(A free translation by Peter Maurin from a chapter in the untranslated volume of Maritain–The Temporal Regime and Liberty. (Later published in English as Freedom in the Modern World.)
1. GOING TO THE ROOTS
In trying to bring the spirit of the Gospel, the spirit of integral humanism into the cultural and temporal order, people fail to realize the absolute necessity of going to the roots.
2. THE TWO ORDERS
1. It is not a question of changing the system; it is a question of changing the man who makes the system.
2. It is not the temporal that creates the spiritual it is the spiritual that creates temporal environment.
3. TRUE RADICALISM
1. There is no social revolution without a spiritual revolution.
2. The trouble with radicals is not that they are too radical but not radical enough.
3. External radicalism is not radical enough because it is external.
4. Inner radicalism is true radicalism.
4. A RADICAL CHANGE
1. That there must be a change and a radical change is realized today not only by radicals, but by most conservatives.
2. And the change will come not from the masses but from a few individuals that will make up their minds to give up old habits and start to contract new habits.
5. NO COMPLETE FAILURE
1. This radical change will not be a perfect change.
2. While it will not be a perfect change, it will be a change in the right direction.
3. While it may fail it will not be a complete failure, but it will be precedent for future generations.
6. ENGAGED AND DETACHED
1. A radical change requires human personalities, devoted to the cause, thinking about the cause, not the success of the cause.
2. It requires detached personalities, not indifferent personalities, generous personalities, not self-seeking personalities, engaged and detached, not engaged and attached.
7. BETRAYING CHRISTIANITY
1. To be detached from visible success makes a life of action a crucified life.
2. But to be engaged in Christian reconstruction and not to do it in a Christian manner would misrepresent it for the sake of making it prevail.
3. To so misrepresent it would be the most treacherous way to betray Christianity.
8. PURE MEANS
1. People trying to bring about a Christian reconstruction of the social order, must be made aware of the great temptation to use unchristian means.
3. As Emile Zola says: “The pure means are the strongest means.”
9. WORK OF THE FEW
1. It is not true to say that all men must be changed before the social system can be changed.
2. Revolutions are the work of a group of men generally few Who throw all their energies in the work of revolution
10. RIGOROUS DISCIPLINE
1. Russian Bolshevists saw it clearly.
2. They made of their Party a kind of brotherhood imposing on their members a rigorous discipline.
3. They tried in their way to renew the basis of the moral life of the people.
11. APPEALING APPEAL
1. What impresses us most in the Russian Revolution is not the appeal to pride and violence.
2. It is the appeal to poverty and suffering willingly accepted for the sake of an ideal.
12. FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
1. The general tendency of dialectic materialism is to conceive matter as the source from which flow such qualities as freedom and spontaneity.
2. Freedom and spontaneity we recognized as necessary concepts in the building up of the revolutionary spirit.
13. AN HEROIC IDEAL
1. The weakness of such a conception is to destroy in the souls of men the notion of truth.
2. While they try to present it as a scientific conception it is an admission that no social transformation can be brought about without the fostering of an heroic ideal.
14. CHRISTIAN HEROISMS
1. But the greatest heroism is the heroism of love.
2. The heroism of the cross must be expressed in the social field besides the heroism of Bolshevism and Fascism.
3. But Christian heroism must remain Christian heroism even when expressed in the social field.
15. FROM THE HEART OF GOD
1. Christian heroism must be exercised not only in private life but also in social life.
2. Christian heroism comes from the heart of a God made man, scorned by men, crucified by men.
16. TRANSFORMING SOCIETY
1. As during the Middle Age Christians must again transform society.
2. But the strength and greatness of this transformation must spring from elsewhere.
3. Great social undertakings must not be the monopoly of Fascists and Bolshevists.
17. PROTECTING SOULS
1. The protection of souls is the work of the Church.
2. To assure this protection the Church is sometimes obliged to deal with temporal powers which are far from being as they should be.
3. Blind is the one who blames the Church for doing so.
4. Christ was not asked to change water into wine or multiply the loaves when nailed to the Cross.
18. BELIEVING BEFORE SEEING
1. Greater things than miracles are happening on this occasion.
2. Resurrection will come but after three days.
3. Asking for miracles on those occasions is to reverse the order of things.
4. One cannot see before believing but one must believe before one can see.
19. CHRISTIAN TRANSFORMATION
1. Will a Christian transformation of the social order come to realization in this century?
2. A Christian transformation cannot come about in the same way that other transformations come about.
3. A Christian transformation will be the product of Christian heroism.
Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XV, No. 7, November 1995; reprinted from The Catholic Worker, January, 1935
