A CERTAIN sense of fascination should characterize our life.
As a
jazzy song would put it, fascination should take control. Let’s hope
that as another old song would put it, fascination turns to love, just
as love often relishes in fascination.
Saints are invariably known for their life of fascination in spite of
the trials, difficulties and even martyrdom that they had to suffer.
Some of them have reached the level of mysticism and ecstasy, which we
can consider as the extraordinary forms of fascination.
All this is understandable, since as humans with body and not only
with a soul, an ideal situation for us would be to be awe-struck or be
excited even in the humdrum of our daily routine. Ideally, the body
should share in the true delights of the soul.
We just have to make sure then that our sense of fascination is not
exclusively developed and lived in the realm of the flesh, of the
material, and of the earthly and temporal. That would detach the body
from our soul, our material condition from our spiritual character and
supernatural goal.
We have to make sure that our fascination is inspired by faith and
sparked to action by our will. We can describe it as a theological
fascination that has to be deliberately developed.
It should not just be a spontaneous movement of the flesh, stuck at
the level of spur-of-the-moment reactions entirely dependent on
feelings and ruled by an obsession for novelties and curiosities. That
would make fascination less human.
To be sure, fascination is not just a physical act. It is a human act
that should correspond to all the requirements of our human nature and
condition.
Our fascination should not just delight the flesh. It should delight
us in our totality as a human person and as a child of God. In short,
it should delight our mind and will properly, stimulating them
properly to get interested in their proper objects.
And these objects could only be love for God and others. Short of
these, our fascination would be incomplete and imperfect. It certainly
would be vulnerable to abuses and excesses.
Thus, we see many people getting addicted to sex, drugs, gambling,
worldly power, etc., since their sense of fascination has not entered
the realm of the spiritual and the supernatural.
This is a challenge we should acknowledge and face. We have to save
our sense of fascination from the grip of the material and emotional
to make it spiritual and theological.
Obviously, in developing this sense of fascination, we need to go
through stages. While the initial stage is understandably the physical
and emotional, we have to understand that it should go all the way to
the spiritual. For this, a certain training is required. The proper
understanding, attitudes and habits have to be developed.
In this regard, it might be interesting to pay attention to a passage
in the gospel which can refer to this need of ours to develop a life
of fascination. It’s in the gospel of St. John where we hear our Lord
say: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw al things to
myself.” (12,32)
The passage that follows it immediately gives a parenthetical
explanation of these words. “Now this he said, signifying what death
he should die.”
I think that in these passages we are made to know how our Lord
attracts us to himself and therefore what should fascinate us. It’s
when our Lord is lifted on the cross that we would be drawn to him.
It’s when we train our attention to Christ on the cross that we would
be fascinated by him.
And that is because it is on the cross that our Lord shows the
supreme and most pure love that can ever be shown to us, and that
therefore should attract us. Our problem is that we tend to confine
love to what is physically and sensibly pleasant only, to what makes
us feel good.
It is a shallow kind of love that cannot understand the value of
suffering in this life, the cross, as a necessary ingredient in our
human condition that is now marked by sin and all sorts of weakness.
We need to train ourselves to focus and meditate on the passion and
death of Christ and to develop this theological fascination of the
crucified Christ. Only then can we perfect our sense of fascination
that should mark our life here on earth. Only then can we protect
ourselves from unwanted, immoral fascinations.
jazzy song would put it, fascination should take control. Let’s hope
that as another old song would put it, fascination turns to love, just
as love often relishes in fascination.
Saints are invariably known for their life of fascination in spite of
the trials, difficulties and even martyrdom that they had to suffer.
Some of them have reached the level of mysticism and ecstasy, which we
can consider as the extraordinary forms of fascination.
All this is understandable, since as humans with body and not only
with a soul, an ideal situation for us would be to be awe-struck or be
excited even in the humdrum of our daily routine. Ideally, the body
should share in the true delights of the soul.
We just have to make sure then that our sense of fascination is not
exclusively developed and lived in the realm of the flesh, of the
material, and of the earthly and temporal. That would detach the body
from our soul, our material condition from our spiritual character and
supernatural goal.
We have to make sure that our fascination is inspired by faith and
sparked to action by our will. We can describe it as a theological
fascination that has to be deliberately developed.
It should not just be a spontaneous movement of the flesh, stuck at
the level of spur-of-the-moment reactions entirely dependent on
feelings and ruled by an obsession for novelties and curiosities. That
would make fascination less human.
To be sure, fascination is not just a physical act. It is a human act
that should correspond to all the requirements of our human nature and
condition.
Our fascination should not just delight the flesh. It should delight
us in our totality as a human person and as a child of God. In short,
it should delight our mind and will properly, stimulating them
properly to get interested in their proper objects.
And these objects could only be love for God and others. Short of
these, our fascination would be incomplete and imperfect. It certainly
would be vulnerable to abuses and excesses.
Thus, we see many people getting addicted to sex, drugs, gambling,
worldly power, etc., since their sense of fascination has not entered
the realm of the spiritual and the supernatural.
This is a challenge we should acknowledge and face. We have to save
our sense of fascination from the grip of the material and emotional
to make it spiritual and theological.
Obviously, in developing this sense of fascination, we need to go
through stages. While the initial stage is understandably the physical
and emotional, we have to understand that it should go all the way to
the spiritual. For this, a certain training is required. The proper
understanding, attitudes and habits have to be developed.
In this regard, it might be interesting to pay attention to a passage
in the gospel which can refer to this need of ours to develop a life
of fascination. It’s in the gospel of St. John where we hear our Lord
say: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw al things to
myself.” (12,32)
The passage that follows it immediately gives a parenthetical
explanation of these words. “Now this he said, signifying what death
he should die.”
I think that in these passages we are made to know how our Lord
attracts us to himself and therefore what should fascinate us. It’s
when our Lord is lifted on the cross that we would be drawn to him.
It’s when we train our attention to Christ on the cross that we would
be fascinated by him.
And that is because it is on the cross that our Lord shows the
supreme and most pure love that can ever be shown to us, and that
therefore should attract us. Our problem is that we tend to confine
love to what is physically and sensibly pleasant only, to what makes
us feel good.
It is a shallow kind of love that cannot understand the value of
suffering in this life, the cross, as a necessary ingredient in our
human condition that is now marked by sin and all sorts of weakness.
We need to train ourselves to focus and meditate on the passion and
death of Christ and to develop this theological fascination of the
crucified Christ. Only then can we perfect our sense of fascination
that should mark our life here on earth. Only then can we protect
ourselves from unwanted, immoral fascinations.
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