Brother Theophane Ke, FSC
index
Flesh and Spirit
Harmony of human nature
1. Temptation and fall
2. The Rebellion of man
3. The Earthly Paradise is lost
4. The struggle of saint Paul
5. True Nature of Concupiscence
6. How theology conceives Concupiscence?
Human Phenomenon
1. Concupiscence is Natural to man
2. Operative in the whole
3. Relation to wilfulness
4. Other elements
5. Compensation aspects
6. Duality
Conclusion
Bibliography
Some quotations
In some famous thoughts, Pascal commented on the theme of the three concupiscences
mentioned enigmatically in the First Epistle of Saint John.
Pascal connected the three concupiscences with three orders of FLESH, SPIRIT and CHARITY,
also with three sects of PHILOSOPHERS: EPICUREANS, STOICS, PYRRHONISTS.
The starting point is the sixteenth verse of the second chapter of the First Epistle of
saint John reducing to three violent dessires the mind of the world: Epithumia Sarkos,
Epithumia ophthalmon, Alazoneia Biou. concupiscentia carnis, concupiscentia oculorum, et
superbia vitae.
The French translation is: "Tout ce qui est dans le monde est concupiscence de la
chair, concupiscence des yeux et orgueil de la vie".
In English we read: "The love of the Father cannot be in any man who loves the world,
because nothing the world has to offer! - the sensual body - the lustful eye, - pride in
possessions - could ever come from the Father but only from the world."(IJohn:2:16)
Pascal reduced three concupiscences to three lusts: "Libido sentiendi, libido
sciendi, libido dominandi". We could say in English: "lust of sensual pleasures,
lust of knowledge, and lust of power".
In the Polyglotte Bible of the Middle of the Seventeenth Century the Latin translation of
the Syriac version maintained the two first terms and translated the third one by "
fastus mundi" ...."pride of world"
The Ethiopian version said: "Cupiditas carnis Libido oculorum et Superbia
aetatis" ..." the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of
life"
Saint Augustine quoted Saint John and said: "Ambitio saeculi," (Confessions, X,
XXX, 41; Ep. Jn., tr. II)
Spiritual authors interpret summarily that enigmatical formula of Saint John by saying:
"The world is the godless society of people who live according to the maxims of the
world, not according to the SPIRIT of GOD; the world offers to its followers three gifts:
1- Sensual pleasures
2- Satisfaction of curiosity throguh five senses represented by the eyes,
3- and vain science which flatters pride.
As Montaigne said:"Science without conscience is nothing but ruin of the
soul." (Science sans conscience n'est que ruine de l'âme - also: the world excites
ambition and thirst of vain glory, "Power and wealth".
Thomas A Kempis in the sixth chapter of the first book of the Imitation of Christ wrote:
"Once a man sets his heart in anything immoderately, he loses his peace of mind; the
proud man, the avaricious man, how little peace they enjoy! It is the detached man, the
humble, that lives wholly at rest. Strange, how easily a man can be attracted and overcome
by some slight, some trumpery affection, if he is not yet utterly dead to self... The
spiritual man who lives according to the Spirit of God must be detached from "wordly
desires". ...The heart can only find rest by resisting its passions,not by humouring
them; heart's rest is for the fervent, the devout, not for the carnally minded, not for
those who give themselves over to love of outward things". (The Imitation of Christ,
I, ch.6- Thomas A Kempis, 1379-1471)
St John Baptist de la Salle gave to his Brothers the counsel to deny themselves the pleasure of the senses in order to become spiritual men and to live an interior life united to God....because our senses are given us to use when needed, not to seek pleasure through them. Because "the sensual man, that is, he who loves the pleasure of the senses, perceive not the things that are of the Spirit of God" (I Cor.II,14) Saint John Baptist de la Salle recommended : "WE must deny ourselves the sollicitations of nature, i.e. the flesh, because nature destroys GRACE. Because, according to saint Paul, "if you live according to the flesh , you shall die. But