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Brookline Carmel Bulletin J M J T
January 17, 1960
Cogitatio Sancta
(Holy
Meditation)
The Struggle for
Perfection
(Part 3)
The task of controlling our lower nature and bringing it into peaceful
subjection to our intellect and will is indeed a difficult one. As a result of original sin, we have lost
the preternatural gifts which God bestowed on our first parents and which made
them immune from ignorance, concupiscence, suffering, and death. It requires prolonged effort and patience on
our part to restore that beautiful harmony to our nature, which they lost for
themselves and for us when they defied God’s command. Yet we should not be discouraged, for God has mercy on us and
helps us in this effort. When He
infuses sanctifying grace into our souls at Baptism, He raises us to a
supernatural level and provides us with the infused virtues and the gifts of
the Holy Spirit. All of these help us
to overcome temptations and to direct our lives toward God Himself. They give strength and enlightenment to our
will and intellect in their work of subduing the unruly tendencies of our lower
faculties.
The relationship between our higher faculties (intellect and will) and
our lower faculties (internal and external senses and appetites) is not easy to
understand. There is certainly not a
direct and complete dominion, but, on the other hand, the higher faculties can
exercise an increasingly powerful control if one is willing to make the
necessary effort. We might compare the
process to that of training a dog. The
dog at first does not obey because it does not understand what we want it to
do. (So our lower nature at first may
not be aware of what is expected of it, because of ignorance.) Later, even though the dog does know full
well what we want it to do, it may fail to comply because it finds some other
course of action more pleasing to itself.
(So our lower nature, even after we have made it aware of what it should
do, may prefer to seek its own pleasure instead of some higher good.) The command we may see fit to give it. (So our lower nature is not perfectly under
control until its perverse tendencies are checked to the extent that they offer
no block to its perfect obedience to the intellect and will.) In the process of training the dog, at times
the direct command will suffice to restrain it or to direct it, as the
case may be. This will happen
especially if the dog happens to want to do what we want it to do, but even at
other times as well, provided the dog is not too intent upon doing something
else. (So at times we can control
unruly tendencies in our lower nature by a direct command, if they are not too
strong. A firm “get thee behind me,
Satan” may rout a temptation before it has a chance to grow to dangerous
proportions, or a more gentle “let’s be reasonable about this” may be equally
effective. This simple method has an
effect somewhat like the appearance of a policeman on the scene of an incipient
brawl.) The direct command is, however,
of little value if the dog is really intent upon having its own way. Use of direct force or violence is of little
value. We do not make the dog obedient
by beating it into unconsciousness. So
we must resort to various forms of persuasion to induce the dog to
comply with our commands. (Thus our
lower nature must at times be wooed with various enticements, which will
counter-balance the strong allurement of its own desires and induce it to
submit to the commands of our intellect and will, which, in turn, must submit
to the commands of God Himself.)
Persuasion, in the form of counter suggestion and counterargument, will
ordinarily play a large part in training our lower faculties – in developing
good habits (i.e., virtues) which will make the doing of God’s will not only
possible but relatively easy and pleasant.
As we study the truths of our Faith and meditate upon them, not only
will our intellect and will absorb them more and more completely, but they will
gradually penetrate our lower nature as well.
Thus we see the importance of regular spiritual reading (to learn the
truths of our Faith) and mental prayer (which includes both meditating upon
these truths and, what is even more important, speaking to God about them and
asking Him for a fuller understanding and absorption of them). In mental prayer, we dwell upon the truths
of Christian doctrine, and the more we dwell upon them, the more deeply they
penetrate our being, counteracting erroneous and rebellious tendencies within
us and conforming us to Our Lord, making us truly “other Christs.”
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