The Telos 5000

As my last entry noted, I've been thinking a lot about telos lately. Telos by the way is smart-folk philosophical speak for purpose or end.

I think, and google confirms, that the Catholic faith is very much a teleological system of philosophy. It's very much about purpose.

It's this, I think, that makes us more than blind slaves, following our lord and master without thought. There is nothing wrong with obeying the will of God because it comes from God. You don't NEED to know any more than that, per se.

But unless you've been blessed with a more direct line to the Father than the rest of us, you need a way to know what is his will. You need a way to form your conscience.

Certainly, we all have some internal moral sensor. This is part of our humanity and, I speculate here, an example of our likeness to God. But our sensor doesn't always work right, which I suspect is the result of original sin.

For example, because we love God, and know that he loves us, we sometimes try to impose our human sense of a loving relationship on him. I love my wife, and she loves me. So it follows in my mind that since she loves me, she wants me to be happy. As such, she may modify her own wants from time to time to conform to mine, making me happy. I do the same.

We often do that, but we must not when thinking about God. God wants us to be happy, this is true, but happiness comes in our submission and obedience, and, I argue, in our understanding. Happiness comes in remaining in his grace.

In the Gospel of John 15:15 we read "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you."

We are still to be obedient, we are not egalitarian friends, like we are with our neighbors and buddies. God is still above us. But he has chosen to let us know what he is doing. No longer, with the advent of Jesus, are we forced to simply obey blindly. Surely we still must obey, but we know the long plan. We're involved in the process now, and we have a role to play.

We have a purpose.

And in our life, as we strive to do God's will, we can do it better by understanding the purpose of things.

Here's an exercise.
Fact: I shouldn't have sex outside of marriage.
Why: God says so.
Why: Because the purpose of sex is to be open to conception. The place worthy of conception, is within a marriage. The purpose of a marriage is to have and raise children.

So if all you know is the first why, you'll be alright. But if you know the second, all the better.

If you start to understand how things should be, as opposed to how things are, it will help you to discern God's will all the better.

The question is, though, how can we determine a things purpose ourselves. And in the grand scheme, I'm not sure we can by ourselves. But in conjunction with the Word of God, the Holy Church and our own reason, we can.

It takes time and study, and I'm certainly not there yet, but I can tell anyone else seeking to follow Christ, that I've managed to reach a point where my own judgement more often than not matches up correctly. My actions on the other hand are a different story... but we're working on that too.

So how do we do this?

Pray. Study. Think. Pray.

At the risk of sounding like Patch from the movie Dodgeball I'll repeat that.

Pray. Study. Think. Pray.

Pray, to put yourself in the right frame of mind. Ask God to help you conform your will to His.

Study. Read the scriptures, the Gospels are a great starting point for newbies. But don't stop there. Study the teachings of the Church fathers (Aquinas is a favorite) and study the teachings of the Church. Remember that from the time of Jesus until 1530 or thereabouts, there was only one type of Christianity. It was the Church. Even if you disagree with where it is now, study it's earlier teachings. They are the history of all Christians. It is also not a bad idea to read some of the classical philosophers as well.

Think. God gave us our reason for a reason. Our purpose is to use it. If we use it right, and form ourselves right, our reason will only lead us to Him.

Pray. Pray that you will stay on this path. Pray that you will remember your purpose. If you are a Christian, remember, at least a part of your purpose is to go and spread the word. Pray for the strength to do that. And thank God in prayer as well.

I wanted to get into more specifics here, but I'm out of time for the day.

Take care folks and have and continue to have a blessed Lent.