What Was Lost: The Tragedy of Metaphysical Amnesia

What if we are not able to build a good human society because we cannot remember it?

In the beginning, when God created all that is (seen and unseen), the life of humans was pristine in every aspect, and we were perfectly free to enjoy the good human life that had been ordered for us. In the beginning, our Freedom was immediate and our Freedom was full. But now, our Freedom comes when we reenter perfect equilibrium with the Absolute. Freedom is essential to being human, but it is gained through much effort, and only through the blood of Christ Jesu, the Redeemer of What Was Lost. And the Freedom achieved through our redemption is not immediately oriented toward enjoying creation, but it first necessarily compels the believer to be put to use to assist in the restoration of the goodness of human life.

In the last series that I wrote for RIID, when I was asked to consider the relationship between the inner life and Integral Human Development (IHD), I thought it important to first explain that achieving Freedom is essential to crossing from the inner life into the participation in the project of IHD. That is, I argued that Freedom is not an a priori condition (as we mistakenly understand in our modern era) that governments must protect; rather, Freedom is an ordered resultant state of a life brought into perfect alignment—through the inner life—with God the Almighty. And upon coming into this alignment—perfect equilibrium—we arrive at the state of Freedom by which we innately choose a task to participate in which furthers the project of Integral Human Development.

To state this alignment with the Godhead differently, we can consider what St. Augustine has laid out for us to consider in his work On the Trinity (Book X).¹ Augustine reveals that our whole mind is designed to be in perfect alignment with the trinity of the Godhead: our memory, our consideration, and our will form the three separate, yet unified functions of our minds. Or, another perspective gives some precision to the modern thinker: our minds are designed so that we remember what has been, we contemplate what is, and we hold expectation for what will be. These three functions of the mind must operate wholly in their own aspect and in full integration with each other, such that what one remembers fully, one understands fully, and one wills fully—simultaneously, in resonance with the Trinity of God.

Yet, I wonder when I read the lovely thoughts of Augustine: What are these things which these functions of the human mind are designed to ponder in trifold so intimately with our Creator?

It seems to me that the human mind is designed to remember, to understand, and to will that which proceeds first from the Godhead. I can see this beauty of design as a resonance of our three-fold mind with the holy trinity, contemplating the Godhead, as in the four beasts’ endless song of praise found in Revelation 4:8, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty: which Was, and Is, and Is To Come.”

Ah, so What my mind is designed to remember, to understand, and to will are the first fruits which proceed directly from the divine holiness of the Lord God Almighty. These are the fruits that must surely exist from the beginning, exist now, and will exist in the time to come, as Jesu taught us to pray: thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. These are the first fruits that I yearn to hold in my three-fold mind. All praise to the Almighty Creator, for what a beautiful mind He has given us to think in accord with the Divine!

But, how do these marvelous teachings on the three-fold human mind help us to orient ourselves to the work of IHD? Well, another way to consider the framing of Freedom that I consider to be the beginning of what the Christian uses to bridge the inner life to the work of Integral Human Development is this: Freedom is the state wherein action is taken to be useful to the work of IHD after (not antecedent to, or a priori, as Enlightenment thinking would have it) achieving perfect trifold alignment of mind, body, and soul with the trinity of the Godhead.

If we accept this premise, the next question naturally shapes: What precisely is one in such alignment with the Absolute to do to contribute to the progress of the body of Christ? Where does one, or the whole of the body of the Church itself, set its intentions? and, What is the fundamental base, in all of its aspects, upon which an entire society takes good shape?

To consider these questions, Augustine’s precepts on “Use” are also helpful (On Christian Doctrine, Book I, Chapters 3-5).² Use (uti), according to Augustine, is to employ something in the service of obtaining what you love or desire. Everything in creation—including other humans, physical objects, and intellectual concepts—is meant to be used as a means to journey closer toward the enjoyment of God. Thus, Augustine has given us yet another grand way to understand IHD: as the quest laid out before humankind since our separation from God to return to the enjoyment of God and the enjoyment of His creation for us.

This quest can be understood as putting to task that which one’s mind remembers, understands, and wills in resonance with the mind of God. However, in order to do so, one must remember fully, and at the same time understand fully, and at the same time will fully (in alignment with the trinity of the Godhead) to make one’s mind an instrument of the work of the Church, or as we like to say here: Integral Human Development.

