THE CATECHIST'S CORNER
The Morality of the Passions
Taken up in the virtues or perverted by the vices
(Sept./Oct. 2000)

BY FATHER J. M. SULLIVAN, O.P.

"PASSION" CAN PASS for many things. It could be a perfume, the name of the hottest sports car, or even the subtitle for the latest line of fashion this Fall. Whatever it is used for and whenever or wherever it appears, it no doubt catches our attention. We might even be drawn into a purchase based on this one word alone! And because of these commercial uses and abuses of the word "passion" we might at first find it striking that the word "passion" appears in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Has the Vatican too bought into our materialistic and sensual age? If we suspected that then we could not be further from the truth.

As the Catechism reminds us: "The term ‘passions’ belongs to the Christian patrimony" (CCC, 1763). In other words, the Church had used the word "passion" long before the latest ad for jeans did. The passions or emotions of man are many as we all know. We can be happy or sad, afraid or angry. We can even be ashamed. Each of these and many more are our feelings. They are our passions and they are essential to who we are. The Catechism even goes so far as to claim that our passions "form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and the life of the mind" (CCC, 1764).

So to answer the question above, can "passion" be good? Of course it can! All of the passions, whether it’s anger or happiness, can be very good but in themselves they are morally neutral. They are neither good nor bad. It’s all in how we use them in our daily life—in making the moral decision we face all day. We know of situations where doing the right thing didn’t make us all that happy, whereas doing the wrong made us very happy—at least temporarily. Our emotions are to be trusted but they are not to be left alone.

How can we trust our emotions?
Take the following example. When you’re waiting in line in the pharmacy and have been put off for an hour to get your prescription after repeatedly being promised that they will be right with you, the anger that you feel is perfectly normal. (If you weren’t angry maybe you wouldn’t be normal.) Now, what you do with that anger is the subject of morality, properly speaking.

The Catechism teaches us that the passions "are morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and will." Once again we’re back in line waiting for our prescription to be filled. We’ve waited an hour and are angry. We did not walk into the pharmacy wanting to become angry; it just happened. What do we do with that anger? Let’s engage our reason and will. Let’s think about it and do something about it. Are there reasons why I have not yet been helped? Did the other pharmacist not showing up for work have anything to do with the delay? Did the foul-up in a previous prescription bring about another delay? Did the computer crashing slow down the afternoon all the more? Or did the pharmacist’s girlfriend take up too much of his time on the phone? Did his extended break only extend the line of people waiting for his assistance? The picture gets pretty clear once we think about it a little and begin to put some pieces together.

We are angry and there is no doubt about that and there is no reason to doubt it. Anger, just like the other emotions, is important if we are to get through life or even get to the counter and have our prescription filled. What will we do now? We’ve thought about what we feel and now we need to choose some action to engage both our anger and the tardiness of the pharmacist. We could become violent as many people do in similar situations and become verbally abusive. That doesn’t seem to be warranted in this case (or any other for that matter) as the virtuous response. Our will might be better engaged by speaking to the manager at the earliest possible moment and directly explaining our situation. We could also choose to leave the pharmacy and find another one while planning to send a letter at our earliest convenience to express our anger and displeasure about the service received. Now, don’t we feel better?

It’s all about holiness
"Passions are morally good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite cases" (CCC, 1768). If we surrender our reason and will to our passions then we are living a less than human life. If we support our passions with reason and will, however, we are finding the harmony that the Lord wants all of us to have. To deny our feelings is really to deny the wonder of creation—the wonderful work of God that we ourselves are—and everyone around us as well.

There is no part of us that is not part of our sanctification. Again the Catechism has the perfect insight: "In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and sadness" (CCC, 1769).

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