I want to highlight the CCC on the passions, another word for the emotions. Over the years, I have noticed a lack of teaching on the emotions. I do not think I have heard one sermon in a NO or TLM parish on the passions.
I shall return to this subject again, as it is obvious that too many adults live through their emotions instead of using the great gift of reason.
to begin with.....my bold highlights in the text
PART THREE
LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION ONE
MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE SPIRIT
CHAPTER ONE
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.
I. 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.
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.40
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.
1766 "To love is to will the good of another."41 All other affections have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good. Only the good can be loved.42 Passions "are evil if love is evil and good if it is good."43
II. PASSIONS AND MORAL LIFE
1767
In themselves passions are neither good nor evil. They are morally
qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and
will. Passions are said to be voluntary, "either because they are
commanded by the will or because the will does not place obstacles in
their way."44 It belongs to the perfection of the moral or human good that the passions be governed by reason.45
1768
Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or the holiness of
persons; they are simply the inexhaustible reservoir of images and
affections in which the moral life is expressed. Passions are morally
good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case.
The upright will orders the movements of the senses it appropriates to
the good and to beatitude; an evil will succumbs to disordered passions
and exacerbates them. Emotions and feelings can be taken up into the
virtues or perverted by the vices.
1769 In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit
himself accomplishes his work by mobilizing the whole being, with all
its sorrows, fears and sadness, as is visible in the Lord's agony and
passion. In Christ human feelings are able to reach their consummation
in charity and divine beatitude.
1770
Moral perfection consists in man's being moved to the good not by his
will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the
psalm: "My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God."46
IN BRIEF
1771 The term "passions" refers to the affections or the feelings. By his emotions man intuits the good and suspects evil.
1772 The principal passions are love and hatred, desire and fear, joy, sadness, and anger.
1773 In the passions, as movements of the
sensitive appetite, there is neither moral good nor evil. But insofar as
they engage reason and will, there is moral good or evil in them.
1774 Emotions and feelings can be taken up in the virtues or perverted by the vices.
1775 The perfection of the moral good consists in man's being moved to the good not only by his will but also by his "heart."
40 Cf. Mk 7:21.
41 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I-II,26 4, corp. art.
42 Cf. St. Augustine, De Trin., 8,3,4:PL 42,949-950.
43 St. Augustine, De civ. Dei 14,7,2:PL 41,410.
44 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I-II,24,1 corp. art.
45 Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I-II,24,3.
46 Ps 84:2.
