Q. So basically we lost immortality, became susceptible to pain, ignorance and rogue passions through Original Sin?
A. Yup.
Q. But isn't it terribly unfair that you and I should be punished to lose those preterna...
A. Preternatural.
Q. ...preternatural gifts for something we didn't do? For something that happened a gazillion years ago?
A. If you had a right to those gifts i.e. if they were actually awards, rewards or prizes and not gifts, then maybe we could speak of some unfairness or injustice.
God took away preternatural gifts not natural faculties. He took away the toothbrush from the gift hamper; he didn't touch the tube, the cap or the packaging box.
Q. So how exactly is all of this related to why God wants me to deny myself?
A. Ummm... Let's see if you can follow this one: Original Sin and its effects.
When Adam and Eve refused to obey God, when creatures turned their back to their Creator, disorder was introduced into creation. An inferior refused to follow the directives of a superior.
The moment that happened, that disobedience echoed throughout creation both outside of man and within his very self.
Outside of man, all creatures below man stopped following his directives. Animals no longer (instinctively) obey us.
Inside of man as well, inferiors stopped following directives of superiors:
-the will no longer followed the intellect (for which reason even though our intellect can tell us something is true or good, our will can still decide to ignore it or spurn it)
-the body no longer instinctively followed the soul. The greatest manifestation of this is death itself - the separation of body and soul.
-the passions no longer followed the directives of the soul. Each went for what it wanted rather than what the intellect dictated, what is good for the whole man.
In a word: disorder. Disorder entered creation outside of man and creation inside of man.
Why does God ask us to deny ourselves? To restore order. To restore that original order or unity within man. And it takes heroic effort to reign in the passions and channel their energies in one direction (dictated by the intellect and the will).
To seek to satisfy each of our passions without ordering them leads to dissipation and frustration. Ask any sensualist or any teenager who has learnt how to think. To reign them in like a masterful charioteer requires discipline and discipline will always require saying no to ourselves in many whims and fancies. Ask any sportsperson. This is to deny ourselves.
God asks us to do it not just to avoid dissipation and frustration, but to further enable ourselves to achieve sufficient unity of life and of purpose, sufficient self-control and self-possession, to be able to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself."
The end.
9th October 2016