SUCCESS AND THE TRUE SELF

The highest norm of human life is the divine law –

objective/universal/eternal – by which God

governs the whole universe and the human community

with a plan conceived in wisdom and love.

 

But Bernard Lonergan’s greatest criticism  

of the old/dogmatic theology

was its exaggerated notion of the objectivity of truth

and its corresponding neglect of the subject, the self

particularly since in the recent history of thought

Hegel/Kierkegaard/Nietzsche/Heidegger/Buber

emphasized the importance of subjective truth.

 

According to Carl Jung, “individuation” is the process

of continually finding parts of our subjective self that were lost –

this refinding of the whole self/True Self

is what the parables of the lost coin/lost sheep/

lost prodigal son were really about –

Jesus was way ahead of modern psychology.

 

The “prosperity gospel” sees success as the sign

of God’s blessing, but success is never what your True Self

is really about/never the real goal of the journey of life –

success only feels good/right temporarily

and then it is gone – all things must pass – except God.

 

After the Second World War everyone wanted to blot out

of their consciousness that disaster which pointed out the lie

of the liberal ideology of eternal progress

by highlighting our capacity for total depravity –

so everyone got into success and upward mobility

and to accommodate this we developed a culture

of choice not obligation – there were no longer any

religious or social obligations – there was no longer any pressure

from others to be religious – it became a choice not an obligation –

and many chose to be spiritual but not religious.

 

Once we were old enough to make conscious acts of love

our life became a never-ending series of choices

between our false self with its selfish ambitions for success

and our True Self with its loving consent to

God’s Mercy

despite our lostness and total depravity

which the True Self includes and transcends.