Interesting parallel you found here. I'm not entirely sure I would encourage self-harm as a means of deterring lust, though ... that can seriously hurt a person, and if someone hurts themselves often for their faith before their faith is grounded, it becomes far easier to fall out of it.
Going above and beyond in order to avoid sin is great, of course, but forcing unnecessary demands onto a person often makes them more likely to give up trying anything, even what is necessary, because they think that more is being asked of them than really is. Everyone is asked to avoid the sin of lust. Not everyone is asked to physically harm themselves in order to avoid it.
When I was younger, I got really into my faith and going above-and-beyond, which is great, but I bit off more than I could chew at once. It heightened my struggles with faith later on, because worrying about unnecessary things made it harder to focus on what really was necessary. This is one of the reasons apostasy seems more common in Puritanical or Evangelical Protestant denominations than in the Catholic Church ... those often impose unnecessary burdens upon their followers, such as the Puritans denouncing games as sinful. (Some of my older family members have lost their faith from situations like this.)
I'm no priest, so you probably know more than I do about how to avoid lust, but proclaiming the need for self-abuse to do so strikes me as a mistake. It makes the good fight seem like more of a commitment than it is (already quite a commitment!), discouraging many who lack the will to beat the lust out of themselves.
Whew, thanks for reading that novel I just wrote! I was also wondering, have you thought about reviewing Octopath Traveler? Just thought I'd ask.
You have some good points, and my comments were certainly not meant indiscriminately although I still would hold with them for the main, certainly if we are dealing with someone who is really aspiring to holiness and not just making it into purgatory.
You are right that nowadays we hear of "self harm" but this modern talk shouldn't colour the fact that for the saints, applying mild pain to themselves was just 'disciplining the body'. We find a biblical mandate in St. Paul who said in 1 cor 9:27 "I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.".
St Jose Maria Escriva is famous for the way he subdued his body as were St Margaret Mary, St Teresa of Avila, St Gerard Majella, St John Paul II, St Alphonsus, pretty much every saint did things like cold showers, sleeping on the floor, applying the discipline (a whip to the back), putting up with uncomfortable postures etc etc.
This was to increase their will power, to centre themselves more fully on love of Jesus Christ as opposed to the lesser pleasures of this life, and it was to wake them out of "fascination" when it really gripped them.
But perhaps I ought to amend my comment by adding that this is not a course of action that should be taken up without the guidance of a spiritual director, a spiritual director who can discern what is going on in the person's life and something of their psychology, so that any mortification carried out is carried out under obedience rather than at one's own will, and furthermore, that the desire to perform the mortification is not a pathological condition (i.e. what you are calling self harm)
I don't own a Switch but I'd love to hear your thoughts on Octopath if you have played it.
I'd start by thanking you for responding back, but you already said that in your response to me. Darn ...
I 100% agree with you that it's a commendable thing to apply mild pain to oneself in order to increase self-control. I just worried that the way you seemed to command readers to deter lust with physical pain would be misinterpreted by some of them as something greater than mild ... maybe it was just me.
I just assumed you had a Switch and played Octopath since the Switch reveal presentation was how you said you found out about I Am Setsuna, so I thought I'd ask about it at the end to lighten the comment's tone a little.
I'd start by thanking you for responding back, but you already said that in your response to me. Darn ...
I 100% agree with you that it's a commendable thing to apply mild pain to oneself in order to increase self-control. I just worried that the way you seemed to command readers to deter lust with physical pain would be misinterpreted by some of them as something greater than mild ... maybe it was just me.
I just assumed you had a Switch and played Octopath since the Switch reveal presentation was how you said you found out about I Am Setsuna, so I thought I'd ask about it at the end to lighten the comment's tone a little. No big deal.
March 17, 2019 at 7:34 PM
[Image]
Some enemy attacks in RPGs always cause status effects, others have variable degrees of likelihood depending on player stats.
One enemy skill that always works (as long as the player does not have an accessory to prevent it) is "Fascination" used by a number of enemies in Final Fantasy 7 and primarily Jemnezmy.
"Fascination" is a move in which a scantily clad, attractive, young female fiend blows a kiss or something at your party, and all of a sudden all the male characters are inflicted with the status effect of "confusion".
I have never forgotten about this enemy attack!
[Image] As a 7 year old boy the move is rather strange and you don't quite understand what the big deal is, but as you change into a man, and also as you read theology, you understand how correctly the makers of FFVII designed this enemy. She is somewhat like the Siren of Greek mythology, her beauty is a trap, it makes you lose your mind, you completely forget your goal, your telos and the Siren destroys you.
"Fascination", it is from the Latin which can actually mean confuse, but also charm or bewitch. Some might argue that fascination is a really dodgy translation or whatever the Japenese is- presumably something more like "charm" or "entice", something that evokes more clearly both that you lose your mind, and that losing your mind is as a result of the vice of lust.
