What Does the Faith Say?

Excerpt of Pope Benedict XVI from Vatican Info Service December 3, 2008 READ all HERE.

In the evolutionist and atheistic view of the world ... it is held that human beings as such have, from the beginning, borne evil and good within themselves. ... Humans are not simply good, but open to good and to evil ... both of them original. Human history then, according to this view, does nothing more than follow the model present in all evolution. What Christians call original sin is only this blend of good and evil".

"This, in the final analysis, is a vision of despair. If it is true, evil is invincible, ... all that counts is individual interest, any form of progress would necessarily be paid for with a river of evil, ... and anyone who wishes to progress would have to pay this price. ... This modern idea, in the end, can create only sadness and cynicism".

"Again we ask ourselves: what does the faith say? ... St. Paul ... confirms the contradiction between the two natures, ... the reality of the darkness of evil weighing upon the whole of creation. Yet, in contrast to the desolation ... of dualism ... and monism, ... the faith speaks to us of two mysteries of light and one of darkness", and the mystery of darkness is "enclosed within in the mysteries of light".

"The faith tells us that there are no two principles, one good and one evil. There is only one principle which is God the Creator and He is solely good, without shadow of evil. Hence, neither are human beings a mix of good and evil. The human being as such is good. ... This is the joyful announcement of the faith: there is but one source, a source of good, the Creator, and for this reason ... life too is good."

Let me throw out only 1 thought here, as one could go into so many teaching directions from this catechesis by Pope Benedict XVI. He explains that the faith holds that there is only 1 principle which is God. He contrasted truth found in faith versus how the dictatorship of relativism ever-so-pervasively seeps in by division. "...relativism, that is, letting oneself be 'tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine,' seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires." HOMILY OF HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGER, Vatican Basilica, Monday 18 April 2005

What we must hold to is our faith handed down to us and taught by the Magisterium. This is also why we, the Mass'keteers, hold Girard in good light because his thoughts always have a link to Church teachings.