Human nature, with its needs and desires, has three weak points, relating to three tendencies which we might call cracks or open wounds. They have existed in man from the beginning.

The first crack weakens man's healthy and natural desire for life, for being, for creating, for begetting. It is called greed. It is the perverted tendency to gather for oneself, to possess for oneself, to beget for oneself.

The second crack relates to man's healthy and natural need to be recognised and loved. The perverted tendency that lives within us consists in this: instead of rising above the need for recognition and love, instead of turning it into a true and personal relationship with another person, we use it only for our own benefit.

The third crack, which makes us fragile, vulnerable and susceptible to temptation, relates to the healthy human need to create, to organise, to have mastery over time and things. The perverted tendency consists in this: we want to rule over everything for our own benefit, by means of power, wealth or knowledge.

Love is the most desirable good, which best helps us to flourish as persons. The natural driving force of human life is man's love for himself, which grows into love for others and for God. Love of self can become perverted if it is overemphasised, if it is directed exclusively at oneself, if it regards itself as the only good, if it rejects love for God and for others.

Spiritual combat will require us to renounce our adored "self" and to seek the true God. The whole Gospel calls us, in following Jesus, to crucify this perverted and overemphasised relationship with ourselves, so that we may find the wisdom of true love. Man must lose himself in order to find himself; he must transcend himself in order to be able to love; he must renounce himself in order to go out towards others.

The Passover of desire heals us of greed

The first crack weakens man's healthy and natural desire for life, for being, for creating, for begetting. It is called greed. It is the perverted tendency to gather for oneself, to possess for oneself, to beget for oneself. The desire for the Good and the Beautiful turns into a desire for comfort, for enjoying every possible convenience. This is the practical materialism of a man who cannot bring himself to pray. His belly cleaves to the earth, says Psalm 44. Such a man avoids every effort, and does not want to go out of himself towards others. The symbol of this greed is the pig, which roots about in a constant search for food. Onto this tendency is grafted the fear of making a mistake, the fear of loss, and stinginess. The pursuit of one's own pleasure stirs up jealousy, envy, resentment and a whole procession of lies and violence. The Fathers of the Church speak of a threefold greed: for money, for sex and for the world. This perverted tendency drives a man to reduce everything to himself. Greed is like a beast crouching at the door, says the Book of Genesis 4. That is why even our most selfless and generous achievements are often mixed with hidden motives arising from this greed. Spiritual combat will teach us to watch those first thoughts that arise from greed. We do not have to deny our natural needs, nor even the need for pleasure that motivates us. Through spiritual combat we shall redirect our desires, offering them to God. This is the Passover of desire described by St Augustine. It is the path from cupiditas to caritas, from covetousness to love. St Augustine does not think that pleasure should be belittled or condemned, but that it should be connected to its source, converted, redirected. Moreover, the Passover of desire does not take place at some particular moment, but is a constant movement that gives dynamism to the whole of human life. In this way we pass from Babylon to Jerusalem, from the old man to the new, from Adam to Christ, from non-being to true being, which is God's desire for us.

Redirecting desire heals us of vanity

The second crack relates to man's healthy and natural need to be recognised and loved. The human nature of man and woman is built up thanks to the recognition and love of others. We need all that connects us to our family, our parents, our culture, our upbringing. From this human nature, shaped thanks to the influences of a particular environment, we draw the firmness of our personality, our deep "self", which is capable of a personal relationship with another human being. In order to discover and develop this personal "self", the Bible gives us one commandment: to leave father and mother and to be joined in a personal relationship with a spouse. God said to Abraham: Go from your country, your kindred and your father's house, to the land that I will show you (Gen 12:1). From that moment Abraham enters into a relationship of obedience to God, into a deeply personal relationship of trust and faith. The perverted tendency that lives within us consists in this: instead of rising above the need for recognition and love, instead of turning it into a true and personal relationship with another person, we use it only for our own benefit. We want those around us to admire us and to honour, praise and esteem us. We want to be known and prominent purely for our own advantage. This is the vanity of a person who is always seeking some new pedestal, so as to be admired by some new audience. Here the image of the pig is replaced by the image of the peacock, spreading its feathers; the great belly is replaced here by the puffed-up chest. Vanity thus becomes a powerful driver of all our initiatives. Our works, even the noblest and bravest of them, are more or less tainted by vanity, which drives a person to make himself seem important, to attract attention and love. The Gospel says that many of the Pharisees began to believe in Jesus, but their faith was mixed with a desire to be praised by others. This vanity paralysed them. Spiritual combat will consist in redirecting the desire for recognition. We find the right attitude in Jesus, who prays to the Father to glorify him. Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee (Jn 17:1). There is a love, a glory and a holiness that we should strive for, but such love, glory and holiness cannot be given to us by other people. Only God can glorify us. The saints knew how to convert their vanity precisely thanks to the desire to be glorified by God's holiness.

