A Society of Love
Appendix
A Glossary of Words used by Rosmini
This appendix deals with the meaning of a number of extremely important words used by Rosmini in A Society of Love and elsewhere. These words, if used in their ordinary sense today, would lead us to conclusions very different from those expressed by Rosmini. ‘Justice’, for example, at best indicates today ‘giving what is due’ to another person or persons. The concept does not extend beyond the realm of natural law, and may even be mistakenly confined within the boundaries of legality. At worse, it is often heard on people’s lips as a synonym for vengeance; an apparent longing for justice may well hide a desire for revenge.
This debased meaning of ‘justice’, and of similar words, cannot be rectified in translation by replacing one word with another, more modern word appropriate to the writer’s meaning. The change in significance of fundamental expressions does not come about simply in the course of development of language, but as a result of decadence in society which, in abandoning certain fundamental truths, has either lost or forgotten the ancient use of words. As Rosmini himself says in speaking about the downfall of religious congregations:
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Succeeding generations religiously and carefully retained the same material words of the law, but no longer sought the deep, moral sense given them by the first members. The words, which had been full of fire, were now insipid, ordinary and troublesome. Insensibly, the point had been reached where the perfection contained in the noble rule came to be ignored and, in fact, the contrary of what was expressly found in the rule became the practice (Conscience, 434). |
What is needed, in this case as in our own, is to restore the true meaning of words and through them to point to truths and realities which have long been suppressed, but can never be entirely eliminated. We have to rekindle the embers of the latent fire hidden in these words by discarding the dross accumulated by misuse and history, and by stirring up their naked flame.
Justice
For Rosmini, justice is paramount. Its importance is exemplified in the gospel words: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice (diakaiosËnhn) (Matt 6: 33). The whole of Christian desire is to be centred on pleasing God, that is, on being just (cf. Maxims, 1st Maxim).
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Since it is justice that makes us dear to God, Christians must constantly pray to grow in justice and goodness… The more they ask this from God, the more they please him. They will be reassured by Christ’s own words: blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice for they shall have their fill (Matt 5: 6). In Christian life and worship, everything must be centred on the single desire of becoming more and more just, and on an unceasing, limitless, infinite plea for this justice. The aim of Christians is to become one with Jesus as closely as Jesus is one with the Father. Their desire has to be insatiable, and they must never be afraid of asking too much… Upon this justice, obtained through his prayer, Christ has founded the Church of the elect which cannot perish (ibid.). |
The same truth from Scripture indicates the end of the Society of Charity:
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The end of this Society is one only, that of obtaining justice in the most perfect way possible, and consequently of attaining the salvation and perfection of our own soul (On the Order of our Petitions to God). |
This justice is not the justice of works, although its presence in the Christian soul creates universal virtue therein. It is ‘the justice of God’ (ibid.), communicated to us by God himself. In other words, through the grace of God in Jesus Christ we can see and appreciate all-that-is as God sees and appreciates it. Faith, enlivened by grace, enables us to act towards all-that-is with the reverence and love found in God himself. It is our participation in God’s justice that moves us to love God with all our heart and our neighbour as ourselves, and draws us to everything good for ourselves and for our neighbour; it is our share in God’s justice that makes us just as we adhere in love to the will of God in which all justice is found, and thus attain the holiness of God, the otherness of God, that pleases him.
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Christian justice is not,
however, unrelated to justice in its human and truly natural sense. Rather,
it brings to perfection natural justice by which we give ‘to all
their own’. |
Justice, supernatural and natural, is destroyed by sin, the act by which we refuse to recognise God and our neighbour for what we know them to be.
