Conferences on the Virtues

By Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, ocd

Number 3

As I sat down to begin saying something about the various categories of virtues and to explain how each of the moral virtues is related to one of the Cardinal Virtues that stand at the head of each category, there suddenly came to my mind a statement of St. John of the Cross that I encountered in the Ascent of Mt. Carmel while preparing a conference several months ago [this was written December 1990]: “Many blessings flow from the harmony and tranquility of the four natural passions – joy, hope, fear and sorrow.” (Ascent, Bk. I, Ch. 13, #5). Thereupon he sets out a series of maxims that contain “a complete remedy for mortifying and pacifying” those same passions. However he does not, at least in the immediate context, explain what he means by the natural passions, nor does he indicate why they need to be mortified and pacified. So I will digress from my agenda and try to fill in the gap.

In St. John’s time, passions were commonly understood to be “movements of the appetitive faculty of the soul evoked by the “perception” of a sensory good or a sensory evil, with accompanying physiological changes”. The perception does not have to be “actual”; it can be a “remembered” perception presented vividly by the imagination. This phenomenon is probably called “passion” because it is what one “suffers” or “endures” as a natural result of a perceived good or a perceived evil.

We are all too familiar with the experience of having our sense perceptions trigger changes in our body.

We have only to think of those times that we embarrassed ourselves in the presence of others, or how warm blood rushed into our neck and face causing us to blush. We have only to remember those occasions when the sudden perception of a fact of deed we thought was improbable if not impossible caused us to catch our breath and gape open-mouthed with surprise. But having said that, it occurs to me that what St. John of the Cross called natural passions, we would refer to as “emotions”. In any event, even though there are physical changes involved, the natural passions or emotions reside principally in the sensory appetite of the soul or psyche.

Getting down to particulars, “joy” is the passion triggered in the soul when we are experiencing or imagining delightful or pleasurable sensations. The changes in the body would be those of “expansiveness” or “relaxation”. Smiles would come easily; automatically the skin and the complexion would take on a certain “glow”.

“Hope” is triggered by the perception that some good, desirable event or experience is about to happen in the foreseeable near future. One of the key elements connected with hope is the certainty that the expected good will come about. As an example, consider the workman who after putting in a morning of hard work suddenly hears the siren or the bell signally lunchtime. He becomes vividly aware of the tasty repast that awaits him, and changes begin to occur in his body. His mouth waters; perhaps his stomach growls; he walks toward the cafeteria or where his lunch is stored with a light springy step; his senses of taste and small are sharpened. Obviously the natural passion of hope and the virtue of hope are not the same. But in regard to our overall psychosomatic condition, they are very similar. Both are concerned with “expectations” that cannot be frustrated. They cause what is termed “good morale”.

Opposed to the natural passion we call hope there is “fear”, in the sense that it is caused by the perception or expectation that an unavoidable evil is going to be inflicted in the foreseeable near future. We all know what changes are generated in the body by fear. The organism prepares for “fight” or “flight”, either to resist the imminent affliction or to escape it. Adrenalin is pumped into the bloodstream; the heart beats faster; one begins to perspire; the muscles are geared to produce maximum strength and swiftness.

As the opposite of joy we have “sorrow”. It is the natural passion or emotion aroused by the actual experience of or the vivid recollection of a fact, deed or state of affairs that is perceived as an evil. The body then exhibits all the symptoms of interior grief: weeping (very likely), the inability to smile, the incapacity to attend to routine duties and activities. It brings depression as opposed to expansiveness; stress as opposed to relaxation.

Though St. John in the Ascent enumerates only those spoken of above, they do not exhaust the list. St. Thomas Aquinas identifies eleven natural passions. As is true of the four we have considered, the other seven are also evoked by a perceived good or a perceived evil. We also learn that some are labeled “concupiscible” and the rest are labeled “irascible”. Or better, some reside in the consupiscible sensory appetite, the rest in the irascible sensory appetite. The latter exist in order to go to the aid of the former.

The concupiscible have to do with good or evil perceived “simply” as such. Simply perceived, good attracts. Simply perceived, evil repels. Thus, when the sensory appetite perceives that a “good” is nearby, the passion of “love” is the result. When evil is perceived to be nearby, the natural passion of “hate” is aroused. It must be borne in mind, however, that the natural passions constitute “first movements”. Being spontaneous reactions, they cannot be totally suppressed by the will. The love and hate we are talking about here are not the love and hate that engage the full commitment of the will.

When the appetitive faculty is in the process of moving toward the nearby good in order to embrace and enjoy it. The passion generated is that of “desire”. When in the process of moving away from a nearby evil, the corresponding natural passion is called “flight”. By definition, both are characterized by physiological changes, but St. Thomas does not tell us what they are. He apparently believes the reader can figure them out for himself/herself from personal experience. These latter four, together with joy and sorrow, constitute the concupiscible emotions.

