718- Does the law of self-preservation oblige us to provide for our own physical needs?
“Yes, because without energy and health, labor is impossible.”
719- Are we culpable if we seek our own well-being?
“Well-being is a natural desire. God only prohibits abuse because it is contrary to self-preservation. God does not consider it a crime for you to seek your own well-being if it is not gained at another’s expense and if it does not weaken either your moral or physical strength.”
720- Do voluntary privations that have an equally voluntary expiation as their purpose have any merit in God’s sight?
“Do good to others and you will have greater merit.”
– Are there any meritorious voluntary privations?
“Yes, the privation of meaningless pleasures, because it frees you from matter and elevates your soul. Merit means resisting the temptation that drives you to excess and the taste for useless things, and it means taking from your own necessities in order to give to those in need. If privation is nothing more than pretense, it is only a mockery.”
721- A life of mortifications through asceticism has been practiced since ancient times and among different cultures. Is it meritorious from any point of view?
“Ask for whom it is useful and you will have your answer. If it only serves the one who practices it and if it hinders him or her from doing good to others, it is selfish, whatever may be the pretext under which it is disguised. Submitting oneself to privation by working for others is true mortification and is in accord with Christian charity.”
722- Is the abstention from certain foods prescribed among various cultures based on reason?
“Everything that humans can eat without harming their health is permitted. Lawmakers, however, have prohibited certain foods with a useful end in mind, and in order to give greater weight to their laws, they have represented them as having come from God.”
723- Is humankind’s use of animals as food contrary to the law of nature?
“With your present physical constitution, flesh nourishes flesh; otherwise, humans would perish. The law of self preservation imposes on you the duty to preserve your energies and health so that you may fulfill the law of labor. You should therefore eat according to the requirements of your own physical organization.”
724- Is the abstention from foods – animal or otherwise – meritorious as an expiation?
“Yes, if you deprive yourselves for the sake of others; but God cannot see mortification when there is no serious and useful privation. This is why we say that those who only seem to deprive themselves are hypocrites.” (See no. 720)
725- What are we to think of the mutilations practiced on the body of humans or animals?
“What is the point of such a question? Always ask whether a thing is useful. What is useless cannot be pleasing to God and what is harmful is always displeasing. You can be very sure that God is sensitive only to sentiments that raise the soul toward God. It is by practicing the divine laws instead of violating them that you can shake off the burden of your terrestrial matter.”
726- If the sufferings of this world enable us to evolve – depending on the manner in which we bear them – may we also evolve through sufferings that we create intentionally?
“Natural sufferings are the only ones that enable you to evolve because they come from God. Intentional sufferings serve no purpose when they have no value for the good of others. Do you believe that those who shorten their lives through superhuman hardships – the bonzes, fakirs, and a few fanatics of various sects – progress on their path? Why don’t they labor for the good of their neighbors instead? Let them visit the indigent, comfort those who mourn, work for those who are infirm, and endure privations to help the unfortunate; then their life will be useful and pleasing to God. When you only have yourselves in mind in the intentional hardships to which you subject yourselves, it is selfishness; when you suffer for others, it is the practice of charity. Such are the precepts of Christ.”
727- Since we should not create intentional sufferings for ourselves that are of no use to others, should we nevertheless protect ourselves from those that we foresee or from those that threaten us?
“The self-preservation instinct has been given to all beings against dangers and sufferings. Whip your spirit and not your body; mortify your pride and stifle your selfishness – that serpent devouring your heart – and you will do more for your progress than through self-inflictions that no longer have a place in this day and age.”
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