Spiritual Intoxication and Bibulous Bobness

Continuing with yesterday's post, Bonaventure characterizes the contemplative life as a "twofold movement" of "ascending and descending." 

Which makes perfect nonsense, since we could hypothetically (but literally) ascend forever and not reach God, unless God condescends to meet us. In short, proving the existence of God is a matter of mere logic, but knowing him is a different martyr.  

On the one hand,

God, the Principle and the End of all things, can be known with certainty in the natural light of human reason from created things (Dei Filius).

But that's not the end of it, although it would be in the absence of a hand-Me-down from God. Thus, in addition to the natural way to God, "it has pleased His wisdom and goodness to reveal Himself" in "a supernatural way." 

Somewhat ironically, to deny the first more general revelation is an intrinsic cosmic heresy (i.e., in the nature of things) and an extrinsic Catholic heresy (i.e., specifically heretical to Catholic teaching). Thus, a person may have a valid excuse for the latter -- say, invincible ignorance, or end-stage progressivism. 

For example, I am of the belief that President FJB should be permitted to receive communion, so long as the Pope and bishops make it clear that such a recipient is not culpable due to advanced dementia. Same with Nancy Pelosi, who, in case you were wondering, is not spiritually intoxicated.

Switching seers for a moment, Schuon says in various ways that metaphysics isn't for everyone. Indeed, I can hardly affirm a metaphysical certitude without being misunderstood by someone somewhere. Which is probably why the blog seems to always attract more grumbling trolls than groveling admirers. 

Put conversely, there is nothing so freaking obvious that it triggers no oblivious freak. Perhaps you think I'm weird, but you have no idea how much weirdness I must suppress in order to be even minimally misunderstood. Truly truly, the sons of Toots have no place to lay their heads!

"For the inferior man," writes Schuon, "only what is contingent is real." However, if all men were metaphysicians there would be no atheists and certainly no anti-Bob contingent. But that's not the human world we live in, where God has ordained that It Shall Take All Kinds.

Similarly, coming at it from a Christian perspective, Fr. Joseph Fenton writes that the pure metaphysics of, say, the Upanishads, is "far too abstruse and esoteric to influence the thought of most men." As such,

Apart from the influence of divine revelation, the general run of mankind has never had the complete and accurate knowledge of God which is necessary for the perfect enjoyment of the cultured social life. 

In other words: no revelation, no civilization, and soon no fun on pain of cancellation. In case you were wondering about the pervasive decay and rot. 

Which is always with us, so don't get me wrong. It is always the end of times and the beginning of times, the latter thanks to the ceaseless vertical ↕ngression in the absence of which we would quite literally sophicate. Or, as the Aphorist has written,

Every beginning is an image of the Beginning; every end is an image of the End.

But thankfully, amidst the ups & downs, the strikes & gutters, the old still point of the turning world is still here & now, where it's always bein', nor would I

live for even a fraction of a second if I stopped feeling the protection of God’s existence.

For 

Even in the immensity of space we feel caged. Mystery is the only infinity that does not seem like a prison.

Bonus quote from Schuon:

Metaphysics has as it were two great dimensions, the one “ascending” and dealing with universal principles and the distinction between the Real and the illusory, and the other “descending” and dealing on the contrary with the divine life in creaturely situations, and thus with the fundamental and secret “divinity” of beings and of things....

By comparison with the first dimension, the second is mysterious and paradoxical, seeming at certain points to contradict the first, or again, it is like a wine with which the Universe becomes intoxicated.  

Speaking of the perfect enjoyment.