293 PASSIONS AND EMOTIONS

YOUCAT Lesson 293

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

293  Why did God give us “passions” or emotions?

We have passions so that through strong emotions and distinct feelings we might be attracted to what is right and good and repelled from what is evil and bad.  [1762-1766, 1771-1772]

A Passion painting: …..Flagellation of Christ by Rubens.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.^” –John 3:16. …293

God made man in such a way that he can love and hate, desire or despise something, be attracted by some things and afraid of others, be full of joy, sorrow, or anger.  In the depths of his heart man always loves good and hates evil—or what he considers to be such.

“There is good without evil, but there is nothing evil without good.”  St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

1762-1766, 1771-1772

 THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

 ARTICLE 5

THE MORALITY OF THE PASSIONS

 …….1762   The human person is ordered to beatitude by his deliberate acts: the passions or feelings he experiences can dispose him to it and contribute to it. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

1.  PASSIONS

…….1763   The term "passions" belongs to the Christian patrimony. Feelings or passions are emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil. –CCC

 …….1764   The passions are natural components of the human psyche; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and the life of the mind. Our Lord called man's heart the source from which the passions spring.( Compare Mark 7:21.)⁴⁰ –CCC

 …….1765   There are many passions. The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it. –CCC

 …….1766   "To love is to will the good of another."( St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I-II,26 4, corp. art.)⁴¹ All other affections have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good. Only the good can be loved.( Compare St. Augustine, De Trin., 8,3,4:Patrologia Latina 42,949-950.)⁴² Passions "are evil if love is evil and good if it is good."  (St. Augustine, De civ. Dei 14,7,2:Patrologia Latina 41,410. )⁴³ –CCC

IN BRIEF

 …….1771   The term "passions" refers to the affections or the feelings. By his emotions man intuits the good and suspects evil. –CCC

 …….1772   The principal passions are love and hatred, desire and fear, joy, sadness, and anger. –CCC