St Francis College - Franciscan Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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YEAR BOOK Pu blished by the Senior Class ST. FRANCIS COLLEGE BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

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ST. FRANCIS TODAY T HERE is occasion for a rather pathetic humor in the realization that in our age of mental confusion and physical conflict we are strikingly unani¬ mous in the belief that the times are so very, very sorely out of joint. Our mere admittance of the disorder is in itself a good sign, but it certainly is not a corrective. It is obvious to us now that society is humanly sick unto death by reason of man’s foolish credulity in the virtues of baseless phil¬ osophies as much as by his strange reverence for the researches of the sages of Laputa. That trouble evinced itself early in modern history, yet it was not until the last half-century that a patent gullibility persuaded the individual to discuss “organized” religion in the jargon of neurosis and psychosis. Then, contemporaneously, since there was no further need for an outmoded scholastic system of thought, the social whole was presented with a grand and attractive Philosophy of Magnitude by the recent geniuses of the lecture halls. They understood that if man would strengthen his faith in the very empty credo of progressivism, an elaborate doctrine based not on simplicity but on complexity was a requisite. In the light of the new teach¬ ing, the home appeared too insignificant a social factor to continue. As a substitute, the individual was given a complete liberation from the selfish and sordid restraints of traditional belief and society was dazzled by mar¬ vellous theories and gigantic projects. Ah, man was so comfortably pleased! No more disturbing thoughts about that terrible invention, God! Now, in youth, we did not think and were respected as flippant cynics; in adulthood we thought but preferred to be conventional sceptics. So there was a repetition of the age-old story—when the drugged dream is held to be the summum bonum of existence—that man is often lower than the swine. But there is goodness; events are stable; and awakenings occur. That is why today is a tragic fact. We know now that the garden of full earthly happiness is a barren wasteland. The entire social structure toppled because the material props of stupendous undertakings were pitifully inadequate in the strain of a new economic crisis. The individual is hurt in his sudden understanding of the law which associates living with suffering. That prin¬ ciple, so hard to learn, is as eternal as the parallel between self-abnegation and happiness, the sob and the smile, the lonely wail of the Crucified and the glad cry of the Child. We had forgotten that in an orgy of pride. Yet the most appalling aspect of the humiliating failure was the terrible thought that even God, so recently forgotten, would not aid us. Fortunately, we have learned a lesson and have definitely decided that present disillusionment will serve as the father of future carefulness. But we are left so badly hurt and bewildered that we will plunge civilization into utter chaos unless we