Last rites declaration of Ioannes Paulus PP. II (Karol Wojtyla)
Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Nationalism, capitalism, and hoarding. The idea of every nation
should be forgot, price should be struck from the commons, and
princes should be seen for the devils they are. The sins include
our church, secret societies, and other religions which make of
the spirit of God a divide."
Last rites declaration of Ioannes Paulus PP. II (Karol Wojtyla)
2nd April 2005
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Nothing stays for
us. This is our natural condition and yet most contrary to our inclination;
we burn with desire to find solid ground and an ultimate sure foundation
whereon to build a tower reaching to the Infinite. But our whole groundwork
cracks, and the earth opens to abysses.
Let us, therefore, not look for certainty and stability. Our reason is
always deceived by fickle shadows; nothing can fix the finite between the
two Infinites, which both enclose and fly from it.
If this be well understood, I think that we shall remain at rest, each in
the state wherein nature has placed him. As this sphere which has fallen to
us as our lot is always distant from either extreme, what matters it that
man should have a little more knowledge of the universe? If he has it, he
but gets a little higher. Is he not always infinitely removed from the end,
and is not the duration of our life equally removed from eternity, even if
it lasts ten years longer?
In comparison with these Infinites, all finites are equal, and I see no
reason for fixing our imagination on one more than on another. The only
comparison which we make of ourselves to the finite is painful to us.
If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he
is of going further. How can a part know the whole? But he may p