14th Sunday after Pentecost
6.9.20 Ordered desires
And we would not really change places with them, or with animals who graze all day.
We like good things delivered to us but we would not want to sacrifice our freedom and understanding.
It is our glory as humans to be able to reflect on what we do; to exercise free choices as to whether we do right or wrong.
God knew that giving us this power would lead to a lot of disasters, but He hopes to bring us around where we can still have the power but not the disasters!
This is why He teaches us things, expects things from us, helps us to do those things. He does not want us to be merely passive recipients of His blessings but rather to cooperate actively in His plans.
We are stewards of His creation; we share in His authority and power.
This is our full dignity, waiting to be discovered. We possessed it for a time, until the first sin. Now to retrieve it we have to learn how to regulate our various desires and passions.
Presently these desires are often not in harmony with each other. We want opposing things, sometimes more noble things, sometimes vile and base things. We do things which we know are going to cause harm but we still do them. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Rm 7,15)
We need rescuing from ourselves in that we complicate things so much. Sin makes it ten times worse.
To want the right things, in the right way, and the right amount - this is the task.
Even non-religious thinkers can see the need for restraining one desire for the sake of achieving another. For example, the athlete who sacrifices comfort to do the training which will enable victory.
All the more so when we are talking of spiritual things. The saints teach us how easily they would make sacrifices for the sake of gaining eternal glory.
We can train ourselves in recognizing the higher goals, and to put the lesser desires at their service.
It is not wrong to want pleasure, or for things to go smoothly, but it may be necessary to sacrifice these things for the final result – that God's kingdom come among us.
Sinful desires especially must be overcome. Sin can never get us very far.
Even legitimate desires need monitoring.
Doing penance will help us develop the discipline needed to forego one pleasure for a greater one. For example, denying ourselves some legitimate pleasure may advance the salvation of someone else. We give up one thing to gain something better.
We might settle for less than the highest ideals, but these are where God wants to take us: hence Thy will be done.
The complexity of our lives as compared with plants means that we will have to balance things over time. We want what God wants no matter how long it takes, or how hard it is.
It will be worth it.
Is it so hard to do it God's way? We make it seem hard, but that is the result of too much sin.
Free of sin we will start to see things the right way up, maybe for the first time ever.
We see that God's providence goes way beyond supplying food and clothing. He gives us the ability to appreciate the full range of how He has provided for us so far, with much more still to come.
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