Thus, in my understanding, IHD is the same as Augustine’s depiction of uti. So, here I will argue that the work of Integral Human Development is one and the same as the Use of the fully aligned human mind in a state of perfect equilibrium with the Source, reflecting purely the Absolute in all its aspects. That is, Use is the Freedom to put to task what a human mind reflecting the Absolute Divinity of the Godhead generates in particular to the individual and in unison with the whole of the Church of Christ.

But toward What? When I contemplate the concept of IHD, my mind wants to answer this question: What is fundamental to IHD? What should be brought into focus as absolutely necessary in order to achieve a good society?

This question has been given a spectacular amount of consideration by the human mind since long before the concept of IHD was developed by Pope Paul VI (Populorum Progressio, 1967).³ We can trace this What from the concept that “Number is All” Pythagoras (c. 570-490 BCE)⁴ to the reasoning by Parmenides (late 6th century to mid 5th century BC) that change is an illusion and ultimate reality must be unchanging, eternal, and unified.⁵ From there we can understand how in Phaedo Plato (428/427–348/347 BC) worked out the mandate to remember the Forms in order to bring them from the abstract celestial realm to human experience.⁶ Next, Aristotle (384-322 BC) gave us “Immanent Forms” to consider—the idea that the structural essence of Things is inside physical matter.⁷ Later, Plotinus (204/205–270 AD) argued that by contemplating the Forms, the human soul could reverse its fall and ascend back to union with the Divine.⁸ It was from here that Augustine (354-430 AD) argued that the Forms are inside the mind of God.⁹ And Aquinas (1225-1274) maintained that Substantial Forms are by divine design what gives things their essential nature and identity.¹⁰ Kant (1724-1804) then shifted the concept of Forms to psychology, arguing that things are “Forms of Sensibility”, the internal, mental architecture built into human consciousness that shapes how we perceive reality.¹¹ Coming full circle, Frege (1848-1925), the analytical philosopher, returned the argument on the “Forms” to the Third Realm—distinct from the physical or mental realm—where objective truth exists independent of the human mind.¹²

Even now, the human quest to fully comprehend the Forms unfolds in our modern philosophers whose works are found within and without the compendium of Catholic Social Thought. Taking up secular reasoning, Nussbaum (1947–) submitted her ten human capabilities arguing that there is an objective, universal blueprint for what it means to live a fully realized, dignified human life¹³, and Sen (1933–) offered the practical Capabilities Approach calling us to alleviate suffering where we can even if we cannot fully understand the perfect Forms.¹⁴

Building the theological body on the Forms, and forming modern Catholic Social Thought, Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (1891) insisted that we must conform to Eternal Law—God’s perfect and unchanging Form of justice and cosmic order.¹⁵ A brilliant personalist philosopher, Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) called us to remember human dignity as an absolute, objective reality (Centesimus Annus, 1991 and Veritatis Splendor, 1993)^{16 17}, and Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022) laid out a well-structured and nuanced understanding that any Form without Truth is empty, and Truth is an objective reality outside of us that we must align our minds to (Caritas in Veritate, 2009).¹⁸

Perhaps, for me, the most inspirational contribution to the concept of Forms is that one that has returned us to the beginning and to the loving relationship with the Father. Fernando Rielo (1923-2004) proposed that reality is formed by the “Mystical Conception of the Absolute”, that is, humans have a genetic imprint of the Divine—an internal capacity placed in our spirit by God—so our ability to perceive concepts comes from direct, open communication with the Absolute.¹⁹ This explains why in every era, humans seek to conceive of the Forms of the Absolute. The reason for our fascination with Forms is simple: the Creator draws us to it. And Rielo shows us how to do so: in direct, radical, open communication with the Absolute.

This collection of human consideration of what is essential to a good human life and society is a worthy study. Truly, our collective preoccupation on how to bring about good in every arena of human life is among the highest functions of the beautiful human mind endowed to us by our Creator. And, I recommend this study to any with a penchant to trace the highest human thoughts on social good. However, I do not wish to further compose a review of what human minds have considered thus far. Many others, better fit to the task than I, have done this very well already.

Rather, the Lord draws my mind instead to consider this: What Was Lost. He did not pose this concept to me as a question, though my mind immediately sought to discover what was not yet revealed to it. Rather What Was Lost came to me as a statement of a mystery at the same time that my mind was given a vision. Along with this mystery: What Was Lost, I saw a long three-dimensional prism and at the far left side of my vision, I saw a block of this prism closed off, as if it were cased in cement while the other larger portion of the prism was open and seemingly mostly empty. I understood at that moment that this long prism is the human history of contemplation. I immediately understood the object as a timeline where the beginning is closed off in a solid, rock-like material and the remainder is open, but mostly empty. And my mind instinctually focused on the dense, closed off portion and wondered at it. And to this unspoken wonder, I heard the Lord respond: It is What Was Lost.