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Justice consists in giving to all their own, in recognising and loving everything for what it is, neither more nor less. The innate light of reason, and more importantly the light of faith, shows that God is the supreme Being, infinitely greater than all the beings which are his creatures. He is, therefore, worthy to be infinitely esteemed and loved above them all. But through sin, we put things before God, at least in practice, and creatures before the Creator. We esteem and love the former more than the latter (Manuale dell’Esercitatore). |
In keeping with these words, Rosmini was able to speak of justice as abstinence from sin and ‘the very foundation on which the Society [of Charity] is erected.’ He continues:
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Let each one, therefore, take care to strive, with perseverance, humility and great trust in divine grace to increase ever more and more the purity of his conscience (Common Rules, n. 3). |
Charity
Justice, as understood by Rosmini
culminates, in charity. From what has already been said about justice as a ‘universal
virtue’, we can see that Rosmini, in speaking about charity, is referring
to the absolute perfection of virtue found in the gospel, not to alms-giving
and still less to some kind of condescending benefit conferred on the needy.
The true nature of charity as a supernatural gift of God by which we share in
God’s own life of love is explained at length in these sermons, but some
kind of summary of Rosmini’s thought, and brief guide to it, can be found
in the following quotations:
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Charity is the fulfilment
and necessary perfection of justice (p. 10). |
Object
One of the most difficult words in Rosmini’s philosophical and theological vocabulary is ‘object’. Today, we often use the word in a derogatory sense. We say, for example, that a person is treated as an object, and mean that no attention has been paid to the person as person. We reduce the person to the status of ‘thing’, and treat him or her accordingly. But deep within this reductive use of ‘object’ lies its etymological root, that is, ‘set against something’ (ob-jectum). In other words, it signifies what exists in itself, as distinct from the subject who knows it. A strong echo of this usage is present when we speak of something which is ‘known objectively’, that is, in itself, uncontaminated as it were by any admixture with the knowing subject. If I know something subjectively, I know it as part of myself; if I know it objectively, I know it neither as part of myself nor in the abstract, but as it is in itself.
This common sense understanding of ‘object’ and ‘objective’ lies at the basis of Rosmini’s use of the word.
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Through object, we understand a term which is seen or intuited [by the intelligence] in such a way that in it the one who intuits sees neither himself nor any relationship with himself (precisely as intuiting subject). Oneself, as we said, remains forgotten and excluded, and the [known] term stands by itself — it appears as existing in an absolute way (Logica, n. 304). |
The importance of this meaning cannot be overstated when we are dealing with love. We can in fact love, in the deepest sense of the word, only when we are able to forget ourselves for the sake of the other. Rosmini, appealing to intelligence as the sole faculty enabling us to understand all that is as it is — as object — offers a way into the being of others. There the will can appreciate and esteem others as they are; it can forget itself and give without regard for self; in the other, whom it knows, it can itself be ‘objectivised’ as it is drawn away from its own standpoint (‘ec-stasis’) and into the other. Supernaturally, this takes place when God, whose infinite per se existence is unattainable to human beings, reveals himself to the soul which, revitalised in mind and will, is then able to adhere to its supremely desirable Object.
Perfection
Rosmini’s understanding of ‘perfection’ is far removed from the self-indulgent significance which modern usage tends to bestow on the word. In the context of these sermons, it takes its meaning from the word of God which holds out perfection, but not simply human perfection, to all those who would be disciples of Christ.
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All Christians, that is, the
disciples of Jesus Christ, in whatever state or condition they find themselves,
are called to perfection because all are called to the Gospel, the law
of perfection. Our divine Master spoke to each and every Christian when
he said: You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. |
End
Italian, which distinguishes il fine and la fine (‘end’ as ‘purpose’ from ‘end’ as ‘completion’), is wholly unambiguous when speaking of ‘end’. English would normally make the same distinction by using ‘aim’ and ‘end’. However, we do speak of the ‘end of something’ when we mean to indicate the objective purpose for which it exists and towards which it, and those who love it, must tend. For example, ‘the end of marriage’ (as distinct from the aim which married people may have, and from ‘the end of the marriage’) refers to what is built into the nature of marriage as such, whether people subjectively aim at this or not. ‘End’, understood in this sense, stands as a standard which directs the ‘aim’.
