The Entire Thought

Spiritual Desire

Jesus is right— we are driven by our desires. We are born of the overpowering passion of our parents to become literally one flesh. We emerge from the womb gasping for breath; most of our infant life consists of sucking everything into our voracious mouths.
Our desires gradually direct us toward the future. A girl anxiously awaits the onslaught of adolescence. For a boy, the first shave can be nearly a religious experience as he anticipates his entrance into manly mysteries. Youthful desires are the most poignant of all.
But then we are immersed in adult desires. We want to graduate, we want a job, we want a spouse, we want a home, we want status. And amid this welter of clamoring desires, we gradually or with a jolt realize that all our desires will not be fulfilled; that we are not important as we thought; that all of our symphonies will end unfinished.
We learn to domesticate our desires, the way we train a pet. But then, whose pet are we? Pet of the spouse, the job, the church, the culture? And what happened to our young passion? How did we become so dull?
Partly, maturity happened. Experience dissolved our illusions. The lampshade was torn from our protected environment and our life was exposed to the glare of a naked bulb. So that’s what reality really is!
But why does this have to be? Why can’t the 50th shave be as exciting as the first? Because natural things naturally tend toward diminishment.
Fortunately, it is otherwise with spiritual desires. They are not diminished by use but enriched, honed to sharpness like a well used knife. The more we love, the more we are able to love; the more we hope, the higher our hopes; the more we dream, the bolder our dreams. So, if we are less happy than we used to be, less joyful, less excited, less desirous, less alive, it is because we have allowed our desires to die. We have lost our passion for life; we have become bored.
How can we be bored sitting in the middle of an expanding universe? Who are we to be lonely surrounded by 6 billion fellow humans? Did God waste effort in creating such an exciting world? Should God have created only me and a TV, so I could watch unreal actors engage with virtual reality?
That’s a dog’s life. Almost. Because a dog cannot fondly remember the joys of yesterday or eagerly anticipate the excitement of tomorrow. The dog is fixated on present physical pleasure. It is precisely our spiritual desires that raise us above animality. If we cannot share our space with foreigners, we are wolves guarding our turf. If we cannot forgive an offense, we are dogs snarling at the stick that beats them. If we cannot love, we are a proud eagle scouring empty space for a lonely perch. If we are totally immersed in physical desires, we are pigs wallowing in slop.
To be human is not to dampen our desires, it is to arrange them in proper order. To be human is to discipline our desires, to direct them toward human goals. If we kill our desires we get bored; if we let our desires run riot, we are fatigued.
Our ordinary life was once divinely lived. Jesus breathed the same air, saw the same sky, walked the same earth — and look what he did with it. Jesus dreamed our dreams, lost our losses, loved our loves, lived our life with infinite desire. And still does.


Fr. James Smith
Celebration Preaching Resources
August 30, 2009

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