if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live." (Rom. viii, 13) The last recommendation of Saint J.B. de la Salle to his disciples concerned the world: " If you wish to persevere and die in your vocation never have any intercourse with people of the world: for little by little, you will acquire a taste for their habits and be drawn into conversation with them to such an extent , that you will no longer be able, through policy, to refrain from aplauding their language, however pernicious it may be; this will lead you into unfaithfulness; and being no longer faithful in observing your Rules, you will grow disgusted with your vocation, and finally you will abandon it". (Recollection)
Saint Augustine with concision wrote: "Voluptas oculorum carnis", the pleasure of the eyes of the flesh. The libido (or violent desire of the flesh) is defined by St Augustine as "an unreasonable desire of the soul drawn by carnal instincts, whereby every bodily or wordly good is preferred to eternal and spiritual good". (De Mendacio, vii) "To make the carnal pleasure an end to one's life is always a moral degradation and is damnable, even the pleasure of music, light, and brightening colors" (Confessions, X,c.34...51-53) because the end of man is not the creature but the CREATOR. "To put his pleasure only in created things and to forget the Supreme BEAUTY, the Infinite GOOD, that is a disorder. According to Saint Augustine those sensual pleasures stop our impulse toward the true light and "perfect BEAUTY so late discovered, so late loved". (Confessions,c.27,38)
When in the Confessions, Augustine asked himself if he is enough purified from
"carnal lust" , he met the same problem as the Platonic philosopher in the
Phaedon. It is relatively more easy to practice a radical abstinence from sexual pleasure
than asceticism in the satisfaction of the necessary desire of food. Esthetic enjoyment
binds us to the charms of the "esthesia" (or the ability to feel sensations, to
perceive carnal beauty of bodies too attractive for our carnal senses). Voluptuous
sensations paralyse the soul and make our soul similar to the flesh. The Book of Genesis
in the sixth chapter mentioned that phenomenon : "After that men began to be
multiplied upon the earth, and daughters were born of them. The sons of God seeing the
daughters of men, that they were fair, took themselves wives of all which they chose. And
God said:"My Spirit shall not remain in man for ever because he is flesh; and his
days shall be a hundred and twenty years".(Gen.6:1-3)
The translation of the Jerusalem Bible is more realistic:"When men had begun to be
plentiful on the earth, and daughters had been born to them, the sons of God, looking at
the daughters of men, saw they were pleasing, so they married as many as they chose.
Yahweh said: "My Spirit must not for ever be disgraced in man, for he is but flesh;
his life shall last no more than a hundred and twenty years" (Gen. 6:1-4)
Saint Augustine in the Commentary on the First Epistle of Saint JOHN states that all
desire of food, procreation is not condemned but must be moderated - modus- using but not
lusting immoderately "ad fruendum" for the enjoyment. (Commentary:II,12)
Concupiscence is the desire considered as stopping or embarrassing the movement of the
soul toward the good; concupiscence is deviated love.
The Latin uses the word "CUPIDITAS" or "LIBIDO"; right love is
"DILECTIO or CARITAS" (Enar., in PS. IX,15, ch.124) In De Vera Religione, as in
the Commentary of Saint John, Augustine initiated a comparison with three temptations of
Christ in the desert. While He resisted those temptations He exhausted the source of all
sin.
+ The first temptation of Jesus Christ is rooted in the most fundamental desire, hunger
in the pit of the stomach: "Tell this stone to become bread". (Lk. 4:4; Mt.
4:1-11; Mk. 1:12-13)
Pascal did not insist on the libido sentiendi, lust of snesual pleasures. He stated
:"Carnal men are the avaricious rich, ambitious kings. They have for object the
body" (P.P. 460) According to Pascal the Jews were carnal because they expected a
temporal Messiah: "The carnal Jews understood not the greatness of the Messiah nor
His humiliation fortold in their prophecies" (P.P., 664).