Serving God heals us of pride

The third crack, which makes us fragile, vulnerable and susceptible to temptation, relates to the healthy human need to create, to organise, to have mastery over time and things. The perverted tendency consists in this: we want to rule over everything for our own benefit, by means of power, wealth or knowledge. Such a person wants to have great influence and a large audience. He wants to have the initiative over events, over things, over people, over himself; he wants to control everything for his own benefit. Such a person is always right, always has the last word, never admits his mistakes or errors, never apologises. His symbol is the eagle, which wants to dominate. The human "self" becomes an idol. Such a person imagines that he is the best and thinks that he must be informed about everything. This last perverted tendency is called pride. The Fathers of the Church say that pride is the source of all other perversions. It is expressed in the desire to be completely independent of any authority, divine or human. Spiritual combat can redirect this tendency if, instead of being placed in the service of one's own empire, it is placed in the service of the Kingdom of God. Many saints and founders managed to convert their dominant spirit by placing it in the service of God.

Three doors left ajar

Desire, which rests on natural needs (security, being loved and recognised, being in the place that belongs to us), unfortunately becomes corrupted and directed towards the fulfilment of one's own "self", and so becomes perverted: instead of seeking the absolute Good found in God, it turns towards itself. Man then becomes an immoderate pleasure-seeker, ambitious for honours and domineering. This deviation is primordial, as can be seen from the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis. Even Jesus was tempted to fulfil himself independently of God, and in those very same weak points that are common to all people: to secure himself against a lack of food, out of vanity to perform a great miracle before the crowd gathered in the Temple in order to be recognised, and finally - to rule the world. But Jesus closed the door to these perverted tendencies, because he was constantly united with his Father, and because he was obedient to His word. In us, these doors are always more or less ajar, so that if we are not constantly watchful, the Tempter slips through them with all his suggestions. If we truly want to be honest with ourselves, we will have to admit that this weed - this tendency towards self-fulfilment - has crept into the whole of our lives, even into our noblest deeds and our deepest desires, and in three forms. These are thirst for pleasure and for money, longing for honours, the struggle for power. In the words of St Augustine, spiritual combat does not consist in extinguishing desire, which is the driving force of life, but in redirecting it. Desire becomes perverted because man deliberately turns away from God, because he feels no need for Him, because he wants to be sufficient unto himself, and fights against finitude and death by trying to possess things and the whole universe. Since both desire and the capacity to receive God are, in a positive sense, boundless, there is no limit either to greed or to the pursuit of passing and partial pleasures, riches, honours, power, or bodily pleasure, which are never enough and are always uncertain. Insatiable greed becomes slavery, since the objects we think we possess in fact possess us. According to St Augustine, this chain of connections is in fact the existential condition of this world. From pride and greed springs ignorance, that is, the failure to recognise oneself and the Creator, and hence the inability to perceive the beauty and order that exist in all created things. That is why Augustine cries out in his Confessions: "Where was I when I sought you? You were before me, but I had gone away from myself, and I could not find myself, still less you."

You become what you love

Through spiritual combat, taking the risk of losing himself, man opens himself to God and becomes subject to Him, and so regains the freedom he had lost. By acknowledging God as his Creator, man rediscovers the meaning of his own existence. He can truly love himself with the very love with which he loves God. Put even more radically, man comes to the fullness of his humanity when he allows God to divinise him. Here is what St Augustine tells us: "You become what you love. Do you love earth? You will become earth. Do you love God? What shall I say? Will you become God? I do not dare to say it, but let us listen to what Scripture tells us: You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you! (Ps 82:6; Jn 10:34)." This is the Passover. Man must die to proud, greedy and vain desires in order to open himself to the life-giving dynamism of love, to a humble and selfless desire, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. This dying and being reborn is the work of love, for St Augustine says: "Those who have love are born of God." We owe this victory to Christ. He, who is our life, came down among us. He took our death upon himself, and destroyed death by the abundance of his life. And so, by sharing in the death and resurrection of Christ, man can die to bodily desires and open himself to the desire of the Spirit. This Passover is the passage from love of oneself and of things, which goes as far as contempt for God, to love of God, which goes as far as contempt for oneself. It is the passage from illusion to true life, from trying to possess God to the possibility of being possessed by Him.

Taken and adapted from Glasnik Mira - Međugorje

Translated by Lidija Paris