Pleasure. The Ultimate No-No?

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I should also have added that there is also pleasure in self-denial, when a person denies themselves food etc in fasting, or keeps a vigil denying themselves sleep, spiritual growth can happen in denial and this is a pleasure for the spirit. So in denial of worldly things is pleasure as much as enjoying worldly things is pleasure. It is a balance of the two.
 
Forgiven said:
I love this thread! and this question is interesting, because it is so easy to be so worried about sin all the time, at least it is so for me. I am not quite scrupulous but tend in that direction lately, mainly because of the pleasure I sometimes take in “the solitary sin,” which I do not believe is actually sinful in healthy moderation, but because the Church says it is I confess it. Anyway, I do not believe pleasure, per se, is a sin, unless it causes me or someone else pain or sorrow. Why be alive if we cannot enjoy pleasure?! God gave us so much beauty, so much love, so much joy it is a sin to be dour! I rejoice in my health and my body’s enjoyment of good food, big hugs, breathing the mountain air. There is nothing sinful about feeling good! This is something that drives me nuts on these forums sometimes, all the dour judgements and attitudes about the body, yes, about the human body. I refuse to feel badly or sinful about my normal human sexuality that God gave me! I am a normal and healthy fortysomething woman who has lived too long to be made to feel that the pleasure I find from living in my body is sinful, for crying out loud!! I love every square inch of my body because God made it and there is much pleasure in being alive, being made in His image and likeness and eating much icecream! Haagen Daasz is the best!!
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Forgiven… i think most people indulge in the ‘solitary sin’… -i think it is a difficult sin to avoid when one is single.
 
no, carnal pleasure just means pleasures of the flesh, in other words, pleasure that we feel. it CAN mean ‘fleshly’ as opposed to spiritual, meaning anti-God, but i don’t think it was intended that way in the question.

the general idea i’ve gotten thus far from this thread is that pleasure is good, and created by God, and should be enjoyed. certainly this is true. what no one has pointed out, and this surprised me, was that pleasure as an end in life is the danger that people fall into. (forgive my ending my sentence in a preposition. i could reword it, but it would sound very awkward)

i know people (some people very close to me) who have basically made pleasure their god. anything that makes them unhappy is bad, anything that makes them happy and comfortable and pleasured is good. it leads to selfishness, and a distorted view of reality.

loving people, and loving God, often means doing things, going places, associating with people, which do not bring us pleasure or enjoyment or satisfaction. we are called to do these things, even though (and sometimes BECAUSE) they are unpleasant.

so yes, God created pleasure, and we shouldn’t feel guilty when we are given the opportunity for partake. i love mexican food, good movies, great books, and spending time with friends. i plan to do these things pretty often in life. but if it means giving one (or all) of them up for a good reason, for helping someone, or in some other way following Christ, then it’s better to choose the hard way.

taking up our cross daily, dying to ourselves, is often (always?) an unpleasant thing. so we should expect to find a good bit of unpleasantness in life - a good deal of pain. when joy - and pleasure - come, by all means, let’s dig in!
 
i’d agree with what you have said jeff, i did say in my post not to make the pursuit of pleasure above all other things, i have also commented on another thread, that i have noticed a general trend of obsessing with sin on these boards, not that we shouldn’t reflect on our own personal sins, of course we should, but i don’t think it is healthy to obsess about sin to the depth i have noticed a trend on these boards. Why are people so worried by sin and not thinking of how to please their Heavenly Father instead? Your life is God given, live it and in living it make your very first aim to love firstly God the father and secondly eahc other and stop obsessing over sins.
 
certainly it is easy to obsess over sins. the key, i think, as you’ve hinted, is to take the focus off of ourselves entirely and begin to focus on loving God and others.

thanks for the post.
 
