3.5 The Instinct to Survive
The Self-Preservation Instinct
The self-preservation instinct is a law of nature. All living beings possess it, regardless of their degree of intelligence. In some it is purely mechanical; in others it is deliberate.
God’s purpose in granting the instinct of self-preservation to all living beings is that all may collaborate in the designs of Providence. That is why God has given them the need to live. Besides, life is necessary for beings to perfect themselves; they sense this instinctively without clearly perceiving it.
The Means of Self-Preservation
Since God has given human beings the need to live, God always provides them with the means of doing so. If they do not find them, it is because they do not understand them. God could not have given humans the need to live without also giving them the means. Hence, the Creator has caused the earth to produce in such a way as to provide for the needs of all its inhabitants, for only what is necessary is useful; the superfluous never is.
The earth does not always produce enough to provide for human needs because people are ungrateful and neglect it. Nevertheless, it is an excellent mother. Frequently, they blame nature for the consequences of their own incompetence or lack of foresight. The earth would always produce what is needed if humans knew how to be content. If it does not supply all their needs, it is because they use it to provide themselves with superfluities instead of necessities. The nomads in the desert always find enough to live on because they do not create imaginary needs. But when half of all that is produced is wasted on satisfying fanciful desires, people should not wonder at finding nothing the next day, or pity themselves at being deprived in times of scarcity. Nature is not stingy; rather, people do not know how to control themselves.
The fruits of the earth are not only the products of the soil. The soil is the original source from which all other resources derive because, in the last analysis, such resources are only transformations of the products of the soil. For that reason, the fruits of the earth include everything humans can enjoy in this world.
The means of subsistence are frequently lacking for certain individuals, even in the midst of abundance around them. This is due primarily to human selfishness, because people do not always do what they should. Next, and most often, it is due to human action itself. “Seek and you shall find”: these words do not mean that it is enough simply to look to the earth in order to find what you desire. Instead, you must seek with ardor and perseverance, without indifference and without allowing yourselves to be discouraged by obstacles that are quite often no more than means of putting your tenacity, patience, and firmness to the test.
If civilization multiplies our needs, it also multiplies the sources of labor and the means of living, but in this respect there is still much to be done. When civilization has accomplished its task, no one will be able to say that they lack what is needed except through their own fault. For many, misfortune comes when they choose a path nature has not traced out for them—and that is when they lack the intelligence required to succeed. There is a place in the sun for all, but on the condition that each takes their own place and not that of others. Nature cannot be responsible for the vices of social organization or for the consequences of ambition and vanity.
It would be blindness not to recognize the progress that the most advanced societies have made in this respect. Thanks to the laudable efforts that philanthropy and science together have unceasingly made for the improvement of humankind’s material conditions, and notwithstanding the constant increase in population, insufficiency of production has been reduced—at least for the most part—and the most calamitous years bear no comparison to those of former times. Public hygiene, that element so essential to energy and health but unknown to our ancestors, is now the object of enlightened care. The unfortunate and suffering find places of refuge, and science has been put to work everywhere, contributing to the growth of everyone’s well-being. We have certainly not yet attained perfection. But what has been accomplished so far gives an idea of what can be done with perseverance if men and women are sensible enough to seek contentment in real and serious things rather than in utopias that cause them to go backward instead of advancing.
There are situations in which the means of subsistence do not depend solely on human will, and in which the lack of the barest necessities is a consequence of circumstances. These situations are often cruel trials that humans must undergo, and to which they know they will be exposed. Their merit lies in submission to God’s will if their intelligence does not furnish them with some means of escaping their difficulty. If death must touch them, they should submit to it without complaint, remembering that their hour of true freedom has arrived, and that despair at the final moment may cause them to lose the fruit of their resignation.
Those who, in critical situations, were obliged to sacrifice their fellow beings to appease their hunger have committed a crime. If it was a crime, it was not lessened by the need to live that the instinct of self-preservation has given them. There is more merit in undergoing all the trials of life with selflessness and courage. In this case, there is homicide and a crime against nature, and it must be doubly punished.
On worlds where physical constitutions are purer, living beings still need nourishment, but their food is in keeping with their nature. Such food would not be substantial enough for your dense digestive systems; likewise, they would not be able to digest yours.
The Enjoyment of Material Things
The use of the fruits of the earth is a right of all human beings. That right is a consequence of the need to live. God would not impose a duty without granting the means to fulfill it.
God has made the enjoyment of material things attractive in order to lead humans to fulfill their mission and also to test them through temptation. The purpose of such temptation is to develop their reason so that they may learn to guard themselves against excess.
