I think we can know God better through the pleasant and joyful things God gave us, just as we can through asceticism.
As an example, check out the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (here’s a good biography of him:
bettnet.com/frassati/) who lived in Turin, Italy from 1901 to 1925. The heir to a wealthy family, he was also a champion skiier and mountain climber who enjoyed experiencing God through His creation, Nature. He probably would have enjoyed the X-Games and Crossfit if he was alive today. He used his love of outdoor sports to evangelize the Catholic faith, as well - he was a very charismatic young man and attracted a following of fun-loving young men that humorously dubbed themselves
“Tipi Loschi,” “The Shady Ones.” He would invite them to go hiking or skiing and quietly invite a priest along to preach to them up in the mountains. He died from a disease he probably acquired while ministering to the poor.
If you look at the photos of Pier and his friends on that website, you can tell that his love of Christ didn’t hurt his love of life and the pleasures of life - he and his friends obviously enjoyed good company, good food, cigars, and a glass of wine. Or two. He loved going to the opera and museums and the theater. Yet Pier demonstrated the Beatitudes in his daily life - he spent most of his time giving away everything he had to the poor, often including the clothes off his back and the shoes off his feet, and quietly supported numerous poor families and orphans (the poor of Turin were the ones who petitioned the Bishop for the cause of his canonization, and they lined the streets of Turin by the thousands for his funeral). He was active in the Catholic social justice movement against Mussolini and fascism (once singlehandedly beating down and chasing off a fascist mob that attacked him), He attended Mass daily, prayed the rosary, and practiced regular adoration of the Eucharist, which he credited with his desire to aid the poor. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990 and his feast day is July 4.
George Weigel, in his wonderful book “Letters to a Young Catholic” wrote of the exuberant personality of the great Catholic author and apologist G.K. Chesterton, who loved spending time with Hilaire Belloc at the Olde Chesire Cheese Pub on Fleet Street in London, laughing, talking, and enjoying good food and drink. Weigel wrote that Chesterton stood squarely against the Gnostic belief that matter and the things of this world are “bad,” that stuff doesn’t count, that the material world is an unnecessary and wicked distraction, and thus that the Incarnation and the Sacraments (the tangible signs of inward Grace) ultimately don’t matter. Chesteron defended the *sacramental imagination * - “the core Catholic conviction that God saves and sanctifies the world through the materials of this world.” As Catholics, we are very concerned with “stuff,” the things of the material world. We honor God incarnating among us as flesh and blood. We recognize that we are a spirit bound to a material body, and that what the body does affects the spirit, just as the spirit can affect the body. We’re concerned with bread and wine and what it becomes, and water and salt and oil and chrism, and the need to care for each other’s physical needs as we grow old and sick and weary, as an expression of our Faith through Works. We think the physical act of sex is a *good thing *and deeply pleasurable and uplifting and creative as we bond with our beloved in marriage, with the chance of creating new life. We think it’s so important the Sacrament of Marriage requires it.
The path of asceticism is an admirable one and a good path to holiness, but for others, there is no need to put aside “everything enjoyable” - God provided much to us to make us happy, and like the Blessed Pier, it may actually improve our chances of salvation through the bonds of fellowship and collegiality it can help us form with others. You can be saintly and have fun.
As Weigel wrote, “The sacramental imagination gets the world into proper focus. Its critics often say that the Catholic Church is all about denying the world and ourselves; G.K. Chesterton insisted that Catholicism was about thick steaks, cigars, pubs, and laughter. Catholicism is more than that, of course. But it’s also that, and to miss that is to miss something crucial in the Catholic world. The Catholic world isn’t nervous about its legitimate pleasures. In fact, it’s a world in which those pleasures can be fully enjoyed because they’re understood for what they really are - anticipations of the joy that awaits us in the Kingdom of God. And that, I suggest, is a lot more appealing than granola-and-Corona-Lite gnosticism.”
So whether you think of the Blessed Pier beaming with joy in the sunlight on the top of Mount Blanc, or good ol’ G.K. Chesteron guffawing with a glass of port and slapping Hillaire Beloc on the back during a convivial evening in the Chesire Cheese Pub, don’t feel guilty for enjoying the good things of this world, which were vouchsafed to us by God.
