1. The first communities exist by nature.
2. The polis comes to be as a result of a natural process that proceeds via a sequence of stages, each of which is associated with a certain natural community (household and village).
3. The polis is the telos of the first communities.
4. The telos of a natural process and its intermediate natural results is itself natural/ a nature.
5. The polis is the nature of the first communities.
6. The nature of things that exist by nature must itself exist by nature.
7. Therefore, the polis exists by nature.

What is important here is the first two premises. Aristotle begins by noting that it is natural for human beings to procreate. Thus, they “necessarily form a couple as female and male for the sake of procreation” (1252a27-28). In a similar way, there is “a natural ruler and what is naturally ruled” (1252a30). The master and the slave is a natural couple, formed for the sake of survival (1255a1-3; It is evident, then, that there are some people, some of whom are naturally slaves, for whom slavery is both just and beneficial.”). Both these couples , viz., the husband/wife and master/slave, are formed naturally. They both have the telos of survival; continuing their existence either in species or individual. Thus, the husband and wife preserve the species through procreation “because of the urge to leave behind something of the same kind as themselves (1252a27) and the master and slave couple preserve the individuals through natural slavery. In order to seek existence, they must form a union called the household. It is the first self-subsisting community. It is formed for the sake of existence and is self-sufficient for the every day needs of life. “It comes to be or the sake of living...” (1252b28) Since the desire to procreate and survive are nature for Aristotle, the household, as a community of two couples that fulfill these natural desires, is a natural community. 
A natural offshoot of the household is the village. Aristotle argues that, in direct continuation of the household, the village naturally forms since there are natural desires others than those base desires for survival. It is formed through procreation,formed through the children's children and the interaction of several households. It is basically an extended household but is capable of fulfilling natural needs in addition to the every day needs. Since it is formed via the natural desire of procreation in the household, the village is likewise natural. Thus, the first communities (household and village) exist by nature (1).
Like the household, the village will continue to grow in pursuit of those needs that the village cannot satisfy until the village becomes many villages. Thus, the polis forms as a community of the villages. It is a combination of villages in the most complete way. It is complete and possesses complete self-sufficiency. Aristotle argues that it has reached the “limit of total self-sufficiency” (1252b27). Since it is formed from the village, it “comes to be for the sake of living, but it remains in existence for the sake of living well" (1252b28-29). The polis provides what is necessary, not only for living, but for living a good life. It is formed by the base, natural desire to survive and allows for the good life. Thus, the polis, stemming from natural communities, is formed in a natural process and is a natural community (2).



Aristotle is arguing for the natural-ness of polis...but he is also pointing out what makes it natural and perfect (i.e., the end of the natural desire to form communities)...our desire for survival and to be self-sufficient. At all of our levels of natural inclination, our rational nature directs us toward the Good (or a perceived good) which renders us more and more self-sufficient. At the very base level, we attempt to preserve our own existence...we seek survival. This is the sine qua non of self-sufficiency.


Yet, this self-sufficiency is only had, Aristotle would argue, in the polis. Man is by nature a social being...a polis being, that is, a member of the polis. In the Nichomachean Ethics, is addresses the individual's need, as a fully self-sufficient man, for friends. First he addresses the conflict by noting that "it is said that the blessedly happy and self-sufficient people have no need of friends. For they already have [all] the goods, and hence, being self-sufficient, need nothing added" (NE. 1169b4–6). He will eventually conclude that the excellent person labours for his friends and for his native country, and will die for them if he must" (1169a19–20) and ultimately, that the εὐδαιμον man will have friends. Finally, he argues that one's friend is "another oneself", and so the pleasure that the virtuous person gets from his own life is also found in the life of another virtuous person. "Anyone who is to be happy, then, must have excellent friends" (1170b19).We are human, created, finite things. As Catholics, nothing we do is an accomplishment apart from the aiding and guiding grace of God Almighty. It is interesting to reflect upon the fact that self-sufficiency is not understood by Aristotle, or Aquinas, as a mode of existence in isolation from a community. Our Beatitude is a perfection of our whole beings which includes our social nature. A community, in fact, is what makes self-sufficiency possible and allows for it to be exercised.

"non quod sufficientes simus cogitare aliquid a nobis quasi ex nobis sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est" (Not that we are sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God.) (2 Cor. 3:5). Our self-sufficiency, Aristotle argues, comes from our community of friends. Above all, however, our true self-sufficiency where we will be perfected in Intellect and see God as God sees Himself in the Beatific Vision, is rooted in the sufficiency of Christ our Lord. We must form a relationship with Him in Whom we ultimately wish to exist, for all eternity, in community with. We can never achieve an individual self-sufficiency.