If humans had been driven to use the fruits of the earth only because of their usefulness, their indifference might have compromised the harmony of the universe. God has given them the attraction of pleasure, and this in turn incites them to accomplish the designs of Providence. However, through this same attraction, God also wills to test them through temptation, which incites them to abuse; nonetheless, their reason should free them from it.
Enjoyments have bounds traced out by nature, showing the limit of what is necessary. But through excess, humans bring on satiety and thus punish themselves.
Those who seek to satisfy their tastes through all kinds of excess are unfortunate creatures whom we should pity, not envy, because they are very close to death, both physical and moral.
Those who seek to satisfy their tastes through excess of every kind place themselves below the animals, because animals at least know how to limit themselves to satisfying their needs. Such persons deny the reason God has given them for their guidance, and the greater their excesses, the greater is the dominion they give to their animal nature over their spiritual nature. The illnesses, ailments, and death that result from abuse are also punishments for transgressing God’s law.
Necessary and Superfluous Things
Those who are sensible know the limit of what is necessary by intuition, but many recognize it only through their own experience.
Nature has traced out the limits of human needs in physical organization, but people are insatiable. Their vices alter their constitution and create artificial needs.
Those who monopolize the fruits of the earth in order to procure for themselves what is superfluous, at the expense of others who lack what is necessary, do not understand God’s law and will have to answer for the privations they have caused.
The line between what is necessary and what is superfluous is not absolute. Civilization has created necessities that do not exist in the primitive state, and the Spirits who dictated these precepts do not mean for civilized humans to live like primitives. Everything is relative, and it is up to reason to place each thing in its proper place. Civilization develops moral sense and, at the same time, the sentiment of charity, which leads people to support one another. Those who live at the expense of others’ privations exploit the benefits of civilization for their own profit. They have only the varnish of civility, just as there are persons who possess no more of religion than its outward appearance.
Voluntary Privations and Mortifications
The law of self-preservation obliges us to provide for our physical needs, because without energy and health, labor is impossible.
We are not culpable if we seek our own well-being. Well-being is a natural desire. God prohibits only abuse because it is contrary to self-preservation. God does not consider it a crime to seek one’s own well-being if it is not gained at another’s expense and if it does not weaken either moral or physical strength.
Voluntary privations undertaken for an equally voluntary expiation have no merit in God’s sight. Do good to others, and there will be greater merit.
There are, however, meritorious voluntary privations: the privation of meaningless pleasures, because it frees one from matter and elevates the soul. Merit lies in resisting the temptation that drives one to excess and the taste for useless things, and in taking from one’s own necessities in order to give to those in need. If privation is nothing more than pretense, it is only a mockery.
A life of mortification through asceticism has been practiced since ancient times and among different cultures. Its merit depends on whom it is useful for. If it serves only the one who practices it and hinders that person from doing good to others, it is selfish, whatever pretext may disguise it. Submitting oneself to privation by working for others is true mortification and is in accord with Christian charity.
Abstention from certain foods, as prescribed among various cultures, is 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 coming from God.
Humankind’s use of animals for food is not contrary to the law of nature. With the present physical constitution, flesh nourishes flesh; otherwise, humans would perish. The law of self-preservation imposes the duty of preserving energy and health so that the law of labor may be fulfilled. One should therefore eat according to the requirements of one’s own physical organization.
Abstention from foods, animal or otherwise, is meritorious as an expiation if one deprives oneself for the sake of others. But God cannot see mortification where there is no serious and useful privation. This is why those who only seem to deprive themselves are hypocrites. (See no. 720)
Mutilations practiced on the body of humans or animals are useless and harmful. What is useless cannot be pleasing to God, and what is harmful is always displeasing. God is sensitive only to sentiments that raise the soul toward God. It is by practicing the divine laws instead of violating them that one can shake off the burden of terrestrial matter.
If the sufferings of this world enable us to evolve according to the manner in which we bear them, only natural sufferings enable such progress because they come from God. Intentional sufferings serve no purpose when they have no value for the good of others. Those who shorten their lives through superhuman hardships—the bonzes, fakirs, and certain fanatics of various sects—do not advance on their path. They should labor for the good of their neighbors, 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 one has only oneself in mind in the intentional hardships one imposes on oneself, it is selfishness; when one suffers for others, it is the practice of charity. Such are the precepts of Christ.
Since we should not create intentional sufferings for ourselves that are of no use to others, we should nevertheless protect ourselves from those we foresee or that threaten us. The instinct of self-preservation has been given to all beings against dangers and sufferings. Discipline 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.