Appetites - Ann Barnhart - Concupiscible vs.Irascible

Found here. Reproduced here for fair use and discussion purposes.
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2. Let’s talk about Concupiscible and Irascible Appetites, because understanding what they are and how they get perverted explains a lot.

The Concupiscible Appetite is what makes our souls long after things that are pleasant to the senses (like bacon) and avoid those things that are unpleasant to the senses (like Justin Bieber). So, we LOVE bacon, and when we achieve bacon we experience DELIGHT. When we do not achieve bacon, we experience DESIRE. Contrariwise, we HATE Justin Bieber*, and when being exposed to Justin Bieber is possible but not accomplished, we experience AVERSION, and when we actually do experience the evil of Bieber we feel sadness and sorrow. So that’s how the Concupiscible Appetites work.

(* We don’t actually HATE Justin Bieber, and in fact we must pray for that repellant little jerk-wit, because man, it’s not looking good for him if he wraps his Ferrari around a light pole this afternoon. But you have to admit, the Bacon-Bieber thing was a pretty awesome pedagogical device, huh?)

Now the Irascible Appetites. This is what makes our souls long after DIFFICULT goods – in other words, things that require us to overcome something unpleasant in order to achieve something virtuous or good. A very base example that springs to mind is the muscle soreness that goes along with all forms of exercise. Because we are rightly attracted to the idea of being physically sound and fit we exercise in spite of and push through the unpleasantness of the fatigue and soreness in order to achieve the good of physical fitness and strength. The highest example is carrying our crosses through life in this Vale of Tears in order to achieve the very attractive goal of heaven. If our goal is obtainable, then we have HOPE. If the difficult good is something unobtainable, then we experience despair. Contrariwise, when we encounter evils that are surmountable, even though they are repulsive we must have COURAGE to meet those evils and overcome them in order to achieve the good beyond, such as sacrificing material possessions, money or public esteem in order to do “the right thing” rather than capitulate to evil. Yes, the idea of losing all one’s worldly goods, or even one’s life, is certainly repulsive, but courage overcomes the repulsion. This is why Courage is the Fruit of the Third Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary (the Crowning with Thorns). If the difficult evil is insurmountable, then we experience FEAR.

Pope Francis is a Modernist and a Materialist. He views the world and human beings as material, economic units. He does not have a proper balance between the Concupiscible and Irascible Appetites. He is focused almost entirely on the CONCUPISCIBLE appetites. This is why he talks almost exclusively about people in terms of their MATERIAL WEALTH. The Poor, The Poor, The Poor. Not the Poor IN SPIRIT, because that encompasses BOTH the concupiscible and irascible appetites. No, with him, being a Peronist-Fascist, which is a subset of Marxism, the world and human beings are framed completely by the concupiscible SENSE appetites. So, give “the poor” more free stuff. The biggest problems in the world today are “youth unemployment” and “the loneliness of old people” – NOT sin or the consequences of sin, namely the loss of heaven and eternal damnation to hell, which are supernatural realities.

What this skewed emphasis on the Concupiscible Appetites leads to, as we see with Francis, is Materialism, which then feeds selfishness, pride and the gaping maw of the ego. Me, me, me. I want to get to go up to Communion like everyone else, because I FEEL excluded. I refuse to believe that anything that makes a person “FEEL GOOD”, including adultery, contraception, fornication and sodomy, could possibly be a sin, because me, me, me, me. But enough about me. Let’s talk about ME. If I give you free stuff, or tell other people that they should give you free stuff, and if I tell you that your sins aren’t sins and OF COURSE you can come up and have Communion because that will make you FEEL good, and then you will like ME! Because who cares about virtue and carrying crosses. Blah, blah, blah. No one wants to hear about sin and judgment and hell and redemptive suffering and old-fashioned Catholic nonsense like that. The only way for man to achieve happiness and thus perfection, is through MATERIAL WEALTH.

This kowtowing to the Sense Appetites to the specific exclusion of the Virtuous Appetites generates the adoration of the teeming throngs (aka “economic units”) and thus feeds the pride and ego, which is the goal of the morally crippled man.