The Jew's concupiscence is opposed to the Spirit of Jesus Christ who brought the cure for
concupiscence" (P.P., 555) The true greatness of Jesus Christ.. the carnal Jews did
not recognize; only the saints recognized it" (P.P.,760) "The Talmud and the
Rabbis blamed Jesus Christ because He did not dominate the nations with weapons (P.P.760)
"Indeed He did not reign in a carnal empire or kingdom ; He declared: "My
kingdom is not in this world". But our Lord Jesus Christ has come in the splendour of
HIS order of holiness" (P.P., 793)
Carnal men see only the vain glory, material greatness of kings, wealthy
leaders,conquerors. Spiritual men see the true greatness, true glory, true richess of
Jesus Christ in HIS triumph over death, sin and the power of Satan. Saint Peter declared
to the Jewish People: "God raised this man Jesus to life, and all of us are witnesses
to that. Now raised to the heights by God's right hand, He has received from the Father
the Holy Spirit who was promised, and what you see and hear is the outpouring of that
Spirit. For David himself never went up to heaven; yet these words are his:" The Lord
said to my Lord; "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for you.
For this the whole HOUSE of Israel can be certain that God has made this Jesus whom you
crucified both Lord and Christ" (Acts, 2:32-36)
+ The second temptation of Jesus Christ corresponded to the third concupiscence "
superbia vitae" - pride of life. Satan tempted Jesus Christ by showing Him the
empires with their material greatness, their carnal splendour. That temptation was
described as the "lust of the eyes of the flesh" - libido oculorum carnis. If we
review the great empires of History we will see great conquerors or kings or emperors such
as Darius, Alexander, Cesar, Nero, Gengis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Mao... Those
ambitious men enjoyed madly the vision of the world submitted to their domination. The
lust of domination made fools of carnal men.
Carnal greatness was realized at the price of great destruction, injustice and crimes.
Clearly the thirst of greatness is shown as a source of evil and calamities throughout the
history of mankind. Jesus Christ taught us :"Search primarily the Kingdom of God and
the other things will be given to you in addition." The greatness of the Kingdom of
God is the greatness in the simplicity and innocence of children. "At that time the
disciples came and asked Jesus: "Who really excels in the Kingdom of Heaven?"
"Calling a little child, He stood it in the midst of them and said: "I assure
you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will certainly not enter
the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever, then, humbles himself like this little child, he excels in
the Kingdom of Heaven; and whoever receives one such child in My Name receives ME."
(Mt. 18:1-5).
+ The Divine Harmony God created all things. Accordingly all things are good. God gave
all things to man to use, to control by his intelligence and reason in order to live
happily; such is the destiny of man on this earth. But man is not his own absolute master
of himself. God is his Lord. He must obey God, his Creator and Sovereign Master. God put a
limit to his liberty. God said:" Let us make man in our Image and Likeness; let him
have dominion over the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, the beasts, and the whole
earth, and every creeping creature that moves upon the earth." God created man to His
Image; to the Image of God He created them, saying : "Increase,Multiply, fill the
earth, subdue it, rule over the fishes of the sea,the fowls of the air, and all things
living creatures that move on the earth" (Gen. I : 26-29)
The Lord took man , put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it. He
commanded him, saying:"Of ever tree of paradise thou shalt eat. But of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. " For in what day soever thou shalt
eat of it thou shalt die the death!..." . (Genese: 21: 15-17)
Man is composed of Body and Spirit. The concupiscence or law of the body attempted to draw
the spirit away from the order established by God: man is tempted to forget his true rank
in creation. By submitting himself to excessive love for creatures he renounced his
sovereignty over them; he reversed the order established by God: from being the lord, the
ruler, he became the servant, the slave of created things. His pride raised him up against
God; being a creature he pretended to be God. The carnal man told him in the depth of his
heart: "There is no fear of God before his eyes."
But the spiritual man said: "Your love, o Lord, reaches to heaven; your truth to the
skies. Your justice is like God's mountain, your judgments like the deep. My God, the sons
of men find refuge in the shelter of your wings. They feast on the riches of your house;
They drink from the stream of your delight. In you is the source of life and in your light
we see Light" (Ps. 36)
To be faithful to God and to keep in us the harmony established by God, we pray with the
Church: " Lord, you are the source of unfailling light. Give us true knowledge of
your mercy so that we may renounce our pride and be filled with the riches of your
house." (Morning Prayer)
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How to maintain the harmony of human nature?
As long as man is submitted to God every thing is submitted to the control of man. In
his own body and soul there is harmony and order.
