~Anastasia~
† Handmaid of God †
- Dec 1, 2013
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Well ... I can't speak for whether there is a difference between "instinct" and passions. They don't seem to come from the same vocabulary.Is there a difference between instincts and passions though...? Cause I'm talking about the former, not the latter...
Oh and I'm not trying to excuse or looking for an excuse either, I still think it would be wrong to kill...
But then you have to wonder when does killing become acceptable, ect...? If it is permitted or is permissible under any circumstances, ect...?
God Bless!
Passions are normal and good inclinations given by God that have been bent toward a negative expression. It isn't bad to be hungry or to eat food, for example, but gluttony and over-desiring rich foods can be bad.
But do we "instinctually" especially desire rich foods?
The bottom line I think, is that it is about healing the person and becoming like Christ. And every person who might face a difficult situation such as we are discussing is going to come to it with their own set of past sins, shortcomings, weaknesses, and strengths. What happens in their mind and spirit and how they react, and what effect their action has on them is going to be unique for each one. And God always wants to heal us. So it's not about how condemnatory the action was or was not - it's about dealing with any aftermath (if we survive) and judgement is up to God.
Talking about this question in the way it is being framed is rather foreign to the way we would approach it. But I do understand that asking questions of all sorts and examining the nuances can help us to grasp an Orthodox way of thinking, which is very foreign to western Christians.
For me, it is more helpful to consider other things and build my understanding from there. For example, I was listening to a recording recently of two priests discussing a situation where a young woman had confessed a sin which we hold to be pretty serious (it was on the order of abortion or fornication) and it was handled too leniently by the confessor. She began to suffer in the coming months and felt not right about everything in her own spirit, until she was finally given a period to abstain from the Eucharist as a medicine for healing from her sin. We need to understand that it is not a punishment (that's why I didn't say "penance") ... sometimes people fear confessing serious sins because they are afraid there will be consequences. But in truth, the consequences, when they are properly applied, are there to help us properly and fully repent, so that we can be fully restored. This is part of what I mean by considering that God wants to heal us from the effects of our sin, and restore us.
It is not simply about being judged "not guilty" so that we don't have to be "punished" in eternity. It is so that we don't suffer the effects of truly BEING evil in eternity (which would be a great suffering indeed!).
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