My mind pondered this as my heart grieved our tragic loss. I understood that there are “things”—some types of Forms, like Plato’s Forms—that existed at the beginning of human history, that upon our fall, as a result of our sovereign choice before God, were then closed off and lost to us. I sought out this mystery with one question: What was lost from the beginning about how to be human? And intuitively this list was presented, rapidly, in this particular order, of which I hope to say more of at a later time:

• Vulnerability
• Pleasure
• Delight
• Simplicity
• Trust
• Certainty
• Calm
• Peace
• Ability
• Knowledge
• Partnership
• Co-dependency

And I was told: Seek these things and you will achieve your goal. Besides this list, I was given a caveat to help me understand where to begin in my quest for understanding of What Was Lost. I was given this reasoning to help me understand the Forms: In the beginning, Honesty didn’t exist because there was no lie. By this reasoning, I can infer that Justice did not exist because there was no violation. And thus, we can reason that many other things that we suppose are essential for a good human society were not necessary from the beginning, because we lived in Absolute Goodness and perfect Freedom to enjoy all the good things of our surrounding creation. Hence, these are not the types of things on the list of What Was Lost. Only the things which existed from the very beginning are on this list. So, then this list and these thoughts about the mystery of What Was Lost sat with me for some weeks, until I began reading Augustine’s portrayal of the human mind as a holy trinity of memory, understanding, and will designed to resonate with the trinity of the Godhead which was, and is, and is to come.

Thus, taking into consideration Augustine’s portrait of the human mind in full alignment with the trinity of the Godhead, and the conception that I find rather helpful to explain the intended function of the mind that then comes into Use, which I equate to Integral Human Development, I understood that What Was Lost is something that humans no longer have access to with their minds. It is closed off, as if cased in cement. Therefore, What Was Lost is not in our memory. And, following Augustine’s logic: if it is not in our memory, then it is not in our understanding, and if it is not in our understanding, it is not in our will.

This is shocking, for any of us could provide a seemingly good definition for these important things in this list. For example: Calm. What is Calm? I might say that it is a state of rest free from anxiety. I like Calm—I could write a lovely poem about Calm. I consciously seek to achieve Calm on a daily basis, it is very important to me and I have been told by several people that I have talent for emitting and spreading Calm. Yet, though I like to exist in and spread this good thing as much as I possibly can, I find it very difficult to maintain. I am restless, I worry, I fear, I doubt, I struggle with all sorts of nervousness that afflict my mind and my body—even my spirit, so in love with Christ, becomes unnerved regularly. Nevertheless, Calm is very good—I know when I feel its presence in me and in those around me—even if it is fleeting. I would like all of humanity to always exist, as much as is fitting, in the state of Calm and I would very much like to be put to good Use to achieve Calm for the good of human society.

But do you see the shortcoming of my consideration? Do I really understand what Calm is? Do I really know how to bring about Calm for myself or all of humanity in the project of Integral Human Development? No, I do not. I mostly define Calm as the absence of anxiety and I mostly appreciate Calm because I attribute it to some degree of temporary release from the anxiety that grips my body, mind, and spirit.

Ahhh, so I do not understand it. I have a sense of what Calm is, but in my mind, I do not know it fully. That means I do not remember it fully. That means I do not will it fully. And that, unfortunately, means that I cannot, even in a state of perfect alignment with the trinity of the Godhead (in my state of Freedom) put my efforts and talents of mind to Use to bring about Calm for the sake of the goodness of humanity. I can only remember, understand, and will what is given, that is, what is open for me to hold in my mind. Thus, my meager thoughts on the good thing called Calm are really a prayer, not a Use of my mind or talent. When I say that I wish anxiety were no more a plague upon humanity and that Calm would prevail, it is a fervent prayer of the heart, but not a trifold function of the mind that can be put to good Use. This prayer is an important aspect of my inner life, but not a Use of my talents in the state of Freedom to achieve Integral Human Development.

