Simon Tugwell, OP writes Saint Thomas says desire is the faculty which receives, so that the bigger our desire is, the more we can receive…Our part in this life is to learn to want largely and earnestly enough to make us capable of the infinite rightness of God’s kingdom…The more we try to tame and reduce ourselves and our desires and hopes, the more we deceive and distort ourselves. We are made for God and nothing less will really satisfy us.
Tugwell is speaking of the appetites, and our oft misunderstanding of the role they should play in our lives and hearts. Somehow, many of us feel that our appetites lead us to sin, and should be curtailed with fasts, penances, denial of all sorts. Tugwell says, you are misunderstanding the role they are meant to play. What we take as our tendency for sin isn’t an appetite, but a sickness. That needs healing . But the appetites are our desire for goodness [which] is really a much more robust desire than any alleged desire for evil.
Mindful of Thomas Merton’s words, that Lent is not a season of punishment so much as one of healing we have a good place to start.
No comments:
Post a Comment