Innate Desire

The dissatisfied Goat and Restless Hearts

In 2009, after winning three Superbowls and after marrying a supermodel Giselle Bundchen, millionaire quarterback Tom Brady sat down for an interview on 60 Minutes. He is gifted with intelligence, athleticism and good looks - everything the world says will make us happy - and yet he is unfulfilled. “There has to be more than this,” he said, “why do I have three Super Bowl rings, and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, "Hey man, this is what is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think: God, it's gotta be more than this. I mean this can't be what it's all cracked up to be. I mean I've done it. I'm 27. And what else is there for me?”

How could Tom Brady, who had “everything”, still say 'there has to be more'? Wow! Apparently riches, good looks, athleticism, fame, a super-model wife, cars, yachts, houses are not able to satisfy...they are not able to fill a hole within. Because of our fallenness and our separation from God, every human being has this hole within. We are meant to be happy, in communion with God and only he can fill this hole because it is an infnite, God-shaped hole.

Probably the one thing our consumer culture, our celebrity culture and our Catholic Faith have in common is that they all recognize that deep down all human beings desire to be happy. In our main stream media, social media, music and films, the culture points to this awkward unease and emptiness.

In 2014, the famous comedian Robin Williams sadly took his own life. Our first reaction might have been “Wow. How could it be that bad? He seemingly had everything!” As the Rolling Stones put it, “I can’t get no satisfaction!” The Doors song ‘Break on through’ could be the theme song for disillusionment and the need to escape reality. We chased our pleasures here, dug our treasures there but can you still recall the time we cried. Break on through to the other side. Break on through to the other side. Break, break, break break…”. Even U2 sang of a place Where the Streets Have No Name, "I want to run. I want to hide. I want to tear down these walls that hold me inside".

St. Augustine famously said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you Oh Lord.” This restlessness is also described in Scripture as the deepest kind of hunger or thirst. The Psalms are replete with references to spiritual thirst,

“Just as a deer longs for running streams, God, I long for you. I am thirsty for God, for the living God! When can I come and appear before God? My tears are my food, day and night, while all day people ask me, “Where is your God?” (Psalm 42:2-4)

Escapism

The sacraments do not satiate our innate desire. Instead, they chrystalize and clarify in our hearts the meaning of that desire. If received well, as a foretaste of the Beatific Vision, they enflame that desire and thirst for God. The deep down yearning for something more and the desire to go there is what we call Innate Desire. It is not a bad thing. It is only bad when we attempt the break out or the escape on our own terms and not in accordance with God’s will. There are many examples of negative escapism such as drugs, alcohol, pornography, obsession with constant use of technology and being plugged into perpetual noise. This is different from recreation, sports, silence and rest which can be legitimate and healthy forms of escapism.

Every natural, innate desire in us corresponds to some real object that can temporarily satisfy that desire. But there exists in us a desire which nothing in time, nothing on earth, no creature can satisfy. Therefore there must exist something more than time, earth and creatures, which can satisfy this desire. This something is what people call "God" and "life with God forever." 

Made for Another World

The Catechism speaks of this desire and how it truly is innate, “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for: The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator” (CCC 27).

“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”  (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity). 

What Lewis is hinting at is heaven. Every insatiable desire in this world has a grounding in that one everlasting fulfillment in heaven. For example in our sexuality we find a desire for intimate communion with another. Heaven is communal. In eating food we find the desire to be full. Heaven is an everlasting banquet. We have a desire to sleep and rest. In heaven we rest in peace. Every addict says, ‘I want it. I need it. I can’t live without it.” Every addict has the same passion as the Saints. but by inserting a false substitute, they missed the object of their deepest desire, Jesus.