I am the last person who should come up with this answer. Pleasure is NOT a sin in of itself. It is only a sin when it is pursued above all else and I’m guilty of it sometimes. I didn’t vote because the way the questions were phrased, it seemed to inquire mostly of sexual pleasure. That is only one of the “biggies” in the realm of pleasure that can be considered “deadly” or rather only one of several pleasures that are too eagerly sought after. - Mfaustina1

ps. My weakness is alcohol. Please pray for me. Thanks!!! :gopray2: -Mfaustina1
 
All good things come from God, and that includes pleasure. But being Christain means that we can’t do things just to gain pleasure- we do everything for God. We belong to him, and our goal isnt to please ourselves, but to please him. Strive to honor God in everything you do, and know that he loves you and wants you to be happy.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
 
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thechrismyster:
A lot of talk on these forums as of late, i’ve noticed, are about this is a sin, this action is kinda sinful, this is mortally and painfully sinful, this isn’t a sin…

Do you ever do anything simply for physical pleasure? Enjoying a triple scoop Rum Raisin & Coffee Ice Cream Waffle Cone with a tall, cold glass of beer… Having wild sex with a wife/husband (yours, of course), with spontaneous pleasure in mind, Smelling the ocean air, hot sand under your feet and the warm sun stroking your face and thinking the physical pleasure is and end unto itself? Smoking a fine Havana Cigar while sitting at the racetrack betting on the ponies just for the love of watching the races?
are these sinful?
enjoying things in this life that make you smile?

part II:
what is your guilty pleasure? what makes you grin from ear to ear and makes you happy to be alive???
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Pleasure is not a sin in and of itself, but when that is your only goal in life then it is a terrible sin. Any vice is bad. None of the stuff is a sin you listed but to excess it becomes a sin.

That said, I do things for pleasure at times. Smoking cigars and drinking a little red wine with it once in a while is something I like to do. The mix ain’t bad.🙂
 
Anything in moderation…it seems to me that the only real sin is excess (talking about pleasures here…not anything inherently sinful).

As for me, I prefer to go out to the range and burn off a couple hundred rounds of .45 ACP goodness…:whistle:

God bless!
 
I voted for the first option, the key word here is carnal. God wants us to have pleasure, but he does not intend this to be physical, but rather stemming from the union with Himself which is our true Good. Saint Thomas goes into this in depth in the first book of his Summa, whether or not pleasure is physical is of little concern if it is not connected to our relationship with God. Divested of God all pleasure is vain and sinful.
 
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thechrismyster:
Do you ever do anything simply for physical pleasure? Enjoying a triple scoop Rum Raisin & Coffee Ice Cream Waffle Cone with a tall, cold glass of beer… Having wild sex with a wife/husband (yours, of course), with spontaneous pleasure in mind, Smelling the ocean air, hot sand under your feet and the warm sun stroking your face and thinking the physical pleasure is and end unto itself? Smoking a fine Havana Cigar while sitting at the racetrack betting on the ponies just for the love of watching the races?
are these sinful?
enjoying things in this life that make you smile?

part II:
what is your guilty pleasure? what makes you grin from ear to ear and makes you happy to be alive???
Click to expand...
Part I: Yes to just about all of those, except I don’t like rum raisin ice cream, and aren’t Havana cigars still illegal in the US?

Part II: Guilty pleasure? That’s a secret.

Someone told me once it is a Talmudic teaching that one sins by passing up licit opportunities for joy. Makes sense to me.
 
“thinking the physical pleasure is and end unto itself?”

God should be the only “end unto itself” in our lives. Everything else should be ordered towards him. At least implicitly.

Even eating food purely for pleasure is gluttony. Not just over-eating. From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

“It is incontrovertible that to eat or drink for the mere pleasure of the experience, and for that exclusively, is likewise to commit the sin of gluttony. Such a temper of soul is equivalently the direct and positive shutting out of that reference to our last end which must be found, at least implicitly, in all our actions. At the same time it must be noted that there is no obligation to formerly and explicitly have before one’s mind a motive which will immediately relate our actions to God. It is enough that such an intention should be implied in the apprehension of the thing as lawful with a consequent virtual submission to Almighty God.”
 
Anyone else get depressed that just about anything fun/good/enjoyable is also a sin. It is VERY HARD to keep to the narrow path.

Guilty Pleasure: Eating just that little bit extra when im full, occasionally.
 
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