Introduction: The Struggle of Desire and the Path to Spiritual Maturity
(We read in Gen. 1:26-27) When God created man, He made him in His image and likeness. This divine imprint signifies that man was made for truth, goodness, and beauty—ultimately for communion with God. Everything God created, He declared to be good (Gen. 1:31), including human desires and the objects of human longing. However, after the Fall, man’s nature was wounded. The harmony that once existed between his reason, will, and passions was disrupted. As a result, his desires became disordered, and his will, instead of being directed toward God, began to turn inward, seeking self-gratification rather than self-gift.
Don’t you see? It’s not that you were made bad, nor even that the things you long for, the temptations you face, or the tendencies you struggle with are inherently evil. They are not. Everything that exists, every created good, is fashioned by God and, in its proper order, serves a purpose in His divine plan. The problem is not in the objects of our desire—whether personal happiness, material wealth, pleasure, skill, or talent—but in our will’s inclination to grasp at them for ourselves, to manipulate, possess, and control them rather than receive and steward them rightly.
The real battleground is not outside of us but within. Our desires, left unchecked, become tyrants. They lead us not to fulfillment but to slavery—slavery to self-indulgence, to ambition, to the fleeting approval of others. This is why the path to spiritual maturity, and indeed to true personhood, requires more than external discipline; it demands an internal transformation. It is not enough to suppress desire—we must reorder it. The very things that tempt us can, if properly directed, become instruments of grace rather than occasions of sin.
To grow in holiness, to become the person God calls us to be, we must learn to master our will rather than be mastered by it. We must learn to direct our desires not toward selfish ends, but toward the highest good—the perfection of our own souls and the good of others. Only in this can we find true peace, true purpose, and true freedom.
I. The Root of the Problem: Not the Object, but the Will
Many people misunderstand the nature of temptation and sin. The problem is not what we desire but how we desire it.
Sin does not reside in the objects of our longing but in our will’s perversion of them. Take material wealth as an example: money itself is neither good nor evil, but our attachment to it, our greed, our willingness to sacrifice moral integrity to obtain it—these are the evils. A man who seeks financial stability so he can provide for his family and support charitable works has ordered his wealth properly. But a man who amasses riches to serve his ego, gain control over others, or indulge his appetites corrupts the gift of prosperity.
Similarly, personal happiness is not wrong in itself, but if a man seeks it above virtue—if he avoids responsibility, ignores truth, or compromises his conscience in pursuit of comfort—then his will has become disordered. It is not the object of desire that is at fault, but the heart that seeks to manipulate, possess, and dominate.
Saint Augustine explains this distinction in his book The City of God:
“Two loves have made two cities: the love of self to the contempt of God, and the love of God to the contempt of self.” (City of God, XIV.28)
The difference is not in the things we desire but in whether our love is ordered to God or to self.
At the core of fallen human nature is the desire to possess and control. This was the temptation in Eden:
"You will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Gen. 3:5)
Rather than trust in God's providence, Adam and Eve sought to take for themselves what was not theirs to grasp. This fundamental pride is echoed in every form of sin—when we seek to control rather than surrender, to use rather than to love, to dominate rather than to serve.
Consider the temptations of Christ in the desert (Matt. 4:1-11). The devil tempts Jesus with three things: material provision (bread), power (dominion over the kingdoms), and spectacle (testing God's protection).
Each temptation mirrors the way human desire can be corrupted:
1. Materialism – seeking comfort, wealth, and security at the expense of virtue.
2. Power and Dominion – seeking to rule rather than to serve.
3. Glory and Vanity – seeking recognition and admiration rather than humility.
Jesus, however, resists each temptation by subordinating desire to the will of the Father. He teaches us that true strength lies not in grasping for control but in surrendering to divine providence.
II. The Consequence of Disordered Desire: A Life of Restlessness
When our will seeks to control rather than to receive, when we chase possession rather than stewardship, we inevitably suffer. Disordered desire leads to slavery—slavery to passions, to ambition, to addiction. The man who lives for pleasure is never satisfied, for each indulgence only creates a greater hunger. The man obsessed with power or recognition will never feel secure, for the praise of the world is fleeting.
This restlessness of the human heart is not in itself evil. It is a sign that we were made for something greater than the passing pleasures of this world. The problem is not that we desire, but that we desire improperly, turning away from God to finite things, treating them as ends rather than means. This is what St. Paul warns about in Romans:
"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do." (Rom. 7:19)
This inner struggle—between our higher calling and our fallen inclinations—is at the heart of spiritual growth.
Scripture warns of this restless pursuit:
“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.” (Eccl. 5:10)
And Christ Himself tells us plainly:
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
Here lies the tragedy of the disordered will: the very things we seek to control end up controlling us. A man who pursues pleasure without moderation becomes enslaved by his cravings. A man who hoards power out of fear becomes paranoid and insecure. A man who chases approval from others becomes a prisoner of their opinions.
Saint John of the Cross, in his Ascent of Mount Carmel, describes this condition:
“The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union.”
The more we clutch at finite things, the more we lose sight of the infinite.
We must recognize that temptation is not the sin itself, but an opportunity either to fall into disorder or to reorder our desires toward the good. The difference between virtue and vice lies in whether we master our desires or they master us.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologica, distinguishes between lawful and unlawful desires. He explains that:
“The sin of lust consists in seeking venereal pleasure not in accordance with right reason.” (ST, II-II, q. 153, a. 2)
The same principle applies to all other human desires—whether for wealth, power, or even personal fulfillment. It is not the object that is evil, but the disorder in how we seek it.
