← [[special-session-f2a|Special Session: Called to Holiness — The Definitive Promise]] | [[formation-II-a-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[appendix-b-f2a|Understanding the Maxims or Sayings]] → # The Five Positive Harms of Attachment See the Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book One, chapter 6 St. John of the Cross describes the positive harms to the soul under their five effects: they weary, torment, darken, defile, and weaken the soul (A.1. 6:5.) • Weariness is illustrated in John’s description of a lover. “Just as lover is wearied and depressed when on a longed-for day his opportunity is frustrated, so is the soul wearied and tired of all its appetites and their fulfillment, because the fulfillment only causes more hunger and emptiness” (A.1. 6:6.) John also portrays this weariness in the image of a covetous treasure hunter. “Just as anyone who digs covetously for a treasure grows tired and exhausted, so does anyone who strives to satisfy the appetites’ demand become wearied and fatigued.” (A1.6.6.) Note: The focus of the first illustration (lover) is on “fulfillment.” What the soul really hungers for is God. Trying to satisfy this hunger with anything other than God leaves the soul wearied and dissatisfied. The focus of the second illustration (treasure hunter) is on the “exhaustion” caused by covetous desires. After spending so much time and effort trying to get what can never satisfy, the soul feels exhausted. • Torment and affliction are the second kind of damage the appetites cause in an individual... “A soul is tormented and afflicted when it reclines on its appetites just as is someone lying naked on thorns and nails.” (A.1.7:1) “The appetite torments in the measure of its intensity...and the more numerous the appetites that possess a soul the greater in number are its torments” (A.1.7:2.) • God, then, in compassion for all, invites them to drink the living water and eat the real manna. “The Spirit of God refreshes the soul. ‘Come to me,’ Jesus says, ‘all you who labor and are burdened [with wrongful desires and affections], I will refresh you’ (Mt 11:28) — and you will be relieved of all of your inordinate desires. (see A: 7:4). • The third kind of harm the appetites bring upon a person is blindness and darkness. As a cloudy mirror does not clearly reflect a person’s face, and as muddy water reflects only a hazy image, so too it is with our intellect when cluttered with sinful desires. It becomes darkened and unable to receive a clear impression of either natural wisdom or supernatural knowledge (see. 8:1). As David laments: “My iniquities surrounded me, and I was unable to see.” (Ps 40:12). • “The appetite blinds and darkens the soul… A moth is not helped much by its eyes because, blinded in its desire for the beauty of light, it will fly directly into a bonfire.” (8:3) would ruin a perfect and extraordinarily beautiful portrait, so too inordinate appetites defile and dirty the soul, in itself a perfect and extremely beautiful image of God.” (9:1) • The fourth way the appetites harm the soul is by defiling and staining it. “Strokes of soot 44 • The vision of the prophet Ezekiel teaches that there are three kinds of wrongful desires and affections: those in the intellect — thoughts of base things; those in the will — desire for sensual things; those in the memory — reflecting and keeping them in mind. The total yielding to wrongful affections and desires in any one of these three faculties would be a total turning away from God. (see 9:5-6; Ezk 8:10-16) • “Weakness and tepidity are the fifth kind of harm the appetites produce in a person. The appetites sap the strength needed for perseverance in the practice of virtue” (A.1.10:1.) When the soul dissipates its energy in other things, it loses it fervor for God and its strength in the practice of virtue. (A1.10:1.) “Ordinarily, the reason many people do not have diligence and eagerness for the acquisition of virtue is that their appetites and affections are not fixed purely on God” (A.1.10:4.) 45 01.24 1-24-2024 OCDS Formation II, Year A --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Formation II Year A: The Ascent of Mount Carmel* (US National Formation Program, 2024).