Saint Raphael the Archangel, preached on October 24, 2026

Recently, I read a novel that was written in 1920, banned by the Soviet Union.

And the author, you know the guy with the impossible to pronounce Russian name? It was that guy.

But it became the, George Orwell said it was the inspiration for 1984, but it wasn't as hopeful and uplifting as 1984 was.

Reading this novel was the experience of being slowly smothered.

So there's a mathematician is the main character of the story, and he's unhappy in a state where it's the law to be happy all the time.

And the doctor says, it's very serious.

Oh my goodness, what is it? He said, I think you have a soul.

Well, there was just no place for that in the perfect state governed by the benefactor where everyone was already happy.

And the reason, the story goes, that everyone was already happy was there was nothing unknown.

There was no mystery.

There is no need for wonder.

And unhappiness comes from people who inexplicably have souls because people who have souls have imagination.

Spoiler alert, he undergoes an operation and has his imagination severed and he writes that it was like a splinter had been removed from him and now he could finally be happy and he could appreciate the work of his colleague who proved definitively that there is no infinity.

The world would be absolutely contained.

There would be no mystery.

And everything could not only be explained, but everything could be explained away.