Why Sensual Pleasures Will Never Truly Satisfy You (Ken & Fr Cristino)

✨ Advent Reflection: Discover the True Path to Fulfillment ✨Join us this Advent as we dive deep into the teachings of St. Alphonsus Liguori. In this powerful reflection, Fr. Cristino unpacks the profound wisdom of St. Alphonsus on why earthly pleasures can never satisfy the soul. Learn how to redirect your desires toward God and find true peace during this holy season of preparation.

Transcript

Father Cristino thanks for being here thank you I'm glad we get to do this again and you're participating in our Advent Series so every Friday I've roped you in you're going to give a reflection on St Alphonsus' quotes and so I'll ask you I'll give you the quote and then get your reaction to it we'll have a little discussion sure so let's get right into it okay St Alonso says brute animals that have been made for sensual Delights find peace in Earthly Goods give to an ox a bundle of hay and to a dog a piece of Flesh and they are content they desire nothing more but the soul which has been created for no other end than to love God and to live in Union with him shall never be able to find peace or happiness in sensual enjoyments God Alone can make her perfectly content so your first reaction to St Alphonsus there he's just the best I I love St Alanis and he says something very profound but in such simple terms and you can tell who he's writing these things for because he wants to make them very accessible to simple Common People many of whom would have been uneducated so he like our Lord with his Parables he's trying to use something that would be relatable to them these were people he was predominantly in southern Italy all peasants all all farmers and so he uses this image of animals that they would be very familiar with that don't want anything else than to just eat and seeing that they are content to just have as he calls them sensual Delights or something that pleases the senses that that is good enough for them but the sign that we have been created differently is that that sort of thing the sensual Delights never fully satisfy us and that's part of why taking advantage of such things can actually lead to to Vice and to sin in our life because uh it's never enough right we always we always want more and because we want more we eat too much and make ourselves sick or we drink too much and we make ourselves drunk or we watch TV or Netflix or stay online too long and we make ourselves dumb what whatever we consume too much of corrupts us and his point is that we consume too much is the sign that we are made for more than what physical tangible things of this world can give us we're made for something that is meant to be able to uh Elevate our soul and that's when he shifts towards talking about the soul and saying that the soul which is capable of the infinite cannot be satisfied by Earthly things and so we make a mistake if we just keep trying to get more and more and more Earthly things we'll go to the point where our body can't handle it anymore and so it will be harmed but it's because we have a soul that does want more but that more is only fulfilled by God you know we have some cats I don't know if I've told you we got three cats I'm not an animal lover but the kids love the cats when the cats finish their food they're like they're done and it's interesting that we we as human beings don't do that it's like this restlessness that is even further agitated when we look to sensual Pleasures to satisfy what only God can satisfy mhm do you think that when we are chasing sensual Pleasures uh to an extreme we it's a dehumanizing experience exactly yeah it's it's we are depriving oursel of what we are uniquely capable of having as human beings by being filled by that which is also infinite and also immaterial but we're trying to fill that void with something finite and that's why it's never enough mhm and that's why we keep going until our body actually shuts down uh using the example of of consuming too much alcohol is is really helpful because I think if we've either not personally experienced that we perhaps have witnessed someone who behaves in such a way that is beneath their dignity when they've consumed too much alcohol because they gave that infinite part ofs over to something which could not fill it and while they kept trying to fill it it ended up rebelling against them it it caused them to make light of themselves or to belittle themselves of their human dignity uh and that's and that's why actually speaking of St Alphonsus he has a an axiom that's very common in in moral theology where he says punishment is in the Sin itself when when we have gone to some kind of excessive Vice that punishment is whatever it does to us whether you become drunk or you make yourself sick to your stomach from what you've eaten or you make yourself too lazy and and your body become uh too whatever not not capable of doing all that it could if it was in better shape and all of those things that's the punishment so it's not as though we get to enjoy it in this life and then we'll pay for it later you already pay for it now you're speaking of the excess right cuz right obviously not all sensual pleasure is there not it's not a problem right in moderation I think is talking about is the excess here uh how many years have you been a priest correct me I can't remember well 12 so yeah since uh 12 and a half years so 12 and a half years have you seen a change or a shift in people's if you want to say addictions to sensual Desires in in that area or is it always kind of been the same I'm just I would say that uh I'm now noticing especially having been for seven years in in University campus ministry and with young adults uh but even before that was officially my assignment I've always been working with young people I have noticed a a real shift away from the things that physically cause harm to to young people so as an example of of the drunkenness it was far more common I'll say 10 years ago that I was dealing with young people who routinely consumed too much alcohol I don't hear much about that anymore and actually you'll run into a lot of of young people who just don't drink uh there isn't the culture of it anymore it's not like they're really trying their best to be super virtuous uh it's either that it's really expensive or they know that it's bad for them or they just it it hasn't really uh captured them the way that it used to in the same way it never used to be that big of a deal that people wasted so much time on their phones and now that would be the predominant thing that young people will come and in Te in tears tell you that they feel like they're addicted to their phone and it's ruining their life uh that was just completely unfamiliar to me 10 years ago so it's a different thing but the same problem someone might be confused of how is how is the phone related to this sensual desire the central appetite St alonsus is speaking of because it's that it's that sensory uh overload it's it's feeding your senses something uh it doesn't matter which sense it is it doesn't just have to be uh the sense of taste with our what we what we put into our mouth it it's whatever we are trying to consume that stimulates something in us that is part of our of of our human existence but is that is that manifestation of something that is not capable of ever being satisfied because of the human soul that we we have and so if we keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling it's because we have the capacity for the infinite but we're trying to fill that with something finite every video ends uh every every time you've gone through the feed long enough you eventually scroll back down it's like it's like a VT machine and you just got to pull that lever down and get it to reset so that you can look at a whole new set of things and it just never ends it never satisfies h so somebody wrapping this video up uh sitting there and thinking okay I want to take a step right now after this video to yield more fully to God what something practical and concrete someone can do soon as this video is done I would say if you're watching this video and you've been online for a while already close the close the app close your computer turn off your phone and just say a quick prayer if we have if we we have if we train ourselves to turn to prayer when we become aware that we're trying to fill ourselves with something that will not satisfy even if we haven't sinned even if we haven't uh really allowed a vice to take a hold of us uh if that becomes the sign I need to shift my focus when we turn our mind and our heart to the Lord it can be something very simple it can be something memorized or can just be from our heart but that is the thing that will help recalibrate us and put the sensual things of the World in their proper place excellent okay thank you you're welcome