What is "Order" and "PEACE? St Augustine defined: "Pax, tranquillitas
ordinis" (St Augustine)
Peace is tranquillity of Order. The order established by God in man is that the body be
submitted to the spirit. Man can enjoy that "TRANQUILLITY of ORDER" only on
condition that he accepts being submitted to God freely by obedience and love.
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Unhappily Genesis tells us the Tragedy of the revolt of man: "Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made." He said to the woman: " Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?" The woman answered him, saying: "Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise God has commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not eat ; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die." The serpent said to the woman: "No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as GOD, knowing good and evil". The woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to eyes, and delightful to behold. She took of the fruit thereof, did eat, gave to her husband who did eat. Then the eyes of them both were opened: They perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons. After that they heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in paradise at the afternoon air. Adam and his wife hid themselves from the Face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise" (Genesis, 3:1-8)
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The rebellion of man/woman against the order of God brings with it the rebellion of the
senses against the spirit.
Concupiscence opposes any control of the reason.
From that moment every movement, every desire of the senses, or every appetite for any
material or bodily goods contrary to reason is called concupiscence.
In that sense, the apostles, especially saints Paul and John wrote in their epistles about
the concupiscences as the consequences of original sin. The Book of Genesis told the
history of the consequences of original sin in the descendants of Adam and Eva: "It
came to pass after many days, that Cain offered the fruits of the earth, gifts to the
Lord. Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock, with their fat and the Lord had
respect to Abel, and to his offerings. But to CAIN and his offerings He had no respect:
Cain was exceedingly angry, his countenance fell. The Lord said to him: Why art thou
angry? Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou do well, shalt thou not receive? But if ill,
shall not sin forthwith be present at the door? But the lust thereof shall be under thee,
and thou shalt have dominion over it" (Gen., 4:1-7)
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3. The Earthly Paradise is lost
The temptation of Eve began by the desire of knowing good and evil. That desire could be identified with the concupiscentia oculorum and superbia vitae -- concupiscence of the eyes and pride of life. In the context of Genesis, the knowledge of good and evil is linked to the " Tree and its forbidden fruits". Eve listened to the voice of the EVIL One and has been seduced by the LIAR; she ate the forbidden fruit. The concupiscence of the flesh drew her into sin. After that the woman tempted her husband. Adam sinned and by his sin introduced the sin and the death into the world. Mankind will die! Mankind was cast down into a hell, after losing a paradise. The Paradise of harmony and peace between body and soul was lost. The paradise of love and intimacy with GOD, the Creator, was lost. The paradise of GRACE being lost replaced by a hell of disgrace: Hell of disorder, violent desires of flesh, passions, instincts, and carnal concupiscences struggling against the SPIRIT.
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Saint Paul analyzed this situation of concupiscence in revolt as following: "In
fact, this seems to be the rule, that every single time I want to do good it is something
evil that comes to hand. In my inmost self I dearly love God's Law, but I can see that my
body follows a different law that battles against the law which my reason dictates. This
is what makes me a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body." (Rom.
7:21-23)
Concupiscence is said to be a carnal or an unspiritual law of the body. Hence there are in
man two poles of attraction : the unspiritual and the spiritual because in his nature
created by GOD there are a body and a soul.
Saint Paul explained: "The unspirituals are interested only in what is unspiritual,
but the spirituals are interested in spiritual things. It is death to limit oneself to
what is unspiritual; Life and peace can only come with concern for the spiritual. To limit
oneself to what is UNSPIRITUAL .... IS TO BE AT ENMITY WITH GOD"
The materialist athee in our modern times is at enmity with God. And the agents of that
atheism-materialism persecute the children of God! and corrupt the society or the nation
and its inhabitants. It is deplorable!
People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your
interests, however, are not in the unspiritual but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of
God has made his HOME in you. In fact, unless you possessed the SPIRIT of CHRIST you would
not belong to HIM. "Though your body may be dead, it is because of sin, but Christ is
in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the SPIRIT
of HIM who raised JESUS from the dead is living in you, then He who raised JESUS from the
dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through His Spirit living in you"
(Rom.,8:5-11)
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5. True Nature of Concupiscence
We need to clarify the sense of the phenomenon of concupiscence in man/woman.
