Why?

Why are we here? What is our purpose in life and what should we strive for? I'm sure this question, at some point has crossed your mind. A lot of people would answer this by saying that we are here to live life to its fullest! We only live once and we need to have as much fun as we can, make as much money as humaly possible, and we are to accumulate as much material wealth as possible. Well some parts of that are true to some extent. Living life to its fullest is one part that is true, but not in the sense that we need to do everything we are offered. Unfortunately a lot of people apply this to drugs. We need to try every drug we can just to see what its like. I disagree. The reason that drugs are not a good idea is because as the Cathechism says in #2291 "The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly theraputic grounds, is a grave offense. Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law" This may now lead you to asking, what is Moral law? Well if we look in the Cathechism at #1954 "Man participates in the wisdom and goodness of the Creator who gives him mastery over his acts and the ability to govern himself with a view to the true and the good. The natural law expresses the original moral sense which enables man to discern by reason the good and evil,the truth and the lie:

The natural law is written and engraved in the soul of each and
every man, because it is human reason ordaining him to do good
and forbidding him to sin.
... But this command of human reason would not have the force
of law if it were not the voice and interpreter of a higher
reason to which our spirit and our freedom must be submitted."

When we engage in the use of drugs, we are taking ourselves out of the state that God created us in. He created us with the will and the intelect to do right. We forfit the gift God gave us by doing drugs. God did not intend for us, his creation, to be in a state where we are not able to discifer between good and evil. He wants us to be able to choose right at all times. This to me does not only apply to the use of drugs, but the excessive use of alcohol too. Let me preface the rest of this by stating that I am not saying drinking is bad, what I'm saying is being drunk is bad. When we get drunk, just like getting high, we loose the ability to decide what is good and what is bad. We choose to do things that we would probably not even consider doing when sober. We as humans lead by example. People see others getting drunk and they see nothing wrong with it. If you do not beleive me, look at some of the statistics of fatal drunk driving accidents. Colorado State Patrol says this: "In 2003, 56.7 percent of DUI-caused crashes resulted in fatalities or injuries. When DUI was not the cause of the crash, only 29.6 percent resulted in fatalities or injuries."( http://csp.state.co.us/trafficsafety.cfm?Page_ID=4) When we are intoxicated, we put not only ourselves at risk, but everyone else around us. Alcohol is fine as long as it is used responsibly, and we drink in moderation. Going out to dinner and drinking a beer with friends, or drinking as a means of celebration is fine. Just remeber, MODERATION. The material and financial wealth that this world is so obsessed with is also a very very serious situation. Our main goal in life is to follow Christ, and to do his work. When Christ walked this earth, he was not actaully rolling around in a brand new Cadiallac Escalade with 22's. He walked, and anytime he was not walking he was more than likely riding a donkey. He was the king of this earth. When he entered this earth he did not come and present the qualities a king of that time possesed. He did not have a huge beautiful crown, or a huge castle to live in, he came humbly. He came as a regular man, and lived his life the way we are to live ours. We should take a look at our lives, and the way we lead them. Check and see if we are following Christ, or following this world and all of its possesions.