Reasoning Based on the Principles of the Faith

I have a vague idea of my earliest reasonings. I don’t even remember what topics they dealt with, but I do remember that, at a certain point, I became aware of some logical demonstrations. I can imagine how incipient those demonstrations must have been: one fact, another, yet another; then, the conclusion.

At a certain point, I had the following thought: “It is curious how this works! And it matches what I am seeing. Oh, how wonderful!” I remember being literally enchanted when I realized the existence of reasoning and a process by which I could test, use and discover other truths that I did not know. This is natural, since man is a rational animal.

When this became clear to me, I had a fabulous appreciation for reasoning, which came from two impressions. The first was that of a broadening horizon. The second, characteristic of man, was an appreciation for my own dexterity, for perceiving in myself the power of reasoning, which led me to exclaim: “How wonderful, I am rational!”

I am sure that this happens to everyone, and I am not presenting it in any way as an exceptional fact, nor as a manifestation of talent or virtue greater than that of another. However, not everyone makes the right choice, nor do they pay attention to reasoning.

The track for reasoning is common sense

When I began to pay attention to reasoning and to practise reasoning, I was, as I said, enthralled. But I couldn’t help asking myself the following question: “How many convictions do I have in my soul which have not been reasoned out? Are they really true? Because if truth is attained through sound reasoning, all certainty must be preceded by reasoning. My soul is full of certainties; where is the rationale?”

I remember thinking literally this, and coming to the following conclusion: “I already have so many certainties that, if I were to reason everything out, I would spend the rest of my life confirming what I already know. This way of proceeding seems very logical, but there is something broken about it. Something emerges that I can identify: it goes against common sense.

“Ah, so there is such a thing as common sense, which reasoning does not always obey! Be careful with reasoning… It is magnificent, but it could be compared to an automobile or, less prosaically, to horses running on a track. Going off the track leads to disaster!

The track for reasoning is common sense. There is some kind of basis in a person that, when logic gallops and kicks common sense, logic must be reined in. There can be no conflict between reasoning and common sense, but until the conflict is resolved, common sense prevails. Reasoning that kicks common sense is not acceptable!”

What is common sense? It is a question I asked myself.

The answer was: “I don’t know yet, but it is something that exists within me. If I accept any stab from reasoning in this common sense, I bleed. On the contrary, I know that if reasoning flourishes in line with common sense, I walk in accordance with order and harmony.”

This is where the Catholic Church comes in.

Faith, common sense, reasoning

My parents enrolled me at St. Louis School,¹ and there I began to take methodical classes in religion. In addition, the priests addressed this topic in various subjects, with incomparable Jesuitical logic. This gave me the impression that I had found not just a school of logic, but the school of logic.

Since I saw them reasoning – and they all had the same logic – I said to myself: “No matter how mature I may be in the future and no matter how much I may study, I am sure that I will not acquire any more logic than this. Now, the logic of these priests never conflicts with my common sense; on the contrary, when they reason, I feel that my common sense is at ease and rejoices.

“On the other hand, their logic sharpens mine. Seeing them reason, I know how to set my mind to reason in such a way that it is like a new light entering me. What is this? I realise that they justify the Catholic Faith.”

So there is a triad: Catholic Faith, common sense and logic.

Dew descending from Heaven

Every time I reasoned based on the principles of faith – everything the Church teaches about God, about itself, about its history; the narratives of Bible History and the Gospels; the points of doctrine that were being transmitted to me, such as the Sacraments – I felt my common sense rejoicing. And I would think: “How my common sense is elevated! These principles are like dew falling from heaven on the vegetation. What a wonderful thing, one could not imagine anything like it!”

This was true of everything; even the points that I saw the atheists in my circle attack the most. For example, about the Real Presence they said: “How can a man fit into a piece of bread? And especially a man who died two thousand years ago… Bread is bread, and a man is a man! I cannot believe that. I am a strong-minded person.”