Concupiscence from the classical Latin "concupiscere", meaning to long much for
a thing, to be desirous of, to covet, to aspire to, to strive after, to be passionated for
an object. one being : pleasure, richess, power, glory, science, knowledge etc... which
are excessive or against the spirit, the reason or the will of God. In itself
concupiscence is part of human nature; therefore, created by God. We know by the teaching
of the Bible that what is created by God is good. However the word concupiscence, in
current language, has an unfortunate ring. It means strong or ardent desire, a longing of
the soul for what will give it delight or for what is agreeable especially to the senses -
used chiefly by Scholastic philosophers.
Webster's New Word Dictionnary defines concupiscence : Strong or abnormal desire or
appetite, especially sexual desire: lust.
The Larousse dictionary states: "Concupiscence, propensity to enjoy earthly goods
particularly sexual pleasures."
The Oxford Dictionary says: "Concupiscence means especially "libidinous desire,
sexual appetite,lust".
This usage might take shelter under the patronage of AUGUSTINE, who often speaks of concupiscence as an evil, sometimes as "bestial desire". (C. Julian, 4:16.82 - New Catholic Encyclopedia:Concupiscence)
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6. How theology conceives Concupiscence?
There are three degrees of the theological concept of concupiscence. In its broadest
sense, it comprises the whole sweep and range of appetite, or desire, both sensory and
spiritual, both faculty as well as its acts, and these latter whether deliberate or
spontaneous.
It includes not only the seeking of a good but also the rejecting of what is judged to be
harmful. In the next and narrower sense, concupiscence, while it can still be either
sensory or spiritual, is nevertheless tied by a twofold restriction: first, insofar as it
is limited to the act of desire, second, insofar as this is indeliberate. This unfree act
belong to the mechanism or raw material of man's deliberate choosing.
The personal decision, in order to come to birth, must be heralded not only by an act of
knowing, but also by sole automatic, vital reaction of the appetite faculty, some
spontaneous stretching out toward, or turning away from, an object held in the gaze of the
mind.
The indeliberate act of desire, springing from the very dynamism of man's nature, gives to
the will the object about which it deliberates and decides.
Every human being (therefore Christ in His Human nature, Our Lady, Adam prior to his fall)
must have concupiscence in this sense; absence of it would spell paralysis of the will.
Finally, in its third and technical sense, concupiscence again is involved in the
indeliberate act of desire but only and precisely insofar as this is pitted against the
free decision, hindering and hampering it, wrestling with and diverting it. In this
technical sense, then, concupiscence acts three ways.
1- It forestalls the free decision; already before any choice is finally made,
concupiscence is present threatening liberty of action.
2- In the very process of one's choosing, concupiscence is at work as a counter tension.
3- Even when vainquished, it still asserts itself and is not totally submissive. ( Ref.
New Catholic Encyclopedia: Concupiscence)
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Concupiscence is a characteristically human phenomenon. It is found neither in the angels, above man, nor in the animals, below man. The angel is a pure spirit, possessing a nature of unruffled harmony, jangled by no inner tension or clash. Its personal decision, therefore, achieves what every personal decision innately gropes after: That the whole nature should, so to speak, be poured into, and, shaped by, this decision, nothing at all withstanding or escaping its molding. There is, consequently, a lofty irrevocability about the choice of an angel: if he sins, his sin is a sin of strength, not of weakness; his self-commitment is so lucidly entire and entirely lucid as to preclude the bare possibility of any retraction. The complex organism of the brute beast likewise exhibits a wonderful harmony. Instinct gives coherence to its behavior. Nothing it does is excessive, nothing unreasonable because it has no dictate of reason to violate. Nothing it does is blameworthy, for such an epithet is empty of meaning when applied to the blind functioning of a nature coerced by its instinct. Man is a creature apart: in his nature there is no nicely balanced harmony, but a raw and radical dualism of flesh and spirit. Never is he perfectly at ease within himself, never serenely integrated,never wielding "solely sovereign sway and masterdom." Concupiscence is not, therefore, as some are inclined to suppose, man's egoism and pride at war with his yearning towards God. (New Catholic Encyclopedia: Concupisceence)
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1. CONCUPISCENCE is Natural to man
That concupiscence is natural to man is deductible first of all with certitude from the teaching of the Church that Adam's immunity from concupiscence was a gratuitous, unowed endowment and, second, with probability from the fact that man is at once flesh and spirit. The angel lacks concupiscence because he is sheer spirit; the beast, because it is in nowise spirit. One has no mere right to label concupiscence bestial than angelic. It is simply human. And since it is native to man, he would have it, were he to be created in some other, purely natural order. (New Catholic Encyclopedia: Concupiscence.)
