In the Church, considered as a social organism, the mysteries inevitably degenerate into beliefs.
Interpretation
The Church transforms profound mysteries into mere beliefs within society.
Simone Weil suggests that when viewed as a social entity, the Church tends to reduce deep spiritual mysteries into simplified beliefs that can be easily accepted by the congregation. This observation critiques the way organized religion can sometimes strip away the complexity and depth of spiritual experiences, turning them into dogmas that may lack the original, profound insights.
In practice
In a speech about the role of religion in society.
The afflicted are not listened to. They are like someone whose tongue has been cut out and who occasionally forgets the fact. When they move their lips no ear perceives any sound. And they themselves soon sink into impotence in the use of language, because of the certainty of not being heard.
The appetite for power, even for universal power, is only insane when there is no possibility of indulging it; a man who sees the possibility opening before him and does not try to grasp it, even at the risk of destroying himself and his country, is either
As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers with approving smiles.
Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.
I am not a Catholic; but I consider the Christian idea, which has its roots in Greek thought and in the course of the centuries has nourished all of our European civilization, as something that one cannot renounce without becoming degraded.
How many people have been thus led, through lack of self-confidence, to stifle their most justified doubts?
God does not exist to answer our prayers, but by our prayers we come to discern the mind of God.
Problems only exist in the human mind.
The knowledge of the cross brings a conflict of interest between God who has become man and man who wishes to become God.
Each minute of life should be a divine quest.
All things human hang by a slender thread; and that which seemed to stand strong suddenly falls and sinks in ruins.
There is nothing wrong with being well off as long as money has a social and ethical value and is not the object of one's own greed.
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