Vacations and getaways. The comforts of hot water, instant information retrieval through the internet, air conditioning, and technologically up-to-date cars with seat warmers and automatic starters. Expensive, brand-name clothes and shoes. Five dollar coffees from Starbucks. New, top-of-the-line phones, iPads, cameras and other gadgets. Quick-cook pasta that cooks in three minutes. Dinner delivery services. Cable TV. And endless barrage of music we can enjoy and listen to hours on end. Fun games and apps to play on cell phones, computers, and other wireless devices.
None of these are bad. And I am not proposing that those who pursue or have these things are doing something wrong. I myself have had, use, or do many of these things.
These types of things which entice us to seek luxury, comfort, ease and convenience are being constantly glamorized to us in our society through advertisements, music, movies, magazines, television shows and the like. Yet I list these because "living the good life" as they say, easily paves the way to temptations and obstacles which may greatly hinder our spiritual progress and relationship with the Lord.
Knowing our Enemies
It's always so necessary in the spiritual life to know where our enemies lie, for as our Lord exhorts us in Scripture...
Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith... [1 Peter 5:8]
So here, in this post, given that we live in this exact kind of pleasure-driven society where newer, faster, more convenient, more enthralling and more exciting things are innovated and glamorized each day through thousands of media messages, I thought I'd take some time to list the ways these things can hinder our spiritual progress and create obstacles in our relationship with God. In order to not get swept away in these temptations, it takes a daily practice of mortification, acts of the will over feelings, self-denial and mental prayer as well as periods of fasting so that one may not fall prey to attachments to ease, comfort, and luxury. (Not that they won't use these things, but through such practices they'll come to realize they either don't need them or they'll use them as they're meant to be used but be indifferent towards their presence or absence).
First, to define, a pleasure in this case would be something we find pleasing to our senses and sensitive appetite. For example, eating, drinking, and sleeping are pleasurable things to our bodies. So also would be listening to music we like or watching shows and movies we enjoy as they create ease and rest. Doctors of neuroscience are now coming forth revealing that "technology is so hyper-arousing that it raises dopamine levels — the feel-good neurotransmitter most involved in the addiction dynamic — as much as sex." Things that are fast and quick are appealing to the sensitive appetite as well because of the instant-gratification it satisfies us with; and convenience creates an attachment to ease because things that are convenient require less labor and arduous work in attaining our desires.
It all revolves around pleasure and pleasing our senses and desires.
Spiritual obstacles and temptations of living in a pleasure-driven society
1. Living in a pleasure-driven society makes us impulsive.
If we are constantly seeking the pleasures and comforts of life, we give way more and more to what is called the sensitive appetite. The sensitive appetite is one of the lower faculties of our soul and is also distinct from the rational appetite or will, which seeks what it deems good according to the intellect rather than bodily senses. The will and intellect are higher faculties of the soul than are the sensitive appetites. Thus, St. Paul says...
For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want. [Galatians 5:17]
When one is constantly feeding the sensitive appetite (specifically the concupiscible appetite which would include bodily pleasures as explained above) and not seeking self-mastery over it by various acts of self-denial through an act of the will, the sensitive appetite for more pleasure only grows. Because these pleasures have to do with receiving an immediate satisfaction once attained, and because we are constantly going along with them without the practice of mortification and acts of self-denial, we end up developing an impulsive response to things and triggers because we have weakened the higher faculty of our soul, namely, our rational appetite - the ability to choose and to reason. Hence, when the thought comes into one's mind to buy something, they just go ahead and buy it without good reason. If the thought comes to do something, they just go ahead and do it without really thinking it through. If one desires sexual pleasures, they just go ahead with these impulses without moral considerations.
This kind of bodily pleasure-seeking weakens our wills and ability to choose freely to do or not to do something; it creates a quick reaction based on the ever-changing emotions and, in the end, it makes us more like animals who follow every whim and fleeting desire rather than a rational human person who can exercise self-control with regards to their passions (those movements within our soul of anger, sorrow, aversion, delight, love, hatred...) and desires. Impulsiveness also diminishes our ability to cultivate the moral virtue of prudence.
2. Living in a pleasure-driven society creates a superficial emotionalism and diminishes our ability to reason soundly.
The emotions, while good in and of themselves, are also a lower faculty of our soul along with our sensitive appetite. When you live in a society which feeds into the pursuit of bodily pleasure and ease (which ours does), it feeds into the emotional appeal of these things as well. Take note that when you watch a commercial, it's never just a person making intellectual statements about why you should buy their product (and I'm not saying it should be, I'm just offering a comparison). No. It's accompanied by music that excites you or slows you down for those moments, or it ties in an emotional story be it funny or heart wrenching. Our society is an expert at manipulating and playing off of emotions...and unless we subject these emotions to our intellect - our reason - and our will, we are forever swayed this way and that like fluttering leaves in the wind.
Yet this is precisely what our culture has done. Proof? Try to have a civil disagreement with someone on a more serious cultural issue and see how quickly the anger, impatience, or tears set in. The undisciplined passions and emotions take over and obscure the ability to reason, leaving a mark of immaturity and a lack of self-mastery.