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Concupiscence should not be classed as an exclusively sensory event. Man is a composite
being whose coefficients of flesh and spirit both condition him,continously and
all-pervasively (as psychosomatic medicine keeps one aware). No human action can be
exclusively sensory or exclusively spiritual.Man's knowledge of the most crassly material
object is partly spiritual, is partly sensory (when he studies the nature of God or an
isosceles triangle, his imagination inveterately provides him with a picture of perhaps an
old gentleman or a diagram traced in red chalk).
Likewise his spiritual desires are shaded with sensory; his sensory, with spiritual. The
most physical or human acts (e.g. sexual intercourse, a woman suckling her baby, a laborer
devouring a meal) are, because they are shot through with the spiritual, essentially
different from parallel actions in other animals. It is misleading to make concupiscence
exactly coincidental with sexual desire. Concupiscence is not exclusively a PRONENESS TO
EVIL.
Because natural to man, concupiscence cannot be adequately represented as exclusively a
PRONENESS thwarting of right reason. The all-wise and holy GOD could not create man with
an inborn drive diametrically counter to his last end. Moreover, a characteristic of
concupiscence is its spontaneity, which is ambivalent. Concupiscence defies and challenges
a wicked, as much as a good purpose. It is as much in evidence at one's blush because one
has lied, as in the promptings of lust. (New Catholic Encyclopedia : Concupiscence)
Metonymy In both Scripture (especially Romans ch.6,7,8) and Tradition (especially
AUGUSTINE) concupiscence is called sin.
This must not give one the wrong impression that it is sin stricly and formally so-called.
A sort of metonymy is at work for which three reasons can be alleged: concupiscence is
1-the fruit,
2-the punishment, and
3-the seed of sin.
The last reason relates to personal sin; the first two relate to original sin, and they apply equally to death. For whatever might be held about human death in a state of our nature, in the present,supernatural order, it is both the result and punishment of original sin. However, unlike concupiscence, death does not incline to frequent aims of weakness. Though it may be the result, it is scarcely the cause of sin. Neither death nor concupiscence can be accurately described as moral evil - for such a qualification belongs only to deliberate choices. Nevertheless it would be rash to infer that death and concupiscence are equally amoral. For, in a way that death does not, concupiscence trenches on the field of morality, seeing that it can incline to evil and persist against the dictate of right reason (New Catholic Encyclopedia: Concupiscence)
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Concupiscence is certainly not the root of all sin, nor is it the cause of the worst sins. The proof of this twin statement lies in the devil's sin and in that of the first parents: Despise their immunity from concupiscence, they sinned. Indeed it was precisely this immunity that enabled them to climb to the very acme of calculated malice. Where there is concupiscence, there is no total self-commitment, and consequently , no "perfect" sin . (New Catholic Encyclopedia: Concupiscence)
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Likewise, concupiscence is certainly not the source of temptation and tendency to sin. The option of the angels against GOD involved some sort of temptation, at least in the sense of an encounter with the dilemma: either to let God be God, accepting one's very being from HIS HANDS, or to aspire to godhead, repudiating one's radical dependence on Him. Genesis makes it plain that Adam and Eve, while endowed with integrity, were liable to temptation. (New Catholic Encyclopedie : Concupiscence)
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Concupiscence is not without its compensations.
1- It cannot hurt man unless he decides to be in league with it. It cannot force his will
and available are God's multiple helps.
2- It provides an incentive to progress in the spiritual life. The merits of holy
Christians arise, under God, from the steadfastness with which they overcome the obstacles
arising from concupiscence. Always there, it constitutes a constant challenge to
asceticism, prayer, and the frequent action of the Sacrements.
