Physicality of the Passions

Our problem is that we are controlled by feelings that leave our life in chaos - So we are learning how to get control of our passions.

one

Body and Soul Composite

a.  The human person is sometimes called “the microcosm of creation”

                                         i.    We are, each one of us, like a little universe – because we have something in common with the whole of creation.

1.  We have intelligence and freedom in common with the angels

2.  We have the five senses in common with the beasts

3.  We have physical life in common with the plants

4.  And our bodies are made out of the same basic elements as rocks and mountains and bodies of water

b.  We can unite the whole of creation within ourselves – so that when we praise God, we can represent the entire universe in giving Him glory

                                         i.    And the most powerful way to praise the Lord is to praise Him with not only our minds, and not only our bodies, but with our feelings – to praise Him with passion.

two

Feelings as experienced by body and soul

c.   Our feelings, our passions and emotions, are something we feel with our soul, but we also feel it in our flesh.

                                         i.    You have to have a soul to feel something

1.  And that’s why, actually, we say that animals – who do have feelings of pleasure and pain – need to have at least some kind of minimal animal soul.

2.  After all, something that was inanimate couldn’t feel anything.

a.  It wouldn’t matter how many rocks or marbles or legos or grains of sand you added or mixed together

b.  That pile of inanimate objects would never be able to feel fear, or anger, or sadness, or joy – because that pile wouldn’t have a soul.

d.  So emotion and feeling is something that happens to our soul

                                         i.    But emotion, strong feeling, is also something that we experience with our bodies

1.  Goosebumps, and faster heart rate, and sometimes even trembling

a.  These are all physical symptoms of having a powerful emotion.

                                       ii.    Again, what that means is that when we feel things, we experience it as affecting our whole humanity.

1.  That’s why it’s so important to get our emotions right – because it impacts the entire person – body and soul.

three

Soul to Body or Body to Soul?

Our emotions affect our physical well being and vice versa - our physical health affects our emotional state.

                                         i.    For instance, when we are hungry we get angry.

                                       ii.    Or when we are physically exhausted from lack of sleep, that it causes us to be angry or moody or even downcast all day.

1.  In these cases, the feeling has its origin in the body.

b.  At other times, the feeling causes some reaction in the body

                                         i.    The fear of public speaking is like that. It starts out as the emotion of fear, but it results in sweaty palms and shaking knees.

                                       ii.    Or, if you’re horribly anxious about what’s happening at work, it might be so stressful that you can’t sleep, and you feel restless all night.

c.   So it’s important, as we try to get a handle on our emotional life, not to neglect the importance of the body, nor to neglect the importance of the soul.

                                         i.    Both are involved in our emotional life, and each can influence the other.

                                       ii.    Drawing closer to a balanced, ordered, emotional life, means to be diligent in caring for our minds and our bodies, which God has joined together in His image.

four

Feeling Truth and Goodness and Beauty

When our emotional life is out of whack it ruins everything - body, soul, relationships, everything. And we don’t feel things in the right way.

We miss out on the truth, beauty, and goodness of life.

But, when our emotions are operating as they should then we get the optimal joy out of the good things, both physically and emotionally.

                                         i.    When your heart warms as you look at your kids

                                       ii.    When you get a thrill down your spine as you listen to a story of heroism

                                      iii.    When you read or hear something that clarifies the truth of our faith, and you feel a surge of joy as you recognize the truth.

1.  Well, that’s when we can celebrate as complete human beings.

five

Prayer and the Emotions

a.  Prayer, as we’ve said before, should make use of all the powers of the soul.

                                         i.    It should involve a reflection on truth by the intellect

                                       ii.    It should involve a good resolution by the will

                                      iii.    But it should also strive to engage our emotions – to celebrate, to delight, to long passionately for God.

b.  As the Catechism says (1770): “Moral perfection consists in man’s being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite” – that is, our emotions – “as in the words of the psalm: “My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.”

                                         i.    Let’s ask for God’s grace to love Him, to praise Him, to thank Him, to desire Him, with all our passion – with all our “heart and flesh” – which is to say, with all the energy that unites us, body and soul.