Two of the five remaining irascible appetites are mentioned by St. John of the Cross and we have said something about each: hope and fear. When the attainment of a foreseeable future good requires effort to make it certain, the natural passion of “boldness” goes to the aid of hope. When it appears that no amount of effort is going to ward off an impending evil, the soul experiences that most dreaded of all emotions: despair.

Also included among the irascibles is the natural passion of “anger”. Actually, it is this that gives the name to all five. Anger is directed exclusively to the prevention or to the removal (even destruction) of the threat of imminent evil. And really, anger comes into play only when it lies within the power of the soul to prevent or remove the threat. When it lacks that power, nor has recourse to some agent that does have that power to exercise on its behalf, it experiences “frustration”. St. Thomas does not list frustration among the passions, and I am not enough of a philosopher to understand why not. But that it exists is beyond question. And we all know the exterior manifestations of anger and frustration.

St. Thomas states that there is no opposite to the natural passion of anger. But I would suggest as a counterpart the emotion of “zeal” (Zeal for Your house has eaten me up. Again: With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts. Meekness has been proposed as a possible counterpart of anger, but it seems more logical to say it is the opposite of frustration. The two problems with calling meekness a natural passion are that it does not trigger physiological changes, and it has to be acquired. It does not arise spontaneously.

Having said all that, we must now ask: “What do the natural passions have to do with the pursuit of holiness? And how are they related to the virtues?”

Well, passions and emotions can be so strong and the bodily changes so marked that they take on a life of their own and over-ride reason and free will to some extent. They can become the “masters” of the soul. When sense perceptions and remembrances of sense perceptions are extremely vivid, the emotions they evoke powerfully incline their subjects to prefer and embrace a temporal, perishable good over an eternal, imperishable one. When the passions operate in that way, any sins they may occasion are called sins of weakness, and the guilt thereof is diminished. But it can and does happen that someone will deliberately subject himself/herself to very vivid sense perceptions with the express purpose of stirring up the passions and emotions to pursue pleasure or destroy a threat of harm with greater intensity and efficacy. When sin is the result of such conduct, the culpability is greatly increased.

Since it is God Himself who created the natural passions, we have to admit that He intended that they help us to attain our eternal destiny. But once again, we see that what was created good and wholesome was wounded and weakened by original sin, and easily lead the unwary astray. The inordinate inclination of the soul wounded by original sin toward gratification of the sense and of the ego gives rise to the threefold concupiscence’s of which the New Testament speaks. (I John 2,16). They characterize the world, according to the Evangelist. Concupiscence of the eyes has to do with sensual delights. Concupiscence of the eyes has to do with wealth and glitter, the ornate and the exquisite with regard to the trappings of life. The Pride of Life has to do with all those things, which, difficult as they are to come by, cause one to appear superior to and exalted above most other human beings. The first two constitute a danger to everyone, whereas the third tends to present a danger only to those who are the most talented and gifted among us. Those who lust after “superiority” or to have more and better than anyone else, usually distinguish themselves in exploiting their irascible passions.

III

What then is the relationship between the passions and the virtues? In the last conference we say that making sincere efforts to carry out the positive precepts of Jesus (the same as striving to emulate His example, first of all, and the example of unmistakably holy people) causes one to absorb in a non-verbal way the secret wisdom contained in those precepts. That sacred wisdom enables one to begin to see and to judge all things as God Himself sees and judges them. In virtue of that wisdom, one is able to discover and discern what is or can be of eternal and supernatural value in everything, even those involving profound physical or mental suffering, things that the sense and the ego perceive as grave evils. On the other hand, someone with that secret wisdom is able to perceive how often what appears most desirable to the sense and to the ego are really a hindrance if not an outright impediment to one’s eternal welfare.

When someone has acquired all the moral virtues, and their exercise is informed (empowered) by supernatural Charity, that person is able most wholeheartedly to concur in the Beatitudes. As you all know, beatitude means happiness as well as blessedness. It represents the state of a soul in which all the natural passions are mortified and pacified. They are no longer at the mercy of the perception of sensory good or sensory evil. They respond instead to the perception of eternal, spiritual good or evil in the most appropriate manner possible, which good and evil are presented to the soul powerfully by an imagination enlightened. In those circumstances, they are completely healed. The image and likeness of God are fully restored in that particular human nature.

<<<home page

index to Virtues>>>

* * * * * * * * * * *

MISSION STATEMENT: This web site was created for the purpose of completing the work of Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, O.C.D These conferences may be reproduced for private use only. Publication of this material is forbidden without permission of the Father Provincial for the Discalced Carmelites, Holy Hill, 1525 Carmel Rd., Hubertus, WI 53033-9770.