Wednesday, March 02, 2005
FATHER LOU GUNTZELMAN
wants us to become our true self, and abandon the false self society has called us to adopt. To do this he recommends the teaching of Thomas Merton and psychological experts such as Jung, Erickson and Maslow. He does not mention homosexuality, but one can almost see a rainbow flag waving in the background. If Fr. Guntzelman would not help to wave it, his words will help others to do so.
He seems not to be able to take into consideration that we can easily be persuaded that a sinful predeliction is our true self. Development of the true self in the terms God intends is not a conversation with us and our inner voice. For a Catholic it must be a conversation with God as He comes to us through the channel of His grace, the Catholic Church. Merton, Jung, Erickson and Maslow do not present a united Catholic perspective on what it means to be authentic. Using these experts will bring us to the place of opposition to the teachings of Christ. Jung in particular had a non-Christian worldview. The theories of Maslow were responsible for the destruction of the communities of women religious.
If we want to develop our true self, a better source of information is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the teachings of the Gospels, the writings of St. Paul. Our self is not true until it conforms to the true human revealed in the Son of God.
