The necessity of incarnation

God willed that the Spirit of man be bound to matter so as to undergo the vicissitudes of the body, with which it identifies itself to the point of deluding itself and of taking the body for itself, when it is no more than its passing prison; it is as if a prisoner confused himself with the walls of his cell. The materialists are very blind not to perceive their error, for if they were willing to reflect a little seriously, they would see that it is not through the matter of the body that they can manifest themselves; they would conclude that, since the matter of this body is continually renewed, like the water of a river, it is only through the Spirit that they can know that they are always themselves. Let us suppose that the body of a man weighing sixty kilograms assimilates, for the repair of his strength, one kilogram of new substance per day, in order to replace the same quantity of old molecules from which it separates and which have fulfilled the role they were to perform in the composition of its organs; thus, at the end of sixty days the matter of this body would be renewed. On this hypothesis, whose figures may be contested, but which is true in principle, the matter of the body would be renewed six times per year; therefore, the body of a man of twenty would already have been renewed a hundred times; at forty, two hundred and forty times; at eighty, four hundred and eighty times. But will your Spirit have been renewed? No, for you are conscious that you are always yourselves. It is, then, your Spirit that constitutes your self, and according to which you manifest yourselves, and not your body, which is no more than ephemeral and mutable matter. The materialists and the pantheists say that the molecules disaggregated after the death of the body return to the common mass of their primitive elements, the same occurring with the soul, that is, with the being that thinks within you; but what do they know of this? Is there a common mass of substance that thinks? They have never demonstrated it, and that is what they should have done before affirming it. On their part it is no more than a hypothesis. Now, if during the life of the body the molecules disaggregate hundreds of times, while nevertheless the Spirit is always the same and preserves the consciousness of its individuality, is it not more logical to suppose that the nature of the Spirit is not liable to disaggregation? Why, then, would it dissolve after the death of the body, and not before? After this digression, addressed to the materialists, I return to my subject. If God willed that His spiritual creatures be momentarily united to matter, it is, I repeat, to make them feel and, so to speak, that they might undergo the needs that matter demands of their bodies, with respect to their sustenance and preservation. From these needs are born the vicissitudes that make you feel suffering and understand the commiseration you should have for your brothers in the same position. This transitory state is, therefore, necessary to the advancement of your Spirit, which, without it, would remain stagnant. The needs that the body makes you experience stimulate your Spirits and force them to seek the means of providing for them; from this forced labor is born the development of thought. Constrained to preside over the movements of the body in order to direct them, with a view to its preservation, the Spirit is led to material labor and from there to intellectual labor, each necessary to the other, for the realization of the Spirit's conceptions requires the labor of the body, and this cannot be done except under the direction and impulse of the Spirit. The Spirit having thus acquired the habit of working, to which it is constrained by the needs of the body, labor in turn becomes a need for it; and when, freed from its bonds, it no longer has to think of matter, it thinks of working upon itself for its advancement. Now you understand the necessity for your Spirit of being bound to matter during a part of its existence, so as not to remain stationary.

Your father, Percheron, assisted by the Spirit Pascal. n Observation. – To these observations, perfectly just, we shall add that, in working for itself, the incarnate Spirit works for the improvement of the world in which it dwells, thus aiding its transformation and its material progress, which are in the designs of God, of whom it is the intelligent instrument. In its provident wisdom, Providence willed that everything in Nature be linked together; that all, men and things, be interdependent. Then, when the Spirit has accomplished its task and is sufficiently advanced, it shall enjoy the fruit of its works.

[1]

[v. Pascal.]