Today, we see this a lot. Many immoral positions are persuaded through mere emotions and are severely lacking in logic and reason and a neglect of the very obvious natural law.
3. Living in a pleasure-driven society "baby-fies" us.
Yes, a pursuit of the pleasures of life - ease, comfort, convenience, luxury, fine things - makes us babies. You hear it in the way people complain when they have to wait for five minutes in a grocery store line while the clerk has to leave and check something. Heaven forbid someone does not wait on them promptly or the person waiting in front of them at the traffic light begins moving forward after a five second delay when the light turns green. We hear of grumblings and complaints in losing the tv remote and having to "take pains" to search for it; making a panic-comment about having a low cell phone battery; coffee not being hot enough, etc... etc... etc... The list goes on and in the end, we're like three year olds throwing the adult-form of a temper tantrum, complaining about things that are really minute, insignificant and stupid.
4. Living in a pleasure-driven society leads us to abhor suffering.
Rather than seeing the sufferings that come our way as redemptive, sanctifying and a cooperation in the Cross of Christ, habitually seeking pleasurable pursuits often leads us to do anything and everything possible to avoid the slightest bodily or emotional pain. We don't like suffering because it's uncomfortable. And suffering could be anything from sicknesses, headaches, colds, being too cold, being too hot, having extra-dry skin or lips during that cold time of year, and so on. No one wants these things quite naturally, but yet, when these things do happen (which inevitably they will), rather than embracing the suffering as a unitive path to Christ Crucified, they want to immediately stamp it out the quickest way possible. When these things come upon us, we have no recourse to grace to go about dealing with them; we complain and become bitter and miserable and would much rather take the easy way of relief rather than the right and best way or trying to get to the root of it.
I'm in no way saying that if you need surgery, you should just suck it up and not go through with it and endure the pain for the rest of your life. Medicine and technology, when used in accord with God's Will, are certainly gifts to us. My point is that we can skip the complaints against God's Will for us in that moment and sometimes even offer up smaller sufferings we can endure without the necessity of quelling the pain, such as a headache.
Sometimes, too, the suffering can be emotional and spiritual. It can present itself in the form of boredom (i.e. having "nothing to do"), loneliness or emptiness due to a dull, aching and constant longing that the soul desires more in this life than temporal pursuits that come and go. The suffering can manifest itself with a deeper interior sadness or despair because of either exterior circumstances or perhaps an interior darkness that has grip of them, caused by one's own sins. Christ is the light who comes to cast out that darkness caused by our sins and the wounds sin has left upon our soul...
Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. [John 8:12]
Yet, rather than ask the difficult and deeper questions about life and why they are feeling as they do, their analysis remains superficial. To deal with the emotional and spiritual suffering, they seek to find exterior, pleasurable pursuits to distract their souls instead of getting to the root of the problem and looking within. So, for a short time when they did what they wanted, they become happy again...but as soon as the exciting pursuit or acquisition is over with, the same interior suffering returns and does not go away. And again, they don't like feeling that way, and so they find something else to do or buy, or go back to taking another drink, and so on. These souls are suffering deeply (and often don't realize it) and we must pray for them. But it is a viscous cycle rooted in the fact that one would rather not confront the pain but bypass right over it, and as quickly as possible.
5. Living in a pleasure-driven society leads us to focus on the temporal and forget that this world is not meant to be our paradise.
When I speak of the "temporal," it means the temporary things of this life such as material things, career, prestige, money, and so on; essentially, things that all fade, break, or become eventually forgotten and have no value or meaning when we die and confront our Just Judge face-to-face to receive our eternal reward or eternal punishment.
When you die, the only thing you can bring with you is your soul and the virtues - or sins - that "adorn" it. That's it.
Yet the pursuit of pleasure does just this: It makes you focus only on what you can experience sensibly (through the senses) to the neglect of eternal matters. One of my favorite words uttered by our Lord often puts everything in perspective for me...
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? [Mark 8:36]
Yet when we live in a pleasure-seeking society, everything here becomes about what one can acquire, how one can have the best of such-and-such a thing, where one can go for vacations and dining experiences, how one may make the most amount of money, and so on. Before any assumptions are made, no - these things are not bad! But what I am saying is that, yes, they can certainly become an obstacle and distraction in our spiritual life if the excessive pursuit of these things causes us to neglect the salvation of our souls and put these things above precisely that.
6. Living in a pleasure-driven society paves a nice, flat and wide road for the vice of sloth to take root in oneself.
Sloth is sometimes called laziness. St. Thomas Aquinas says that sloth is the vice which creates a sorrow or reluctance for spiritual things and doing the good because it is arduous and requires discipline. Sloth creates a sluggishness and laziness within us that leads us to neglect doing the good and what ought to be done according to the duties of our state in life.
