CHAPTER IX
The Driving Force of the Counter-Revolution
There is a driving force of the Counter-Revolution, just as there is one of the Revolution.
1. Virtue and Counter-Revolution
We have singled out the dynamism of the human passions unleashed in a metaphysical hatred against God, virtue, good, and especially against hierarchy and purity, as the most potent driving force of the Revolution. Likewise, there exists a counter-revolutionary dynamism, though of an entirely different nature. Passions as such (here referred to in their technical sense) are morally indifferent; it is their disorderliness that makes them bad.
However, while regulated, they are good and obey the will and reason faithfully. It is in the vigor of soul that comes to a man because God governs his reason, his reason dominates his will, and his will dominates his sensibility, that we must look for the serene, noble, and highly effective driving force of the Counter-Revolution.
2. Supernatural Life And Counter-Revolution
Such vigor of soul cannot be explained unless supernatural life is taken into account. The role of grace consists precisely in enlightening the intelligence, strengthening the will, and tempering the sensibility so that they turn toward good. Hence, the soul gains immeasurably from supernatural life, which elevates it above the miseries of fallen nature, indeed, above the level of human nature itself. In this strength of the Christian soul lies the dynamism of the Counter-Revolution.
3. The Invincibility of the Counter-Revolution
Battle of Lepanto Painted by Tony Stafki http://tonystafki.imagekind.com/
One might ask, of what value is this dynamism? We respond that in thesis it is incalculable and certainly superior to that of the Revolution: “Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat” (“I can do all things in Him who strengthens me”).1
Don Pelayo at Covadonga.
When men resolve to cooperate with the grace of God, the marvels of history are worked: the conversion of the Roman Empire; the formation of the Middle Ages; the reconquest of Spain, starting from Covadonga; all the events that result from the great resurrections of soul of which peoples are also capable. These resurrections are invincible, because nothing can defeat a people that is virtuous and truly loves God.