3- Even when a man has a mind to sin mortally, concupiscence implies a twin advantage. On
the one hand, its stubborn resistance diminishes the malice of a wicked resolve. On the
other hand, by hindering the evil decision's seizing on and stamping the whole man with
malice, it furnishes the psychological basis for a retraction of the will. There is no
basis for repentance in the sinful angel, whose apostasy is voiced in his whole being. A
challenge of heart was, however, feasible is Adam's case. because integrity in him was a
sheerly gratuitous gift, lost, therefore in the very flush of sin.
4- It is becAuse of concupiscence that, quite often, transgressions of gravely binding
commandments are in reality only venially sinful. Concupiscence saves man from a
full-blooded consent.Such venial sins of weakness are unthinkable in an angel or Adam
before the fall. Without concupiscence, one consents fully or not at all.
5- Concupiscence, finally, belongs to the complex state of restoration in Christ and the
Church. This is so much more wonderful than the state of original justice that the Liturgy
can acclaim Adam's sin as fortunate: -"Felix Culpa"-- (Happy FAULT). To
counterpoise his dualities, Adam received integrity as a lump gift, i.e. intended to be
permanent and conferring complete self-dominion. Christians do not have one gift once for
all; it comes in installments.It is found especially in the daily Eucharist. Whereas Adam
was given something, they are given SOMEBODY, CHRIST HIMSELF.
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6. Duality
Once again one notices how concupiscence is perversively dual in aspect: it is both
sensory and spiritual; for both good and ill; if it explains many sins of weakness it also
explains why many sins either stop short of being mortal, or, if mortal, are not
irremidiably so. It further explains why the most abandoned sinners surprise one
occasionally with some instinctive good deed. On the other hand even in those indwelt by
the Holy Spirit, even in the heroically holy in the mystics concupiscence stays on.
Consequently, they never succeed in concentrating within them under their personal
orientation to Christ. Something escapes, some small peripheral element. Hence they must
lament those daily semi-deliberate venial sins that the Council of Trent, session 6, Jan.
13, 1547, assigns even to holiest. (Decrees on Justification 11:Benz.1537).
Even the Apostles, even after their unforgettable personal experiences during the Passion,
Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord, even after Pentecost, when they wqere transformed
by the Holy Spirit and confirmed in grace, still had to, and in fact did, describe
themselves as sinners. (I Jn.I:8-10; Jas.3.2) (New Catholic Encyclopedia: Concupiscence)
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We conclude these considerations on concupiscence by reminding ourselves that our human life on this earth is a continual combat. And saint Paul gave us the following strategy: "...Grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of His Power. Put God's armour on so as to be able to resist the devil's tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens. That is why you must rely on God's armour, or you will not be able to put up any resistance when the worst happens, or have enough resources to hold your ground. "So stand your ground, with truth buckled round your waist, and integrity for a breastplate, wearing for shoes on your feet the eagerness to spread the Gospel of peace and always carrying the shield of faith so that you can use it to put out the burning arrows of the evil one. And then you must accept the salvation from God To be your helmet and receive the WORD of GOD from the SPIRIT to use as a sword. "Pray all the time,asking for what you need, praying the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all the saints." (Eph.6:10 -18 )
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1- Pascal, Pensées
2- Genevieve Rodis-Lewis, Les Trois Concupiscences.
3- Augustine, Confessions, Civ. 14; Nupt. et Concupiscences.
4- Saint Paul, Romans: 6,7, 8.
5- Saint John, I Ep. 2:6
6- Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, ch.6
7- Saint J.B.de la Salle: Collection 8
8- E. Portalié : DTC
9- J.P.Kenny, The Probes of Concupiscence
10- J.P. Kenny Original Sin:Nature and Grace
11- L. Boros, Mysterium mortis
12- New Catholic Encyclopedia: Concupiscence
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Some quotations
= "... but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will
live". (Romans 8:13)
= "I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living
bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God." (Romans, 12:1)
= "Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you, but let your
behaviour change, modelled by your new mind.
This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that
God wants, what is the perfect thing to do". (Romans, 12:2)
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