It's A Mystery

V

iktor Frankl understood mysterium iniquitatis to mean "that a crime in the final analysis remains inexplicable inasmuch as it cannot be fully traced back to biological, psychological, and/or sociological factors. Totally explaining one's crime would be tantamount to explaining away his or her guilt and to seeing in him or her not a free and responsible human being but a machine to be repaired."¹

In other words, man is a phenomenal creature because at the core of his being some mysterious potential for free will remains despite his environment and his genetic inheritance. "A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining."²

But it also appears to be true that although the potential for freedom exists in all human beings, few actualize it.

Why?

In the movie Scent of a Woman, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade both accepts personal responsibility for his life and acknowledges the reason he turned his back on the challenge of living up to his highest potential:

"Now I have come to the crossroads in my life. I always knew what the right path was; without exception, I knew. But I never took it. You know why? It was too...damn... hard."

Is it possible that all our vileness and degenerate behavior comes down to the fact that we are a slothful species? How can we encourage ourselves to take the moral high road and not slide by and settle for an indolent lifestyle?

Mysterium Iniquitatis can be defined as "born into sin and shaped by iniquity." Viktor Frankl's realization during his time in Auschwitz that the salvation of man is through love and in love means that our ultimate destiny is a transcendent gift. But in order to be aware of the gift it is necessary to understand how we are heavily conditioned to turn away from such a realization--how we are shaped by iniquity.

When Antisthenes was asked what the best apprenticeship was, he answered, "To unlearn evil."³

That is indeed hard work. Theodore Roosevelt expressed it best when he observed "Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

There is still work to be done. Let's take on the challenge of living up to our highest potential in the light of Truth.

"From exertion come wisdom and purity; from sloth ignorance and sensuality."—Henry David Thoreau

1. Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning
2. Ibid

3. Quoted by Michel de Montaigne in his essay On Cruelty