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Instinct of self-preservation. — Enjoyment of earthly goods. — The necessary and the superfluous.

— Limit of man's needs and pleasures. — Excess and abuse. — Voluntary privations. — Ascetic mortifications. — Mutilations. — Suicide. (Questions 338 to 356.)

Is the instinct of self-preservation a law of Nature? [Question 702.]

“Without doubt. All living beings possess it.”

a. With what purpose did God grant to all living beings the instinct of self-preservation? [Question 703.]

“Because all must contribute to the fulfillment of the designs of Providence. It was for this reason that God gave them the need to live.”

Until the moment fixed by Nature for the end of corporeal life, man feels fear of death and does everything to cling to existence. God wants him to live long enough to fulfill his mission on Earth.

Having given man the need to live, has God always provided him with the means to do so? [Question 704.]

“Yes, and if man does not find them it is because he does not understand them.”

God would not have given man the need to live without furnishing him the means. That is why He makes the Earth produce goods that supply with what is necessary all its inhabitants, for only the necessary is useful: the superfluous never is.

Why does the Earth not always produce enough to provide man with what is necessary? [Question 705.]

“Because, being ungrateful, man scorns it! The Earth, however, is an excellent mother.”

The Earth would always produce what is necessary if man knew how to content himself with the necessary. If it does not suffice for all his needs, it is because he employs in the superfluous what could be applied to the necessary.

Is the use of the goods of the Earth a right of all men?

“Yes, for without this right they could not live.”

a. What should one think of those who appropriate the goods of the Earth to procure for themselves the superfluous, to the detriment of those who lack what is necessary? [Question 717.]

“They scorn the Law of God.”

God granted man the faculty to enjoy the goods of the Earth in the measure of his needs. The use of these goods is, therefore, a law of Nature, dependent on the law of self-preservation; thus, those who appropriate such goods to have the superfluous and to deprive their fellow beings of what is necessary will have to answer for the privations they imposed upon them.

By goods of the Earth should one understand only the products of the soil? [Question 706.]

“No; but everything that man can enjoy in this world.”

How can man know the limit of the necessary? [Question 715.]

“Only the wise man knows it.”

a. Has Nature not traced the limits of our needs through the very physical organization that it granted us? [Question 716.]

“Yes, but man is insatiable and has created for himself artificial needs.”

Nature traced limits to man's needs through the very physical organization that it gave him, but vices have altered his constitution and created for him needs that are not real.

With what purpose did God place attractions in the enjoyment of earthly goods? [Question 712.]

“To stimulate man to the fulfillment of his mission and also to test him by means of temptation.”

a. What is the object of this temptation? [Question 712 a.]

“To develop his reason, which must preserve him from excesses.”

If man were stimulated to the use of earthly goods only by the usefulness they have, his indifference might perhaps have compromised the harmony of the Universe. God gave him the attraction of pleasure, which impels him to the fulfillment of the designs of Providence. Moreover, by means of this very attraction, God willed to test man through temptation, which drags him into abuse, from which reason must defend him.

Has Nature traced limits to enjoyments? [Question 713.]

“Yes.”

a. Why did God impose limits on pleasures?

“To indicate to you the limit of the necessary. But, through your excesses, you arrive at satiety and thereby punish yourselves.” [Question 713.]

The illnesses, the infirmities, and death itself, which result from abuse, are at the same time the punishment for the transgression of the Law of God. [Question 714 a.]

What should one think of the man who seeks in excesses of every kind the refinement of his pleasures? [Question 714.]

“Poor creature, whom we should pity and not envy, for he is very near death!”

a. Near physical death, or moral death? [Question 714 a.]

“Both.”

The man who seeks in excesses of every kind the refinement of enjoyment places himself below the animal, for the animal stops once its need is satisfied. Such a man abdicates the reason that God gave him as a guide, and the greater his excesses, the greater the preponderance he confers upon his animal nature over his spiritual nature.

Does the law of self-preservation oblige man to provide for the needs of the body? [Question 718.]

“Yes; without strength and without health, work is impossible.”

a. Should man be censured for seeking well-being? [Question 719.]