This is a conundrum that Augustine also addresses well. To address our inability to fittingly distinguish and define goodness in our minds, he tells us that the focus of mind on eradicating Evil is useless. He explains that evil is not a thing (Confessions, Book XII, Chapter 12).²⁰ Goodness is a thing. Evil is the privation of the thing. This is an important distinction that has become dim in modern philosophy. These 1600-year-old words from Augustine are revolutionary to the modern thinker, for we are often encouraged to use dialectical thinking to draw our attention to duality and polarity in order to perceive a Thing in light of its opposite. The attention to the binary gave rise to the idea that progress is achieved through the clash between opposites, as Hegel (1770-1831) argued in The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807)²¹ and Science of Logic (1812).²² It is an intriguing idea, born in the Age of Revolutions, to which Marx (1818-1883) submitted antithetically: categories are given material form not as transcendent truth, but as moving, historical, temporary products of human labor and material conflict (The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847).²³

Followingly, in Western higher education, students have been strongly encouraged to allow dichotomy and agree that two things (which are seeming opposites) can both be true and held together at the same time, and through this tolerance, we shall progress through struggle.

Having given much effort in the pursuit of a higher education and even more so, much of my talent to what I had hoped would be an enhancement to the Academy, I here must state my strongly held belief that we have overly valued the dialectical in order to embrace the paradox of the unity of opposites as fundamental to human logic because we cannot comprehend Absolute goodness. And worse, I can say with a surety built by more than two and a half decades of being a student of and leader in American higher education that nowhere in the halls of the modern Academy do we earnestly desire to declare any one thing absolutely Good and the deprivation of that Good Thing to be evil. Thus, I know through my own tragedy, that the memory, understanding, and will for the Absolute goodness of the first fruits of the Godhead for human life is What Was Lost to us since the fall of man. The halls of the Academy, the long prism of human consideration, is empty from God’s perspective.

This loss of capability to fully understand absolute goodness is apparent when you consider my inferior definition of Calm. It seemed best understood by me as a dichotomy, or a binary opposite, to Anxiety. Given this modern western habit of thought: both Calm and Anxiety can exist at the same time, perhaps in different amounts, and Calm cannot be understood without Anxiety, and Anxiety cannot be understood without Calm. This line of reasoning helps my feeble mind. For, I can easily reason similarly: Light and Dark are opposites. Without Light, there is no Dark. Without Dark, there is no need for Light. Light and Dark must exist as two sides of the same coin. Thus, I can understand what Light is, if I define it as “not Dark”. In fact, the dialectical thinking given to us by Hegel, inverted by Marx, and postulated as the fundamental law to the natural universe, i.e. Dialectical Materialism, by Engels (1820-1895) would have me to believe that neither Light nor Dark is Good or Evil, just Thesis and Antithesis, whose violent friction is necessary to produce a new higher reality: the Synthesis.²⁴ Engels led us to perceive that all that is experienced in the human life is just matter in motion governed by material friction: what has been is gone, what is now is mutable, and what will be will be a new synthesis forged by the material friction of that time to come. ¡Viva la revolución!

Is this so? No, this doesn’t seem correct at all. For, we are told that at the end of time, a new earth and a new Jerusalem will come down from God out of heaven and there will be no night, no darkness, and the Light of the Godhead will shine upon us forevermore (Revelation 21-22). Thus, I seemed to have erred, or at least fallen short in my reasoning somewhere because I am told that there is an understanding of Light that in no way requires dark. Light, not dark, is the absolute good thing that I should remember, contemplate, and hope in with my trifold, divine mind.

This weakness in human logic is also addressed by Augustine. He states plainly that reasoning through dichotomy does not provide understanding, and is thus of no good Use (Enchiridion, Chapter 11).²⁵ Instead, he proclaims a higher order for thinking on absolute goodness: evil is not a thing; rather, it is the privation of a thing. And he compares this to the eye, explaining: a blind eye is not a thing, it is an eye with a privation of sight. Thus, the eye without sight is of no good use. Any use of the eye for any other function than sight, in fact is an abomination—there is no goodness in the use of an eye for anything other than sight. Sight does not need blindness in order to exist. In fact, the fullness of sight in all eyes means that blindness does not exist. And never does the function of Sight rely on the function of blindness. Rather, blindness is a lack—a privation, a depletion—of Sight. Thus, I should not seek to do away with blindness. That effort is useless. Rather, if so inclined in my Freedom, I should seek that my talents be put to good Use to instill the fullness of Sight forevermore. And many have done this very well because we innately understand the full, absolute goodness of Sight and the total privation of Sight—blindness—as a terrible loss to the human condition that must be avoided at all costs and be healed by any means possible.