Rev. 3:14-22 - "et angelo Laodiciae ecclesiae scribe haec dicit Amen testis fidelis et verus qui est principium creaturae Dei scio opera tua quia neque frigidus es neque calidus utinam frigidus esses aut calidus sed quia tepidus es et nec frigidus nec calidus incipiam te evomere ex ore meo quia dicis quod dives sum et locupletatus et nullius egeo et nescis quia tu es miser et miserabilis et pauper et caecus et nudus suadeo tibi emere a me aurum ignitum probatum ut locuples fias et vestimentis albis induaris et non appareat confusio nuditatis tuae et collyrio inungue oculos tuos ut videas ego quos amo arguo et castigo aemulare ergo et paenitentiam age ecce sto ad ostium et pulso si quis audierit vocem meam et aperuerit ianuam introibo ad illum et cenabo cum illo et ipse mecum qui vicerit dabo ei sedere mecum in throno meo sicut et ego vici et sedi cum Patre meo in throno eius qui habet aurem audiat quid Spiritus dicat ecclesiis"
"And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. ut because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance. Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches."


They were blinded by their own self sufficiency. They had all the money and possessions they needed and they needed nothing. This Aristotle notes is wrong and as Catholics, we of course know it to be wrong. "omnia possum in eo qui me confortat" ("I can do all these things in him who strengtheneth me." (Phil. 4:13) We as finite beings have it impossible to be self-sufficient. Our life, our existence, and our eventual immortality is dependent on God.

"ixit autem serpens ad mulierem nequaquam morte moriemini scit enim Deus quod in quocumque die comederitis ex eo aperientur oculi vestri et eritis sicut dii scientes bonum et malum." ("And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.") (Gen. 3:4-5)


Our desire for self-sufficiency itself is not misplaced or sinful. It is natural. The sinfulness of it is when we fail to recognize our ultimate existence and self-sufficiency's dependence on God. We seek to see as God sees and exist forever naturally...that is the temptation the serpent gives to Eve. We are finite and we must face this reality lest we fall into the sins of our First Parents who, though rightly ordered towards a desire for self-sufficiency, failed to realize this desire's dependence on God who Alone is self-sufficient in the fullest sense. They tried to achieve independent and apart from God and well, you know the rest of the story.

The end point is this...we will FALL miserably if try to achieve our two ends (the two ends Satan himself uses against Eve) without the aid of God's Grace. "As stated above (Article 1), there is understood to be an effect of God's gratuitous will in whoever is said to have God's grace." (ST IaIIae, 110, 2, corpus.) It is the light of our soul and guides us truly to our ends, unlike the Deceiver. We will never achieve it on our own...that was Satan's big mistake. This willing to live self-sufficiently (in the sense of abandoning one's dependence on God) is the description of Satan provided by Dante...it is what led to his Pride. Satan is introduced as a failed rebel, who could not stomach the fact that he was a created being and not self-sufficient. Satan’s primal rebellion is the desire to be absolutely self-sufficient, to deny the message that inheres in all things: “We did not make ourselves.” Satan is the father of lies precisely in this assertion of self-creation.  (Canto XXXIV)

The Satanic understanding of self-sufficiency is what we need to avoid...we must recognize our own humanity. The portrayal of the Inferno is one so absolutely void of humanity...(as compared to the fulnesss (flourished) humanity of the saints dancing in beatitude in Paradiso).

One last point then...when I say we must recognize our own humanity, I mean we must assert our own vulnerability. Satan denied it and Adam and Eve denied it. Perhaps I will right a meditation here later on vulnerability but I have no time now. We must take the sub-ordinate role in our relation to God...he is the authority. We are simply the beloved that the belover loved so much that he took the initiative to send His Only Begotten Son to Die on the Cross so that, in the Cross, the bridge between Heaven and Earth is restored and we may once again develop a vulnerable dependence on and a relationship with God who loves us (and in vulnerability, opening up ourselves completely and without reserve, even if it means a painful martyrdom).

Fulton Sheen quote that seems fitting (mainly so I can put a great pic of him up):
“Hence the Mass is to us the crowning act of Christian worship. A pulpit in which the words of our Lord are repeated does not unite us to Him; a choir in which sweet sentiments are sung brings us no closer to His Cross than to His garments. A temple without an altar of sacrifice is non-existent among primitive peoples, and is meaningless among Christians. And so in the Catholic Church the altar , and not the pulpit or the choir or the organ, is the center of worship, for there is re-enacted the memorial of His Passion. Its value does not depend on him who says it, or on him who hears it; it depends on Him who is the One High Priest and Victim, Jesus Christ our Lord. With Him we are united, in spite of our nothingness; in a certain sense, we lose our individuality for the time being; we unite our intellect and our will, our heart and our soul, our body and our blood, so intimately with Christ, that the Heavenly Father sees not so much us with our imperfection, but rather sees us in Him, the Beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. The Mass is for that reason the greatest event in the history of mankind; the only Holy Act which keeps the wrath of God from a sinful world, because it holds the Cross between heaven and earth, thus renewing that decisive moment when our sad and tragic humanity journeyed suddenly forth to the fullness of supernatural life.”

Yeah, why not...a couple more