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Brookline Carmel Bulletin J M J T
January 24, 1960
Cogitatio Sancta
(Holy
Meditation)
The Struggle for
Perfection
(Part 4)
The intellect and will, in their effort to control and direct our lower
faculties, can at times accomplish this by means of direct commands, as
we previously mentioned. Often,
however, the direct command fails, and some form of persuasion must be
used.
The process of persuasion can often be aided by direction of our
external movements and conduct.
Fortunately, the latter are under the direct control of our intellect
and will. This means that, in a very
real sense, we can force ourselves to act (externally) the way we want to act,
even though our internal senses (imagination, memory, estimative sense), our
passions and emotions may resist. We
might compare our soul to a city under siege, in which the commanding general
(our will) has full control of the soldiers guarding the outer fortifications
(our external conduct and movements), but does not have such full control of
the soldiers within the city itself (our internal senses, passions, and
emotions). The latter are inclined to
be rebellious, and try, by the commotion they arouse, to influence the will, on
the one hand, and the external conduct on the other. If the alliance between the will and the external conduct is very
strong, it tends to keep the internal faculties under control. The will may thus work to control unruly
movements, commanding our external members to act contrary to those movements.
If, for example, a person is affected by a feeling of sadness, he can
often help to counteract this by “forcing a smile.” This method, though it may seem somewhat childish, can be very
effective at times. Whereas we usually
think of our emotions as expressing themselves through our external conduct, it
is equally true that our external conduct has a definite effect upon our
emotions. There is a “reversible
reaction” here, which it may be to our advantage to use, at times. Likewise, to take another example, if one
feels anger mounting within himself, he can counteract it by maintaining a calm
exterior (the traditional technique of “counting to ten” – the “cooling-off
period” which allows our will and our external conduct to cooperate in subduing
the emotion of anger). The same method
may be effective in lessening tension by calmly and deliberately relaxing the
various muscles of the body (a warm bath may be of great assistance here). A confident exterior attitude (cf. whistling
in the dark) can often help to subdue interior fears. Forcing oneself to act kindly towards a person for whom one feels
an aversion may help to lessen the aversion, or even change it to a feeling of
affection. (Cf. St. Therese’s use of
this technique in dealing with the nun she disliked.) Forcing oneself to submit to the wishes of another will tend to
lessen pride and foster humility.
One objection that is sometimes raised to this method is that it
fosters a kind of hypocrisy. The person
is not really acting the way he feels, it is said. This is true enough, but he is acting the way his intellect tells
him he ought to act, which is the important thing. He is refusing to allow himself to be the victim of his feelings
and emotions. He is acting in
accordance with right reason, illumined by faith. He is showing forth his “better side” and suppressing his less
desirable characteristics. A false
conscience (perhaps urged on by the devil himself) may ally itself with one’s
feelings and emotions to create a sense of guilt when one acts contrary to his
feelings. This sense of guilt must be
ignored. If heeded, it will force one
always to act according to his feelings, and thus destroy the possibility of
attaining a high degree of perfection.
Perfection consists not in always acting according to one’s feelings,
nor in always acting contrary to one’s feelings, but in acting in obedience to
one’s intellect and will, which must, in turn, be subject to God in all things.
It should be obvious that, throughout this process, the help of God’s grace is vitally essential. It is He Who must show us His will. It is He Who must give us the strength to conform to His will, no matter what the obstacle. “Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love!”
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