{"id":33097,"date":"2018-02-12T17:49:10","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T23:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=33097"},"modified":"2018-02-12T18:18:35","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T00:18:35","slug":"consider-it-all-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/consider-it-all-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Consider It All Joy","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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WE\u00a0<\/b>do not see because we have eyes. We see because there is light. Where there is no light, the eyes sees nothing, even when fully open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The eyes of the world are fully open today, so to speak. We are piercing the mysteries of the cosmos, the secret of the atom, and the keys to creation. The cumulative knowledge of human history can be accessed by the mere click of a mouse, or a virtual world erected in the blink of an eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And yet, never have we been so blind. Modern man no longer understands why he lives, why he exists, and where he is going. Taught to believe that he is no more than a randomly evolved particle and product of chance, his only hope lies in what he achieves, mainly, through science and technology. Whatever instrument he can devise to take away pain, extend life, and now, end it, is the ultimate goal. There is no reason to exist other than manipulating the present moment to whatever maximizes the most feelings of satisfaction or pleasure.<\/p>\n

It has taken humanity nearly 400 years to arrive at this hour, which began in the 16th century with the birth of the “Enlightenment” period. In reality, it was the “Darkening” era. For God, faith, and religion would slowly be eclipsed by a false hope of redemption through science, reason, and the material.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In seeking the deepest roots of the struggle between the \u201cculture of life\u201d and the \u201cculture of death\u201d\u2026 We have to go to the heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God and of man\u2026\u00a0 [that] inevitably leads to a practical materialism, which breeds individualism, utilitarianism and hedonism.<\/strong> \u2014POPE JOHN PAUL II, Evangelium Vitae<\/em>, n.21, 23<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But we are far more than molecules.<\/p>\n

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Science can contribute greatly to making the world and mankind more human. Yet it can also destroy mankind and the world unless it is steered by forces that lie outside it. <\/strong>\u2014POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter, Spe Salvi<\/em>, n. 25<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The “forces that lie outside it” are, for one, the truth of our inherent dignity\u2014that every man, woman, and child is created in the image of God, though fallen in nature. Other forces include the natural law from which moral absolutes spring, and which in themselves, point to a greater Source beyond ourselves\u2014namely, Jesus Christ, who took our flesh and became man, revealing himself as the mender of our fallen human nature and brokenness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1:9)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is this Light which man so desperately needs… and which Satan, working patiently through the centuries, has almost completely eclipsed in most parts of the world. He has done so by fomenting a “new and abstract religion”, says Pope Benedict[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald<\/i>, p. 52<\/span><\/span>