tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668594987436792920.post3270815156499565223..comments2023-07-05T08:17:21.505-04:00Comments on Getting to the Point: Why I BelieveFr. Denis Lemieuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01049723287624178155noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668594987436792920.post-27204315057619878972012-04-17T07:29:02.540-04:002012-04-17T07:29:02.540-04:00Well, intellect and will, apprehension and appetit...Well, intellect and will, apprehension and appetite are so deeply intertwined in our humanity, I would argue that it's a distinction without a difference. However, I realize many people feel that 'emotions' get condemned or degraded, so I take your point about language.Fr. Denis Lemieuxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01049723287624178155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668594987436792920.post-41593037301953539912012-04-17T07:27:25.593-04:002012-04-17T07:27:25.593-04:00Thank, Lynn - I will use the quote you provided. A...Thank, Lynn - I will use the quote you provided. Always great to get input from you.<br />Re: your comments. Well, I would fully agree that we are shaped not only by our choices and those of others - clearly we are plunged into a world where much is simply 'given' as the circumstances of our life - our own choices do shape what will become of us, but within those definite frontiers.<br />Mind you (and I'm just thinking out loud here) our faith informs us that primary among those givens, even in the darkest circumstances and most painful situations, is the grace of God. Ultimately, because of that, even the most broken and abused and traumatized are not finally limited by these realities. Ultimately, God will and does break all of us out from the tomb and lift all of us up from whatever Hell we may find ourselves in, if we want Him to. Ultimately...Fr. Denis Lemieuxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01049723287624178155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668594987436792920.post-10392666094705235962012-04-13T16:29:50.439-04:002012-04-13T16:29:50.439-04:00One more comment if I may. Your comment, “In each...One more comment if I may. Your comment, “In each of us, alas, there is a capacity and a disordered desire to hide, to snatch, to steal, to lie, to deny, to isolate.. Truly, truly I understand we have a “darkened intellect” but generally I avoid the expression of a “disordered desire”. But rather say that our desires (an emotion from the liked object) are good and if we must speak of a “disorder" than that would be of the intellect. Nice explanation of the goodness of emotions in the Catechism.<br />http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a5.htmAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668594987436792920.post-25363650918412433302012-04-13T15:43:54.758-04:002012-04-13T15:43:54.758-04:00I have no doubt and in fact personal experience of...I have no doubt and in fact personal experience of darkness. With all my might I tried desperately to escape all the years I have suffered in darkness trapped in the abyss of sadness, hopelessness (despair) and repressed anger by fear. I drank myself into oblivion to drown out the dark only to create a false illusion of joy. I have ten years ago now received the grace to be able to escape the bottle but only through very loving and supportive folks that allowed me to climb out from under the baby bottle of comfort. <br /><br />But now the purpose of my posting. I was struck by the following comment you made, “Every human life bears the marks of this battle; every human life is shaped by the choices we and those around us make to live in light or in darkness.” I do hope that perhaps you will expand in further posts to those who are so burdened with suffering that the option of “choice” you speak of can very illusive. Choice resides in the will but only in connection with the “passions” being integrated with “reason” to inform the “will” (choice) (no time to cite the Catechism here). And yes our lives interact with “those around us’ who supposedly make choices. Yes, we must learn to integrate (emotion, reason and will) to make choices but choice is fruitless unless at first our goodness is reflected back to us from another. One of my favorite readings is posted below less I forget not by my own efforts I am where I am. Since you are such an elegant writer perhaps one day you can post a reflection on Ratzinger’s writing below regarding the “root of man’s joy.”<br /><br />God Bless,<br />Lynn<br /><br />Ratzinger: “The root of man’s joy is the harmony he enjoys with himself. He lives in this affirmation. And only one who can accept himself can also accept the thou, can accept the world. The reason why an individual cannot accept the thou, cannot come to terms with him, is that he does not like his own I and, for that reason, cannot accept a thou.<br /><br />“Something strange happens here. We have seen that the inability to accept one’s I leads to the inability to accept a thou. But how does one go about affirming, assenting to, one’s I? The answer may perhaps be unexpected: We cannot do so by our own efforts alone. Of ourselves, we cannot come to terms with ourselves. Our I becomes acceptable to us only if it has first become acceptable to another I. We can love ourselves only if we have first been loved by someone else. The life a mother gives to her child is not just physical life, she gives total life when she takes the child’s tears and turns them into smiles. It is only when life has been accepted and is perceived as accepted that it becomes acceptable. Man is that strange creature that needs not just physical birth but also appreciation if he is to subsist. This is the root of the phenomenon known as hospitalism. When the initial harmony of our existence has been rejected, when that psycho-physical oneness ahs been ruptured by which the ‘Yes, it is good that you are alive’ sinks, with life itself, deep into the core of the unconscious – then birth itself is interrupted; existence itself is not completely established…. (T)he charism of revolution has been for a long time not just remonstrance against reparable injustices but protestation against existence itself, which has not experienced its acceptance and hence does not know that it is acceptable. If an individual is to accept himself, someone must say to him: ‘It is good that you exist’ – must say it, not with words, but with that act of the entire being that we call love. For it is the way of love to will the other’s existence and, at the same time, to bring that existence forth again. The key to the I lies with the thou; the way to the thou leads through the I.”[3] <br /><br />[3] J. Ratzinger, “Principles of Catholic Theology” Ignatius (1987) 79-80.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com