This is why the Church warns against materialism, hedonism, and the idolatry of success. The problem is not wealth itself but attachment to wealth; not pleasure itself but enslavement to pleasure. The saints show us that sanctity does not require rejecting all earthly goods but using them rightly.
III. The Path to Spiritual Maturity: Overcoming and Ordering Desire
To grow spiritually and mature as a person is to overcome disordered desire—not by suppressing it, but by transforming it. The solution is not Stoicism, which denies emotion and passion, but rather the Christian path of rightly ordering them.
1. Recognizing the Purpose of Desire
Desire itself is not the enemy. Properly directed, it is a gift from God, meant to lead us beyond ourselves toward higher goods. Saint Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologica, affirms:
“Happiness is the natural desire of man; but man does not naturally know wherein happiness consists, and must therefore be led to it.” (ST I-II, q. 1, a. 7)
The problem is not that we desire but that we misidentify the object of our fulfillment. Instead of recognizing that our deepest hunger is for God, we seek satisfaction in transient things—wealth, status, pleasure. The first step toward spiritual maturity is realizing that these are shadows of the true good, not ends in themselves.
To overcome disordered desires, man must engage in ascesis, the discipline of self-denial for the sake of a higher good. This is not merely about self-control, but about reorienting the will toward God.
2. Training the Will Through Self-Mastery
Because our nature is wounded by sin, our desires often conflict with our highest good. The solution is discipline—training the will to govern desire rather than be governed by it. This is the role of the virtue of temperance, which allows us to enjoy created goods without becoming enslaved by them.
Saint Paul exhorts us:
“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one.” (1 Cor. 9:25)
The virtue of temperance helps us moderate our desires and use created goods rightly. As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches:
“Temperance withdraws man from things which seduce the appetite from obeying reason.” (ST, II-II, q. 141, a. 2)
This means learning to use material things without becoming attached to them. Wealth should serve charity, pleasure should be ordered to love, and power should be exercised as service.
Discipline in small things—fasting, silence, self-denial—trains the soul for greater battles. If a man cannot master his appetite for food, how will he resist lust? If he cannot control his tongue in small disputes, how will he govern his anger in serious matters?
Saint Benedict, in his Rule, speaks of this gradual formation:
“The life of a monk ought to be a continuous Lent.” (Rule of St. Benedict, Ch. 49)
While not all are called to monastic life, the principle applies universally: self-denial is the path to self-possession.
3. Redirecting Desire Toward the Common Good
At the root of spiritual maturity is the realization that everything must be directed toward the summum bonum—the highest good, which is God Himself. St. Ignatius of Loyola encapsulates this in his Principle and Foundation (Spiritual Exercises, 23):
“Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. The other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him in attaining the end for which he is created.”
Thus, everything—our work, our relationships, our talents—must be ordered toward our eternal destiny. When we seek first the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33), all other things fall into their proper place.
To overcome selfishness, we must learn to order our desires toward the good of others. Love properly understood is not about taking but giving. True love - that is the nature of God Who is Love - is by its very nature and being, self-sacrificial.
When a man turns his desires outward—seeking not his own fulfillment but the flourishing of those around him—his soul expands. The father who sacrifices his own ease for his family, the leader who uses power to serve rather than dominate, the friend who rejoices in another’s success rather than envying it—these are signs of true spiritual maturity.
This is the example of Christ Himself, who as St Paul reminds us in (Phil. 2:6-7):
“Did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.”
IV. The Highest Desire: Union With God
If all other goods are only partial reflections of the highest good, then true fulfillment is found not in them but in God Himself. The ultimate purpose of overcoming disordered desire is not mere moral improvement but divine union.
Saint Augustine expresses this longing (Confessions, X.27):
“Late have I loved You, Beauty so ancient and so new! Late have I loved You! You were within me, but I was outside, and there I sought You.”
What, then, does it mean to reorder all desire toward God?
* It means seeking not personal success but holiness.
* It means learning to receive rather than to grasp.
* It means trusting in divine providence rather than forcing one’s own will.
This is not passivity but active surrender—choosing to love as Christ loves, to serve as He serves, to embrace the will of the Father as He did.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in his Suscipe Prayer, encapsulates this abandonment:
“Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will… Give me only Your love and Your grace; that is enough for me.”
When a man reaches this state—where all his desires are ordered toward the supreme good—he finds peace. He no longer clings to possessions, to control, to worldly success, because he has already found the one thing necessary.
Conclusion: The Freedom of the Ordered Will
To grow spiritually and to mature as a man is to master desire, not be ruled by it. This does not mean eradicating desire but elevating it. The will must be purified, not crushed; the heart must be disciplined, not deadened.
The world tells us that happiness lies in acquiring and controlling, but Christ tells us that true freedom lies in surrender and love. By grace, we can overcome the desire for possession and control and instead learn to receive and steward all things rightly.
As St. John of the Cross teaches:
“In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.” (Dichos de Luz y Amor, 64)
If we purify our desires, seek God first, and love rightly, we will not only find happiness in this life but eternal joy in the life to come. Let us, then, reorder our hearts toward the supreme good, so that all things may lead us to Him who alone satisfies the longing of the human soul.
To overcome disordered desire is to gain freedom—freedom from compulsion, from anxiety, from the endless hunger for more. A man who has mastered his will possesses himself fully and is therefore capable of true love, true service, and true joy.
This is what it means to mature spiritually—not to extinguish desire, but to elevate it. Not to reject the good things of this world, but to use them as God intended. Not to live for self, but to live for the highest good.
When we learn to desire rightly, we do not lose happiness—we find it. And in finding it, we find God Himself.
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