Pleasure



PLEASURE

Mario D’Couto

            For those of you who have read my article on ‘Exercise and spirituality’, it would seem as though in order to truly become who we are and in order to develop our potential to the full, we need to forego the pleasures of life. This would therefore seem at prima facie that unless if one’s life is a ‘drag’ only then will a person be successful. But is that the case? NO! The key thing to understand is ‘balance’.

            You may feel that the only time God is pleased with you is when you’re doing something ‘spiritual’ – like reading the Bible, attending Church, praying or sharing your faith. And you may think God is unconcerned about the other parts of your life. Actually, God enjoys watching every detail of your life, whether you are working, playing, resting or eating. He doesn’t miss a singly move you make. The Bible tells us, “The step of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives” (Ps 37:23)

            Every human activity, except sin, can be done for God’s pleasure if you do it with an attitude of praise. You can wash dishes, repair a machine, sell a product, write a computer program, grow a crop and raise a family for the glory of God.

            Like a proud parent, God especially enjoys watching you use the talents and abilities He has given you. God intentionally gifted us differently for His enjoyment. He has made some to be athletic and some to be analytical. You may be gifted at mechanics or mathematics or music or a thousand other skills. All these abilities can bring a smile to God’s face. The Bible says, “He has shaped each person in turn; now He watches everything we do.” (Ps 33:15)

            You don’t bring glory or pleasure to God by hiding your abilities or by trying to be someone else. You only bring Him enjoyment by being you. Anytime you reject any part of yourself, you are rejecting God’s wisdom and sovereignty in creating you. God said, “You have no right to argue with your Creator. You are merely a clay pot shaped by a Potter. The clay doesn’t ask, ‘Why did you make me this way?’” (Is 45:9)

            In the film, “Chariots of Fire”, Olympic runner Eric Liddell says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast and when I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” Later he says, “To give up running would be to hold Him in contempt.” There are no unspiritual abilities, just misused ones. Start using yours for God’s pleasure and glory.

            God also gains pleasure in watching you enjoy His creation. He gave you eyes to enjoy beauty, ears to enjoy sounds, nose and taste buds to enjoy smells and tastes and the nerves under your skin to enjoy touch. Every act of enjoyment becomes an act of worship when you thank God for it. In fact, in the Bible, it is written, “God …. generously gives us everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17).

            Parents do not require their children to be perfect or even mature in order to enjoy them. They enjoy them at every stage of development. In the same way, God does not wait for you to reach maturity before He starts liking you. He loves and enjoys you at every stage of your spiritual development.   

            With that being said, pleasures are legitimate as long as they don’t cause us to deviate us from God as St. Philip Neri would say, “Run, jump, play …. but do not sin.” Let us now look at what was the attitude of Our Blessed Lord towards pleasure.

            Though the Gospels do not give a separate chapter to the study of Jesus’ attitude to pleasures, yet they supply abundant testimony that He valued pleasure and enjoyed it too. His sermon on the mount, “Look at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field,” reveal a Soul that enjoyed looking at nature. His presence at the wedding feast at Cana is testimony enough that He did not shun the pleasures of social life and human togetherness, that He did not condemn as unholy and unspiritual marriage and the pleasures that go with it. His complaint from the Pharisees, “the Son of Man came eating and drinking and they say, ‘Behold, a glutton and a drunkard’” (Matthew 11:19) shows that Christ did love the good things of life; that He was human like us (except for sin). The fact that He had friends, Mary, Martha, Lazarus and others, that He felt keenly the desertion of His close friends, the Apostles, “What, could you not watch an hour with me?” (Matthew 26:40) indicate that He had experienced the joys of friendship.

            Pleasures thus are good. To condemn them as ‘worldly’ or to enjoy them half – heartedly as though we were making a reluctant concession to ourselves is a tacit criticism of the Maker who made all things and the pleasures which they are created to yield; it is therefore inhuman, cold and puritanical, not warm and joyful as everything Christian should be. To enjoy pleasure is therefore holy, pleasing to God, fully human and thoroughly Christian or Christ – like.

            However, there is also another side to Christ’s life. We must see Him full and square, as He is shown in the Gospels. We must not pick from His life those traits that please us and leave out those that don’t. That is not being honest with God nor to ourselves. While the Gospels which show us Christ eating and drinking, they also show Him fasting and praying (Matthew 4: 1 -11), exposing Himself to hardship and hunger and thirst (Matthew 12: 1 – 2; Jn 4:6). They reveal Him enjoying the solace of men and also withdrawing Himself from them. He is human enough to enjoy pleasure when it accompanies the doing of His Father’s will and yet He is also great enough to do without it when His duty or mission require it.

            This therefore gives a total view of Christ’s attitude towards pleasure which can be expressed as follows, “Pleasures are good, and they are to be enjoyed unless the voice of duty or charity demand a sacrifice, or the example of Jesus and the inspiration of His grace urges it or even suggests it.” But these sacrifices of pleasure inspired by grace must be made freely with inner freedom, out of love, generously, not out of compulsion or reluctantly.

            When pleasures are indulged in contrary to the voice of duty or of charity or in neglect of the inspiration of grace, they are called “sensual”. They are called so because they proceed from ‘sensuality’. Sensuality is a selfish desire for pleasure for its own sake. It does much harm to the soul. This is clearly seen in the example of our first parents. It tempts one to sacrifice duty for pleasure, to prefer a creature to its Creator, which is a betrayal of the spirit of Christ; and then it weakens character, makes the will soft, unable to resist temptation, incapable of holding out against inconvenience and hardship; and finally it blinds the eyes of Faith; the sensual man is unable to discern the promptings of the Holy Spirit in the soul. It’s just like exercise; if one does not exercise, one’s body becomes flabby, fat or obese, which in turn, leads to other health related issues and complications.

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