Part 1 Chapter 11
"Affections and Aversions"
I must confess to a bit of head-scratching on my part regarding this chapter. My post-modern brain is not used to the delicate language and description that the author employs. By the end of the section on affections, I finally believed that I some handle on his topic. Upon reflection, two themes seemed to emerge as central to this chapter--justice and imagination.
The Catechism defines justice as "the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor." (with further explanation CCC #1807) The focus of the chapter is "the constant and firm will to give their due to neighbor." The first part of the chapter is discussing the danger of offering affections, that are rightly due only to our husband, to any other, even a fictional other. The affections may be given only in the mind, and not the body, but giving them in the mind is dangerously close to giving them in our heart as well. You won't find understanding on this point among friends who are not actively pursuing growth in holiness. They will tell you that such affections are harmless because you're not acting on them. What does it matter if you have a heavy crush on this or that celebrity? Worse still, as long as you don't act on it, they may counsel that there's nothing wrong with fantasizing or day dreaming about a man you know at work, at church, or in the neighborhood even if he's married. Monsignor is clear that these affections rightly belong to our husband alone and are dangerous if directed elsewhere.
In the latter part of the chapter, the justice employed is to be sure that we are giving our neighbor the charity that he or she is due. When aversions are allowed to develop in our mind toward others, and we nourish those aversions it is similarly dangerous. It can grow, fed by our thoughts, into sins against charity--usually types of gossip. Monsignor makes a special point of addressing the dangers of aversions toward those in our family or in rightful positions of authority over us.
The second theme, which unites the affections and aversions, is imagination. The gift of imagination is tremendous; it allows human persons to consider times, places, and circumstances other than their own. What an aid to meditation on Holy Scripture! As with all other gifts, it is glorious when used in service of God, and yet we may choose to abuse this gift for our own end. Some women possess a more lively imagination than average. They may be more prone, then, to the dangers of thinking and day dreaming about the object of their affection or aversion. Properly trained, however, their imaginations could be an aid to meditation.
I was an adult before being introduced to the concept of cultivating a holy imagination. It remains a struggle to keep myself from having imaginary confrontations with people for whom I may have allowed an aversion to grow. If this person said this, I would say this and wouldn't that teach him or her a lesson. How ridiculous--and what a dangerous waste it is to spend even a moment in such an activity! Helping my children to cultivate a holy imagination can be helped by the efforts I make to cultivate one myself.
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asperity:harshness of tone or manner / harsh qualities or conditions
One thing that I remembered in reading this part is the balance between simphathy and antipathy, to exercise one's reigning over these opposites by either getting more acquainted with people that we feel a natural antipathy (in oredr to overcome that feeling), and to withdraw our attention from the people we feel a natural simpathy. I think it was Saint Teresa of Avila that warned clearly of the dangers of friendships that took away from God the affection that is due to Him.
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