Some examples of this usage, common throughout these homilies, can be found in the following quotations:
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All creatures serve and are
ordained to the God-man. This is why he is called the heir of all things
(Heb 1: 2); and it is written that in everything he might be pre-eminent
(Col 1: 18) to whom are all things. To him be glory for ever
(Rom 11: 36). This means that the Word Incarnate is the end for
which the world is made. Other human beings also acquire their being as
end in so far as they are incorporated in Christ" (Teosofia,
1388). |
Society
Rosmini dedicated a great part of his early studies to the development of his ideas on society. In his maturity, his published works on the same subject (The Summary Reason for the Stability or Downfall of Human Societies, Society and its Purpose and a great part of the six volumes forming the Philosophy of Right) brought to fruition the notions he had considered for so long. But his preoccupation with society was not simply an intellectual exercise. His capacity for friendship and his longing for society with others had been tested in his youth, and it is no exaggeration to say that, under grace, his foundation of the Institute of Charity in the Church of Jesus Christ was an endeavour to bring together in a religious congregation all that was essentially best in human and divine society.
For this reason it is impossible, without some explicit understanding of Rosmini’s views on society in general, to grasp the nature of the Society of Charity, and equally impossible to plumb the depths of the Constitutions which he left as his perpetual bequest to the members of the Institute. To facilitate this understanding and, at the same time, to draw attention to the fuller significance of a word which has lost much of its power through unfortunate association with limited companies and high life, it is sufficient to consider the following references.
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The concept of society originates from what we have rightly called the social bond, formed by two or more persons when they are co-involved, consciously and willingly, in working towards some end. Persons who will to act in this way are ‘as-sociated’… The concept of society requires that the individuals forming society have, with an act of their will, posited something in communion… We can distinguish four factors in society: 1. two or more wills co-involved in working towards the same object; 2. knowledge of this co-involvement; 3. desire for this co-involvement; 4. two or more co-involved wills positing something in communion (Universal Social Right, 34–39). |
It is clear that society, for Rosmini, depends essentially on an act of the spirit, a personal act of will, by which the members of a society place something in communion in order to work towards a common object.The end of every society is a true, human good which gives satisfaction to the members. Without this, there is no valid association. This is the basic, universal end towards which all societies, whatever their specific aims, must tend as they strive for the common good and the communion in which it is enjoyed (cf. Society and its Purpose, bk. 2).
This is true about:
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— the society of mankind |
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— the society of the
Church: Christ, the divine person who communicates the divinity to the human nature joined with him, also communicates the perception of the divinity to the other individuals of the human species through baptism and the grace of faith. In this way, Christ realises in himself the most perfect society between God and man, and draws other human beings into the same society (ibid., 705). The true interior and exterior society between human beings and God is proclaimed, therefore, only in the time of grace, through the society between Christ and human beings whom he rightly calls his friends because he has placed in communion with them divine wisdom itself, as he said, All that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you (Jn 15: 15). St. Paul could write to the Corinthians: God is faithful, by whom you were called into the society of his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord (1 Cor 1: 9), and St. John, announcing the things he had seen and heard, could write of this society to the faithful: So that you may have society with us; and our society is with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ (1 Jn 1: 3) (ibid., 708). |
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— the Society of Charity This Society [of Charity]… consists of faithful Christians who, in their ardent desire of living as disciples of Jesus Christ, their Lord and Master, apply themselves vigorously, with mutual help and encouragement, to their own perfection as persons… The end of this society, therefore, is to care lovingly for the sanctification of the members who compose it and, by means of their sanctification, to expend whatever longings and strength it has in all works of charity, and especially for the eternal salvation of every one of its neighbours (ibid., 2, 5). Since charity constitutes per se the end and nature of our companionship, every member must will every good in so far as he can without restriction, and he must will each good only in so far as it is good (ibid., 551) |
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