For example, a person with the vice of sloth is repugnant to do their job at work correctly and diligently; often times they'll use their time at work dishonestly; rather than working and working diligently, they'll prefer to spend time scrolling through their phone, spend excessive time talking to others, or surf the internet while accomplishing the bare minimum and "just getting by." They lack excellence in what they do and have no desire to strive for that.
However, even if one is very industrious and hard-working exteriorly, sometimes on the spiritual level it is a different story. On the spiritual level, the person with the vice of spiritual sloth is repugnant to spiritual things like prayer, going to Mass or adoration, and would prefer to sit and spend time watching television or doing something else "easier" even though they know they should probably do the former.
One can tell if they have the vice of sloth when a good thought comes to them to do what is good (like pray or go to Mass), but their passions and lower faculties of the soul turn them from it, and so they go watch tv or spend time idly....they turn to something that is more pleasing to the senses and is easy and comfortable. This indicates a weakness in the will and their inability to make an act of the will to override how they merely feel (a very important spiritual principle!).
The vice of sloth is dangerous because it can lead us to neglect spiritual things, it can lead to the sin of idleness rather than right recreation; it can lead to negligence of the duties of one's state in life; It can lead to the sin of pusillanimity which is a "smallness of soul" wherein one does not strive for great things and moral excellence. It can lead to a feeling of spite toward others because one sees the good that others are doing and the good that they know they ought to be doing themselves, yet are not. Or it can lead to malice because one does not want people interrupting their laziness and challenging them to work - either at their spiritual life or material needs.
Sloth can also lead to gluttony and lust; when one is complacent in laying around/using time idly/not doing anything productive with their time, what comes with that is the pursuit of other bodily pleasures like lust and gluttony.
Finally, sloth leads to inconstancy and instability in doing the good and responding to grace. One wastes or neglects God's graces as a result of sloth.
7. Living in a pleasure-driven society fosters addictions.
It's interesting how in the wealthier, western nations like ours, addiction is a greater problem than in the poorer countries that don't have many of the luxuries we have. That's because any time we do something that involves pleasurable feelings, it creates a real, physiological effect in our brains and the neurotransmitter paths. Drug and alcohol are not the only kinds of addictions to do this. There is real, physiological and psychological addiction to technology, to buying things whether online or in the stores; there's addictions to sex and pornography and pain (like cutting oneself). All of these things have a deeper root issue at their cause; but if you're wondering if you're addicted to something, try to stop doing it for a longer period of time (a couple months at least). The constant pleasure stimulus aroused in a pleasure-driven society makes addictions very easy to develop.
8. Living in a pleasure-driven society creates a narcissistic attitude.
When one seeks to constantly please oneself, it can only lead to having a more self-centered attitude about "me and what I want, right now." This too is a sign of immaturity and a great impediment to growth in the spiritual life, which requires self-giving. The only way to conquer this is to practice acts of self-denial and acts of the virtue of generosity - generosity with one's time, oneself, one's resources, money and talents.
So to recap, living in a pleasure-driven society...
1. ...makes us impulsive.
2. ...creates a superficial emotionalism and diminishes our ability to reason soundly.
3. ..."baby-fies" us.
4. ...leads us to abhor suffering.
5. ...leads us to focus on the temporal and forget that this world is not meant to be our paradise.
6. ...paves a nice, flat and wide road for the vice of sloth to take root in oneself.
7. ...fosters addictions.
8. ...creates a narcissistic attitude.
As you can see, there are quite a number of things in our pleasure-seeking society that can create obstacles in our spiritual life. Yet knowing them is just one more step toward that freedom of spirit and union with God we are all called to have. The best way to guard oneself against the sins and obstacles that can present themselves daily in a pleasure-driven society is to practice mortification and acts of self-denial, coupled with daily mental prayer (in which one of its effects is to detach us from the things of this world). For example, perhaps you notice you often like to stop in quick places (like a Wawa or convenience store) to grab a snack or drink. Deny yourself these things from time to time. You don't always have to give in to the pleasure of eating just to eat and engage in excessive snacking and nibbling.
Perhaps you make purchases that are not necessary but are nice little extras. Make an act of self-denial and don't do it next time you're out shopping.
Perhaps you want to click on that tv or sports game and veg out and rest at the end of a long day. Don't do that next time. Spend 15 or 20 of those minutes praying an extra Rosary instead or doing a nightly examination of conscience.
Periods of fasting are also necessary for mature growth in the spiritual life. Perhaps I will write a post in the future about these things but for now, I wanted to focus more on becoming aware of what these obstacles can be.
The focus of this is not what you're denying yourself but actually what you're building up within yourself, namely, grace, self-discipline and self-denial, of which our Lord said was necessary to be His disciple...
If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? [Luke 9:23-25] My emphasis added.
For each act of denial we make against our feelings and desires for pleasure, the Lord fills that space with His grace. The more we empty us of ourselves, the more He can fill us with His life and love. It's a no-brainer exchange!
Oh, how I like those little mortifications that are seen by nobody, such as rising a quarter of an hour sooner, or rising for a little while in the night to pray!
- St. John Vianney