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We are simultaneously in a time that celebrates passion, but is pushing technology on us that reduces genuine passion. Whatever your deeply held feelings are, as long as you harm no person but yourself, then you will be celebrated, if you can also claim happiness. What about the spiritual happiness of Plato, Aristotle, Jesus, the Bible, and the Fathers and Mothers of the Church?<\/p>\n
Forget it. There will never be silence enough to reflect or empty time enough to think. Real happiness, human flourishing, what contemporary Christians often call \u201cjoy\u201d is not to be found in a man looking at his phone five hours a day. Our senses are stimulated constantly and Wisdom, the kind that birthed monotheism, science, and great literature is impossible without learning to say \u201cno\u201d to our senses.<\/p>\n
Human intellect, reason and Divine wisdom, must be in control, but this is hard when we are bounded with advertisements designed to teach us to say \u201cyes\u201d to our senses and \u201cno\u201d to our minds. The result will be idol worship, because the worship of idols is\u00a0sensual by nature.\u00a0<\/em>The Christian philosopher, theologian, and sage Maximos said:<\/p>\n Modern idols are\u00a0sometimes<\/em> called gods, but most often we worship sports, food, pornography or \u201cbeauty,\u201d and any number of other false daemons. They enflame our passions, but meaninglessly. We watch sports, but do not sweat. We consume mountains of food, but enjoy it less. Our sexual desires are sated to the point of boredom, but we are having fewer children. Some of us become effete, loving beautiful things and forgetting Beauty Herself. \u00a0We can even love education, piling up credentials, to sate the passion for intellectual honors\u00a0without learning.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n What is the solution?<\/p>\n Recollect that passions uneducated, untrained are contrary to reason. Saying \u201cno\u201d to desire is\u00a0harder<\/em> than thinking well . . .and thinking well is hard enough. All of us can be manipulated by fear, love, and comfort yet education should teach us to say \u201cno.\u201d Sadly, a consumerist education can never take this as an objective, because it is hard, or boring, or unattractive. Oddly, the happiest people will be those who\u00a0let the Divine intellect rule through the renewed mind.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The solution is so simple, we resist it: Read your Bible. Pray daily. Confess your sins one to another. Fast from different types of pleasure. Find a spiritual father and mother and learn discipline. Create rather than consume. Serve the poor.<\/p>\n\n