Neurosis is the fruit of a society that does not practice God’s Law.
Newsroom (02/07/2022 12:45 PM Gaudium Press) It is obvious that, the more a society abandons the Law of God, the more it decays. We observe this in a striking way in our century.
If we compare the world today with the one of eighty years ago, we will see how much human life has improved. Just think of the astonishing progress in medicine. How much it has relieved pain, cured illnesses, prolonged lives, in short, spread good on Earth!
It is undeniable that the development of technology and science has generated countless benefits and facilities for contemporary society.
Nevertheless, moral, economic and social disorders have created a life of such agitation and excitement, that a neurosis has been established all over the world.
And today we often walk the streets and see people who are notoriously suffering from nervous problems.
There are places where criminals are not arrested because there is no jail that can hold all the delinquents that appear.
You can see the whole of today’s society writhing in a malaise, in an affliction, in an anguish that leads men to make real aberrations.
For example, can there be a greater aberration than abortion, where the mother agrees to terminate the pregnancy and expel the child that was being conceived?
I mean, it is a sin against nature, it is a sin of homicide, a horrible sin that cries out to Heaven and cries out to God for vengeance!
However, we see the enormous number of abortions performed in our days.
“Thou shalt not sin against chastity”
Sadly, how rare are the people who practice chastity becoming!
And what about adultery in today’s world? One of the arguments alleged by the defenders of divorce is that the indissolubility of the marriage bond is not supported.
Well, God commands that husband and wife be faithful to each other all their lives! What are we to think of a country that can no longer stand the indissolubility of marriage and, therefore, can no longer tolerate good order on such a serious point?
The results are disorder and the breakdown of all things.
Let us not be under any illusion: the world today has made marvelous progress in many respects, but the lack of observance of the Commandments not only leads it toward the precipice, but causes all progress to fall into ruin.
Wonderful progress in itself, but which, when put into the service of a nebropathic civilization, all starts to falter.
Warning from Our Lady at Fatima
Hence Our Lady’s warning at Fatima in 1917. She appeared to the little shepherds and declared, in the Cova da Iria, that the world was living in immorality, and that God’s anger was full of it; and that if the world did not amend and consecrate itself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the chastisement would come in which there would be many misfortunes, and only after that would the world return to normal.
Did Our Lady say something brutal, cruel, wrong? No. She stated a fact. The world was in a permanent state of grave offense to God, and it continued more and more in that.
How to lead a truly Christian life
In view of these profound reasons, we can draw practical conclusions for our lives.
We should not consider people superficially. The question to know if someone is good or bad should be: Does he love God to the point of keeping the Commandments?
If he loves God, be his brother; if he doesn’t love God, pray for him to love Him, work for his conversion, but be careful with him!
Because he who does not love God is not capable of sincerely loving another person.
The affection of the sinner is a lie. The affection of the man or woman who is in sin only goes as far as the limit of his or her own sensitivity. At a certain point, period, it is over!
Whoever does not love God above all things, let us not imagine that he will love anyone more than himself, because he loves himself above all things.
He may want another only as long as he is an instrument of pleasure, that’s all.
It is absolutely not that love by which we do good to others, even if they do not repay us, and only because we love God. This is unselfish love for others, this is true seriousness.
We must know how to control our likes and dislikes, which are often nothing but whims. Be suspicious, therefore, of our sympathies and ask ourselves:
– Does that person with whom I sympathize love God and live in his grace?
If so, my sympathy has a reason for being.
Let us also be careful with antipathy. Sometimes we have antipathy entirely gratuitously and toward people who deserve our affection.
Let us analyze our dislikes in such a way that we judge them properly and know how to treat well the people we dislike for stupid reasons.
This is a way to avoid much injustice and to lead a truly Christian life, where everything is regulated by Faith and Morals.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Text extracted, with adaptations, from a conference of 8/12/1984.
