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?
Language is the archives of history.
Imagination is the deceptive part in man, the mistress of error and falsehood.
Evil, in this system of ethics, is that which tears apart, shuts out the other person, raises barriers, sets people against each other.
That's why people don't ever think to blame the Socs and are always ready to jump on us. We look hoody and they look decent. It could be just the other way around - half of the hoods I know are pretty decent guys underneath all that grease, and from what I've heard, a lot of Socs are just cold-blooded mean - but people usually go by looks.
Kindness is not a bad religion, no matter what name you use for God.
The present flowed by them like a stream. The tree rustled. It had made music before they were born, and would continue after their deaths, but its song was of the moment. The moment had passed. The tree rustled again. Their senses were sharpened, and they seemed to apprehend life. Life passed. The tree rustled again.
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