So, if we follow Augustine’s reasoning, we discover that anxiety is not a thing. It is the privation of a thing. Hence, dialectical thinking is useless to fully understanding Calm or any good thing. Understanding and progress in our quest to a good human society are not found in the balance between two opposing forces, nor will our progress be wrought in the battle between these forces. Instead, we must allow that anxiety is the privation of Calm. Thus, when we focus our efforts on the development of Calm for the good of humanity, we must fully understand Calm as its own whole thing—as a good thing that was, a good thing that is, and a good thing that will be forevermore—not as an opposite to anxiety, not in duality to nor as a polarity of anxiety, but one of the requisite Forms of a good human life. We must seek the fundamental essence of what is absolutely good if we are to will that thing to be restored to its fullest state.

So, just as to understand Sight as vital to a full human life, and just it would not be useful for me to define Sight as an ability that overcomes blindness, it would not be useful for me to define Calm (or any absolute good thing from the beginning) as something that overcomes an evil or as a synthesis achieved in balance with its opposite. No, Calm existed in full, long before the degrees of privation that we experience now: this epidemic that we call anxiety. Therefore, to propagate the goodness of a Thing, like Sight, I must describe the essence of the Thing, the function of the Thing, the superior state of the Thing, and the necessary conditions to sustain the Thing for the individual as well as the whole of humanity, if I am to achieve my goal of perpetuating the Thing, like Sight, forevermore. I am sure a short amount of research in the field of ophthalmology would allow me to lay out all the basic aspects of human sight. We understand Sight well, even a blind person may likely remember it from their youth and can contemplate it, for they are surrounded by seeing people and they most certainly can hope for it; and knowing that Sight is good, we certainly can and do orient our talents among humanity to will the perpetuation of good sight for all eternity in the human condition. In this aspect of a good human life, we are in perfect alignment with the trinity of the Godhead and follow the goodness of the order that He has created for human life. But, Sight is not one of the aspects on the list given to me of What Was Lost.

So, returning to the list that the Lord has given me to consider, I realize that these are conditions, or aspects, of the good human life that are not fully remembered, nor fully understood, nor fully willed. There is no compendium available on these good Things. Yet, I desire to be of good Use in helping humanity to know these jewels—our inheritance—and to seek them in fullness. This leads my spirit to one desire, which is my heart’s prayer to God our Father and Almighty Creator, which I share with you all here for the purpose of giving my talent and focus to participating in the worthy project of Integral Human Development:

Father God, I will that What Was Lost from the beginning at the fall of humanity, be opened to us once again. Loving Father, El Shaddai, cause us to remember in full the goodness of every aspect of the life that you have ordained for humanity. Open to the prism of our minds that which has been closed off so that we may in fullness understand each aspect in particular and comprehend its function and purpose within the whole of Your divine design. Open this memory so that we may consider—each as so inclined in our Freedom—every one of these aspects of the good life in full expectation with You of Your Kingdom Come, Yahweh Keeper of the Covenant. I ask this so that our prayers may be fully met with our minds and be made of good use by our talents. I ask this in Christ Jesu’s Name, the Redeemer of What Was Lost, and I beseech the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the only one found worthy to open the Book, to judge this fallen world of man and eliminate the deprivation of our condition, and the bloody Lamb of God, the only one worthy to take the throne in New Jerusalem, that we—in our Freedom with You—may put to use all of our talents given by the Father, for the working out of the redemption of humanity and the restoration of the good life which You have ordered and ordained, and the coming of the new Earth and new Jerusalem, where there will be no night, no tears, no wailing, no confusion, no lies, no thieves, nor any amount of any privation of What Goodness you have laid out as the first fruits for your children since the beginning. I pray that we may all, in full expectancy, will for the coming of the day where we live in the fullness of these things once again and remember no more these evils, these privations of Your order for our Being, that plague us now. Reveal to us again, the Way to Be Human: restore to the human mind What Was Lost. Even so, Come, Lord Jesu Christo, Come! Amen.

How to cite this article
Sarah Pattison PhD. (2026, November 6). What Was Lost: The Tragedy of Metaphysical Amnesia. Rielo Institute for Integral Development. https://riidblog.org/post/06-11-2026/

See also

• The Weight of Freedom III
• The Weight of Freedom: Freedom Emerges from the Inner Life 2
• The Weight of Freedom
• The Freedom That Kills
• Tired of freedom