And I reasoned: “If someone said he was bread, I would say he was crazy. Our Lord Jesus Christ says He is bread, and I exclaim: He is God! How great is His holiness, His wisdom! Not only I, a boy, but no man could invent a person like Our Lord Jesus Christ; He is above any human conception. This Man cannot be invented, He cannot be the object of anyone’s literary creation. He is the Creator made man. And from this comes such power: when He says ‘This bread is my Flesh’, it is. And I, instead of saying ‘madman!’, bend my knees and kiss the ground.

“This individual claims to be strong-minded; but he is an imbecile! I know exactly where his ‘strong mind’ comes from. If only God would exempt him – which God would never do, by the way – from practising two Commandments that I could mention, he would believe too; he is a rebel, and a not strong person. He is an atheist because he is revolted. I have nothing in common with him!”

Joy of soul upon glimpsing the solution

I thought a lot about everything related to the Church, observing and analysing. It wasn’t so much about reading. I have read a lot, but I have never been, principally, a reader. I have always been very observant and fond of reflection; and, based on my observations and reflections, I would then read.

And I noticed that the combination of reasoning and common sense, when applied to faith, had a curious result: often, when I posed a problem to myself concerning the Church or Catholic doctrine, before I knew how to solve it, I already perceived what the solution was.

Through my union with the Church, a kind of complementary and superior common sense had formed in me, which was the Catholic sense. So that even before I knew what the Church taught and how it resolved a certain moral problem, or explained a certain movement in history or circumstance in life, before reasoning to connect one point to the other, before looking for a book to research, in the vast majority of cases – not always – I could already foresee the solution. And the solution brought extraordinary joy to my soul.

Catholic sense

Then something was born in me, the definition of which I came to know later: Catholic sense. It is this common sense regarding matters of faith that flies ahead of reasoning, which reverently travels like a wayfarer with his staff touching the earth, following the path that the bird travelled, flying in the sky. Common sense sets out the various links, the different elements, for reasoning to walk to the end.

Endowed with Catholic sense and understanding that it was a favour, a kindness from Our Lady, I headed towards the formation of my mentality, which then unfolded throughout my life.

This position had to bring about this result: as I got to know the Church and analysed it, I marvelled at it more and more.

One cannot be entirely certain without the Catholic Faith

With what certainty I have spoken about common sense and reasoning! But I realise that I would not have the personality or strength to acquire all these certainties if it were not for the Faith.

And not just any Faith. The Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church is the one and only, and outside of it, no other deserves the name of Faith. Believing in this infallibility, all treasures are opened to me; losing it, my certainties soften, my common sense becomes gelatinous, and I am nothing.

I have just said that man, taking the knowledge he has through Faith and combining it with what he possesses through reason, can, with complete respect for and development of his common sense, form a magnificent treasure of certainties. But without God’s grace, he cannot achieve this. He may be certain about one thing or another – like a scientist who has discovered a chemical reaction – but these would be fragmentary certainties. And pieces of certainty do not form a certainty, just as shards of glass do not constitute a stained-glass window. Certainty belongs to the set of truths that concern man, God, and the universe. This is certainty! It is in this sense that scientific and other certainties fit together and are ordered. But one cannot have complete or adequate certainty without the holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Faith.

Faith broadens horizons and orders thought

It is true that human reason, without recourse to Revelation, discovers on it own many truths that are also contained in Revelation, such as, for example, the unicity of God or the demonstration that the Commandments of the Decalogue are just.

But without God’s grace, man would not be able to maintain a clear notion of the Ten Commandments for long, nor would he be able to practise them consistently, even though he might know them.

St. Paul shows that we participate in the divine nature (cf. Rom 8:16-17); something of God’s own life dwells in us. Through the light and strength that come from grace, our intelligence and will can believe, know, and practise respectively what they should. With grace, our intelligence is enlarged and comes to know truths that man would never have know, even before original sin, if it were not for Revelation.

The source of grace is the Catholic Church, and the head of the Catholic Church is the Pope, the pontifical infallibility. Here we have the order, the fervour of soul with which we Catholics must live. ◊

Taken, with adaptations to written language, from:
Conference. São Paulo, 17/10/1981

Notes

¹ School run by the Jesuit priests in São Paulo.