In our cultural moment, optimization is a virtue. We envision a future created by AI and technology where much of the friction we experience on a day to day basis can be eliminated. Even if you don’t buy into the techno-utopian vision of Silicon Valley, we still get pulled into the allure of an efficient life.
We work hard in university to obtain a degree that will let us work in a field that combines our passions with a high salary and then build tight budgets that let us use our earnings to achieve our financial goals. We imagine ourselves being in a loving, happy marriage with well behaved kids who love us and look up to us. We try to build a community where our friends empathize with our highs and lows and just get where we stand on politics, approach to life, and general outlook.
There’s a pietistic version of this too. The “Rule of Life” concept has taken off in the last few years among Christian circles who dream of a deeper and more transformative approach to discipleship. This is a good desire and from it we find practices and relational rhythms that will transform our souls and help us feel organized and on top of our spiritual disciplines.
How wonderful does this life sound? And yet, we also live in a cultural moment where we’re becoming increasingly aware of the futility of this dream. Hedonism is starting to feel empty and meaningless, politics have become a bloodbath, and Silicon Valley has failed to deliver on its promises. All of the push towards an optimized, pleasure-filled life ultimately promises something more than they can give.
As Christians, we are constantly formed by our churches and catechesis to believe that Jesus is actually the fulfillment of all we desire. It’s a beautiful sentiment and one I think most of us really want to believe is true. But do we actually? Do we actually live as though Jesus is the answer to all we desire? It’s hard to live this out when, in practice, for many of us our relationship with Jesus remains something abstract and intangible.
The issue for most of us here is not with knowledge, it’s with desire. It’s not that we haven’t been told Jesus is the fulfillment of all we long for, it’s that we’re still unconvinced by our actual experience of our relationship with God. We might have moments of prayer or spiritual connection that are pleasant or powerful but they are fleeting. What do we do with the in between? Our loves are shaped less by what we are told and more by what we repeatedly encounter. How do we know in the deepest parts of our hearts that Jesus is our fulfillment?
If our desires are shaped by what we repeatedly encounter, then the question becomes: where does God meet us in ordinary experience?
There’s an ancient concept in Christian philosophy called the “transcendentals,” of truth, beauty, and goodness. St. Thomas Aquinas once noted that God does not just possess these things as attributes of His character but that He IS truth, beauty, and goodness in their very essence. Thus, anything that is true, beautiful, or good is because it participates in God. This means our pursuit of what is real — what is truly true, good, and beautiful — is never spiritually neutral. It forms our mental picture of what fulfillment truly is.
Many Christians today understand the spiritual journey as one fundamentally miserable - where we put ourselves through pain and struggle and sacrifice in order to experience eternity with God in heaven. It’s true that sacrifice and suffering are essential in the spiritual journey but we can go deeper than misery for misery’s sake.
We all desire truth (clarity about the way God’s world really is), beauty (that which we find attractive), and goodness (justice and moral harmony). Each one of these things are opportunities for encounter. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote beautifully when he said “the world is charged with the grandeur of God.” Anytime we pursue that which is objectively true, beautiful, and good, things that are not merely appealing but truly satisfying, we are in fact pursuing God.
We might ask ourselves then, what is my heart most deeply drawn to? Is it the true, the good, and the beautiful, or is it a counterfeit version, one that distracts from God rather than inspires me to seek Him? Do I want to submit to the reality of the world God made or decide for myself what I think is true? Do I want to chase after beauty that fills the soul or that which is superficially attractive but corrosive at a deeper level? Do I want justice and harmony or just to not feel anxious? If we’re after the deepest versions of these things God will reveal Himself to us.
If we want to see our desires purified, we have to be honest with ourselves and spend time reflecting. A good way to tell if we are after the true, the good, and the beautiful is to look at the fruit. Am I becoming more like Jesus? More loving, generous, and patient? Or are the things I desire subtly making me prideful, lustful, or greedy? This process takes time, and a daily examination of our lives for us to really see clearly.
As our desires are purified and as we spend time with the true, good, and beautiful, we begin to see more clearly what is truly worth loving and what only imitates it. I think this is what St. Paul meant when he said “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8 RSV).
Despite the many pleasures of modern convenience, I believe the really sinister work at play today is not that we enjoy life too much but that we are far too easily satisfied with shallow fulfillment. As C.S. Lewis wrote “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
If we want to be fulfilled we need to seek Jesus and we can seek Him in that which is actually true, good, and beautiful. In learning to love what is truly real, sacrifice and suffering are no longer meaningless burdens but part of the Cross that purifies our vision and leads to Resurrection.
Enjoy your life with God deeply - He is all that your soul truly desires.