Good Friday - A Message from Roland About Controlling Your Emotions
If it is true that we can be assailed by bad thoughts, could it also be true that our passions can be stirred up by influences that are unwholesome? The answer is yes.
The other day I was reading a diary entry from St. Francis de Sales. In it he said that anger is the servant of the soul, as any emotion ought to be. The emotion is to assist the soul in carrying out some activity in the material realm.
He went on to say that the soul must use anger very sparingly because anger is an unruly and headstrong servant. Anger tends to get carried away, and makes things worse more often than not.
Have you ever had a job to do, but there was one person you did not give it to because you knew that person is a bit clumsy and is likely to break something or do damage? Well, anger is that way.
Here is an important point. Any emotion, as the body itself, is meant to assist the soul in some way. Eyes are for seeing, ears for hearing, stomach for digesting, and emotion is to give some drive or reticence to the body's actions.
But how many of us think of emotion as the soul's servant? Instead we think of emotion as something that someone or something stirs up. We react to someone or something, and then our emotion is out of control.
The soul is supposed to be in charge of the body, not the other way around. As most of us are now live, our body responds to people, objects, and situation on the outside. And our soul is dragged along for the ride.
You simply cannot go around reacting to every little thing and expect to live a life of reason and dignity.
Now if the soul loses control of the emotions, then outside people or their ideas, as well as objects and situations pull the strings and stir up emotions.
Therefore, if you are volatile, unruly, immoderate, impatient, resentful, lustful, greedy, or full of anger and hostility--could it be that an unwholesome influence is stirring up your emotions? And could it be that that influence is suggesting notions to the mind that lend themselves to out of control emotions?
Take the opportunity of Good Friday to reflect upon Christ and the suffering He underwent. Before His passion was to begin, He prayed "not my will, but Thy will be done."
Can you see that His perfect obedience left no room for other influence? Can you see that His pure intent to obey and do the Father's will left Him impervious to any influence that would have Him consider His own needs?
The soul which is committed to obey God is stable, faithful and calm. And this noble soul is respectable. The soul that recognizes and obeys God's authority becomes a respectable master for the body, which recognizes and respects the soul's integrity.
The other day I was reading a diary entry from St. Francis de Sales. In it he said that anger is the servant of the soul, as any emotion ought to be. The emotion is to assist the soul in carrying out some activity in the material realm.
He went on to say that the soul must use anger very sparingly because anger is an unruly and headstrong servant. Anger tends to get carried away, and makes things worse more often than not.
Have you ever had a job to do, but there was one person you did not give it to because you knew that person is a bit clumsy and is likely to break something or do damage? Well, anger is that way.
Here is an important point. Any emotion, as the body itself, is meant to assist the soul in some way. Eyes are for seeing, ears for hearing, stomach for digesting, and emotion is to give some drive or reticence to the body's actions.
But how many of us think of emotion as the soul's servant? Instead we think of emotion as something that someone or something stirs up. We react to someone or something, and then our emotion is out of control.
The soul is supposed to be in charge of the body, not the other way around. As most of us are now live, our body responds to people, objects, and situation on the outside. And our soul is dragged along for the ride.
You simply cannot go around reacting to every little thing and expect to live a life of reason and dignity.
Now if the soul loses control of the emotions, then outside people or their ideas, as well as objects and situations pull the strings and stir up emotions.
Therefore, if you are volatile, unruly, immoderate, impatient, resentful, lustful, greedy, or full of anger and hostility--could it be that an unwholesome influence is stirring up your emotions? And could it be that that influence is suggesting notions to the mind that lend themselves to out of control emotions?
Take the opportunity of Good Friday to reflect upon Christ and the suffering He underwent. Before His passion was to begin, He prayed "not my will, but Thy will be done."
Can you see that His perfect obedience left no room for other influence? Can you see that His pure intent to obey and do the Father's will left Him impervious to any influence that would have Him consider His own needs?
The soul which is committed to obey God is stable, faithful and calm. And this noble soul is respectable. The soul that recognizes and obeys God's authority becomes a respectable master for the body, which recognizes and respects the soul's integrity.
