LET’S try to put passion into our
life of piety. That
would make our relation with God and everybody else more integral,
more completely human. That would take us out of the dangers of
intellectualism and spiritualism, caricatures of the proper use of our
intelligence and will that will need the full complement of our
feelings and passions.
To be sure, this is not to make our spiritual faculties
and our bodily sentiments fight with each other. They are both needed
by us. In fact, between the two, we have to give priority to our
spiritual faculties of the intelligence and will, because they are the
ones that would lead and engage us with truth and love. Thus, they are
the leading agents to give shape and direction to our thoughts,
desires, words, and deeds.
The emotions cannot go that far. They are pegged to the
sensible and tangible aspects of life. They are guided and motivated
more by what is comfortable, convenient, practical and pleasurable
than by anything else. By themselves, they are incapable of perceiving
the spiritual and supernatural values that also govern us. They need
to be directed and managed by our spiritual faculties.
That is why we have to discipline and educate our feelings
and passions properly. They cannot be left on their own. They are like
little babies, quite cute and amusing, but they need to be reared
properly.
Just the same, our feelings, emotions and passions are
certainly important to us, because they are an integral part of our
humanity. When they are not properly developed, we end up cold,
indifferent, hard to approach. We would end up having a hard time to
relate ourselves with God and with everybody else.
What is worse is that when our feelings, emotions and
passions are not mainly grounded on our faith and our religion, then
they will just be completely dominated by worldly values that many
times will get in conflict with our spiritual and supernatural goal in
life.
Thus, St. Paul eloquently articulated this anomaly when he
said: “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very
evil that I do not want…For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost
self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my
mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my
members.” (Rom 7,19ff)
We have to see to it that our feelings, emotions and
passions, and everything related to them, like our memory and
imagination, should have their source, end, motive and direction on
our faith. That’s when our piety acquires a more integral character.
That’s when our piety becomes more solid, stable and consistent.
Besides, such piety lends itself more easily to attract
others to the faith. It would encourage others to spawn and develop
their own piety too. That’s because people notice first what they see
in us physically and outwardly before they get to discern what is
inside us. The fervor that the passions generate is highly contagious.
We just have to make sure also that our passions are
properly regulated by our intelligence and will that should give due
consideration to factors like the culture of the people and other
relevant current conditions of the place.
In this way, the passions that are put into our piety
would not overstep and deteriorate into some fixations, obsessions and
fanaticism. They would be compatible with a healthy sense of
naturalness that knows how to be prudent and discreet. They would
avoid the pitfalls of being showy and preachy in the negative sense.
In this way, the passionate piety would avoid the dangers
of making rash judgments on people, falling into self-righteousness
and the tendency to control others rather than motivating them. It
avoids the kind of ardor that turns off people.
To develop this kind of passionate piety, we need to
follow very closely the life, example and teachings of Christ who many
times said that he does nothing other than to do the will of his
Father. Yes, he preached, but he also knew how to pass unnoticed. When
people get attracted to him wrongly because of his miracles and would
like him to become their king, he knew how to disappear.
He was always praying, even getting up very early in the
morning to pray. He would even spend the whole night in praying. His
mind and heart were completely identified with the will of his Father.
These are just few considerations we can make to give us
an idea of how to develop this passionate piety.
would make our relation with God and everybody else more integral,
more completely human. That would take us out of the dangers of
intellectualism and spiritualism, caricatures of the proper use of our
intelligence and will that will need the full complement of our
feelings and passions.
To be sure, this is not to make our spiritual faculties
and our bodily sentiments fight with each other. They are both needed
by us. In fact, between the two, we have to give priority to our
spiritual faculties of the intelligence and will, because they are the
ones that would lead and engage us with truth and love. Thus, they are
the leading agents to give shape and direction to our thoughts,
desires, words, and deeds.
The emotions cannot go that far. They are pegged to the
sensible and tangible aspects of life. They are guided and motivated
more by what is comfortable, convenient, practical and pleasurable
than by anything else. By themselves, they are incapable of perceiving
the spiritual and supernatural values that also govern us. They need
to be directed and managed by our spiritual faculties.
That is why we have to discipline and educate our feelings
and passions properly. They cannot be left on their own. They are like
little babies, quite cute and amusing, but they need to be reared
properly.
Just the same, our feelings, emotions and passions are
certainly important to us, because they are an integral part of our
humanity. When they are not properly developed, we end up cold,
indifferent, hard to approach. We would end up having a hard time to
relate ourselves with God and with everybody else.
What is worse is that when our feelings, emotions and
passions are not mainly grounded on our faith and our religion, then
they will just be completely dominated by worldly values that many
times will get in conflict with our spiritual and supernatural goal in
life.
Thus, St. Paul eloquently articulated this anomaly when he
said: “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very
evil that I do not want…For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost
self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my
mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my
members.” (Rom 7,19ff)
We have to see to it that our feelings, emotions and
passions, and everything related to them, like our memory and
imagination, should have their source, end, motive and direction on
our faith. That’s when our piety acquires a more integral character.
That’s when our piety becomes more solid, stable and consistent.
Besides, such piety lends itself more easily to attract
others to the faith. It would encourage others to spawn and develop
their own piety too. That’s because people notice first what they see
in us physically and outwardly before they get to discern what is
inside us. The fervor that the passions generate is highly contagious.
We just have to make sure also that our passions are
properly regulated by our intelligence and will that should give due
consideration to factors like the culture of the people and other
relevant current conditions of the place.
In this way, the passions that are put into our piety
would not overstep and deteriorate into some fixations, obsessions and
fanaticism. They would be compatible with a healthy sense of
naturalness that knows how to be prudent and discreet. They would
avoid the pitfalls of being showy and preachy in the negative sense.
In this way, the passionate piety would avoid the dangers
of making rash judgments on people, falling into self-righteousness
and the tendency to control others rather than motivating them. It
avoids the kind of ardor that turns off people.
To develop this kind of passionate piety, we need to
follow very closely the life, example and teachings of Christ who many
times said that he does nothing other than to do the will of his
Father. Yes, he preached, but he also knew how to pass unnoticed. When
people get attracted to him wrongly because of his miracles and would
like him to become their king, he knew how to disappear.
He was always praying, even getting up very early in the
morning to pray. He would even spend the whole night in praying. His
mind and heart were completely identified with the will of his Father.
These are just few considerations we can make to give us
an idea of how to develop this passionate piety.
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