September 8, 2008 | In: Uncategorized
Seeking Balance & Harmony? Forget Fen Shui – Try Natural Law!
From the attractive fiction of the Jedi Knight (from Star Wars) to the fashionable spirituality of Fen Shui (featured regularly in our local newspaper), examples abound of America’s strongly attraction to a balanced and harmonious life. Americans are not alone in this search. The desire for internal harmony is innate to human nature. However, we have difficulty defining what exactly this desire is.
Catholic moral teaching is often characterized as the complete suppression of physical desires. According to this criticism, such “asceticism” brings no joy, but is necessary to gain Heaven. Conversely, worldly enjoyment decreases our enjoyment in the afterlife.
The Truth is that we are meant to have a balance between physical goods and spiritual goods. When we find this balance we actually enjoy physical goods more and we find that the addition of spiritual goods fills our hearts and fulfills our lives. Natural law teaches us to find harmony between our physical desires and our spiritual faculties (the human intellect and free will). When we live for physical desires alone, we discover the uncomfortable truth that the more we feed our desires, the stronger our desires become. We find it impossible to find peace from our nagging, growing desires. When our lives are directed by truth and self-control, our desires are quieted and we find peace.
I know a few men who have mastered their physical desires. I even count a couple of them among my friends. They are able to turn their eyes away from pornography and sexually exploitative elements of our culture. They are able to give up their favorite food or drink for the sake of regaining their balance (fasting and asceticism are meant to be used to regain balance when our physical desires get too strong). They are able to enjoy physical goods, but then to say “enough.” I have not personally mastered internal harmony to that level yet. I admire their lives and I also want what they have. Their lives are balanced, peaceful and happy.
The natural law brings us into harmony with ourselves. It also sets us up to better receive grace that can bring us into harmony with Creation, with each other and with God. Ultimately, God will grant us harmony with the entire universe as He finally heals the effects of Original Sin. Until then, the moral law guides us to gain what our hearts so desperately seek.
Learn more about the harmony and peace that natural law can bring into our lives by reading this book from one of our affiliates:
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