“Well-being is a natural desire. God forbids only abuse, because it is contrary to self-preservation.”

Do voluntary privations, which aim at an equally voluntary expiation, have any merit in the eyes of God? [Question 720.]

“Do good to others and you will have more merit.”

a. Are there voluntary privations that are meritorious? [Question 720 a.]

“Yes, the privation of useless pleasures, because it frees man from matter and elevates his soul.”

Meritorious privations consist in man's resisting the temptation that drags him into excesses and into the enjoyment of useless things, or, again, in his taking from what is necessary to him in order to give to those who do not have enough. If the privation is no more than a vain pretense, it will be a mockery.

Is a life of ascetic mortifications meritorious? [Question 721.]

“Seek to know whom it benefits and you will have the answer. If it serves only the one who practices it and prevents him from doing good, it is selfishness. True mortification consists in depriving oneself and working for others.”

What should one think of the mutilations performed on the body of man or of animals? [Question 725.]

“What is the purpose of such a question? Always ask whether a thing is useful. What is useless cannot please God, and what is harmful is always displeasing to Him. Because, know this well, God is sensitive only to the feelings that elevate the soul to Him, and it is by practicing His laws that you can shake off the yoke of your earthly matter.”

Does man have the right to dispose of his own life? [Question 944.]

“No; only God has that right. Voluntary suicide is a transgression of the divine law.”

a. Is suicide not always voluntary? [Question 944 a.]

“No; the madman who kills himself does not know what he is doing.”

What should one think of the suicide whose cause is weariness of life? [Question 945.]

“Fools! Why did they not work? Existence would not have been so heavy for them.”

And of the suicide whose aim is to escape the miseries and disappointments of this world? [Question 946.]

“Poor Spirits, who do not have the courage to bear the miseries of existence! God helps those who suffer, and not those who have neither strength nor courage. The tribulations of life are trials or expiations. Happy are those who bear them without complaint, for they will be rewarded!”

a. What should one think of those who may have driven the unfortunate one to this act of desperation? [Question 946 a.]

“Oh! Woe to them! They will be punished by God. They will answer as for a murder.”

And of the suicide whose aim is to escape the shame of a bad action? [Question 948.]

“I do not absolve it, for suicide does not erase the fault. On the contrary, instead of one, there will be two. When one has had the courage to do evil, one must also have the courage to suffer its consequences. It is God who judges and, sometimes, according to the cause, He may soften the rigors of His justice.”

a. Is suicide excusable when its aim is to prevent shame from falling upon the children, or upon the family? [Question 949.]

“He who acts thus does not act well, although he believes he does, and God will take this gesture into account; but it is an expiation that the suicide imposes upon himself. The intention attenuates his fault, but there is a fault nonetheless. Moreover, if you abolish from your society the abuses and the prejudices, you will no longer have suicides.” He who takes his own life to flee the shame of a bad action proves that he gives more value to the esteem of men than to that of God, since he returns to spiritual life laden with his iniquities, having deprived himself of the means to repair them during life on Earth. God is often less inexorable than men; He pardons sincere repentance and takes reparation into account.

What should one think of him who kills himself in the hope of arriving more quickly at a better life? [Question 950.]

“Another folly! Let him do good and he will be more certain of arriving there, for, by killing himself, he delays his entrance into a better world and he himself will ask to come to complete the life he interrupted, moved by a false idea. A fault, whatever its nature, never opens the sanctuary of the elect.”

Is the sacrifice of life not sometimes meritorious, when its object is to save the life of another, or to be useful to one's fellow beings? [Question 951.]

“That is sublime, according to the intention. God, however, opposes every useless sacrifice, and cannot view it with pleasure if it is stained by pride. Sacrifice is meritorious only when made with disinterestedness, and sometimes the one who makes it is moved by ulterior motives, which diminishes its value in the eyes of God.” Every sacrifice made at the cost of one's own happiness is a supremely meritorious act in the eyes of God, because it is the practice of the law of charity. Now, life being the earthly good to which man gives the greatest worth, he who renounces it for the good of his fellow beings commits no offense: he makes a sacrifice. But, before fulfilling it, he must reflect whether his life will not be more useful than his death.