All men have experienced "fascination" and what a killer it is. St. Thomas Aquinas describes "fascination" as one of the effects of the vice of lust, we read:
"Now carnal vices, namely gluttony and lust, are concerned with pleasures of touch in matters of food and sex; and these are the most impetuous of all pleasures of the body. For this reason, these vices cause man’s attention to be very firmly fixed on corporeal things … [As a] consequence man’s operation in regard to intelligible (obvious) things is weakened, [This is caused] more, however, by lust than by gluttony, forasmuch as sexual pleasures are more vehement than those of the table. Wherefore lust gives rise to blindness of mind, which excludes almost entirely the knowledge of spiritual things."
Lust makes you forget eternity, heaven, hell, salvation, the truths of the Faith, the Crucifixion of the Son of God, your own immortal soul, your vocation, your state in life- absolutely everything can so easily get forgotten about in the grip of "fascination".
What wakes you up from confusion? In FFVII it is actually being attacked! Physical pain, and the ascetic tradition says the same. Take your USB charger wire, remove your shirt, and apply a few strokes to your back, that will wake you up! Take a cold shower! Sleep with the heating off in winter! Deny yourself the pleasures of taste, and, above all, alcohol.
In the game world there are accessories to prevent confusion from the spell of fascination, in life, for some men, there ain't any accessories that will help you, there's no tactics to defeat this enemy, and so, when you see that Jemnezmy appear on your screen, hold L1 and R1 and get out of there.
"Fascination"
4 Comments -
Interesting parallel you found here. I'm not entirely sure I would encourage self-harm as a means of deterring lust, though ... that can seriously hurt a person, and if someone hurts themselves often for their faith before their faith is grounded, it becomes far easier to fall out of it.
Going above and beyond in order to avoid sin is great, of course, but forcing unnecessary demands onto a person often makes them more likely to give up trying anything, even what is necessary, because they think that more is being asked of them than really is. Everyone is asked to avoid the sin of lust. Not everyone is asked to physically harm themselves in order to avoid it.
When I was younger, I got really into my faith and going above-and-beyond, which is great, but I bit off more than I could chew at once. It heightened my struggles with faith later on, because worrying about unnecessary things made it harder to focus on what really was necessary. This is one of the reasons apostasy seems more common in Puritanical or Evangelical Protestant denominations than in the Catholic Church ... those often impose unnecessary burdens upon their followers, such as the Puritans denouncing games as sinful. (Some of my older family members have lost their faith from situations like this.)
I'm no priest, so you probably know more than I do about how to avoid lust, but proclaiming the need for self-abuse to do so strikes me as a mistake. It makes the good fight seem like more of a commitment than it is (already quite a commitment!), discouraging many who lack the will to beat the lust out of themselves.
Whew, thanks for reading that novel I just wrote! I was also wondering, have you thought about reviewing Octopath Traveler? Just thought I'd ask.
February 17, 2019 at 8:41 PM
Thanks for taking the time to reply!
You have some good points, and my comments were certainly not meant indiscriminately although I still would hold with them for the main, certainly if we are dealing with someone who is really aspiring to holiness and not just making it into purgatory.
You are right that nowadays we hear of "self harm" but this modern talk shouldn't colour the fact that for the saints, applying mild pain to themselves was just 'disciplining the body'. We find a biblical mandate in St. Paul who said in 1 cor 9:27 "I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.".
St Jose Maria Escriva is famous for the way he subdued his body as were St Margaret Mary, St Teresa of Avila, St Gerard Majella, St John Paul II, St Alphonsus, pretty much every saint did things like cold showers, sleeping on the floor, applying the discipline (a whip to the back), putting up with uncomfortable postures etc etc.
This was to increase their will power, to centre themselves more fully on love of Jesus Christ as opposed to the lesser pleasures of this life, and it was to wake them out of "fascination" when it really gripped them.
But perhaps I ought to amend my comment by adding that this is not a course of action that should be taken up without the guidance of a spiritual director, a spiritual director who can discern what is going on in the person's life and something of their psychology, so that any mortification carried out is carried out under obedience rather than at one's own will, and furthermore, that the desire to perform the mortification is not a pathological condition (i.e. what you are calling self harm)
I don't own a Switch but I'd love to hear your thoughts on Octopath if you have played it.
February 18, 2019 at 12:18 PM
I'd start by thanking you for responding back, but you already said that in your response to me. Darn ...
I 100% agree with you that it's a commendable thing to apply mild pain to oneself in order to increase self-control. I just worried that the way you seemed to command readers to deter lust with physical pain would be misinterpreted by some of them as something greater than mild ... maybe it was just me.
I just assumed you had a Switch and played Octopath since the Switch reveal presentation was how you said you found out about I Am Setsuna, so I thought I'd ask about it at the end to lighten the comment's tone a little.
March 17, 2019 at 7:33 PM
I'd start by thanking you for responding back, but you already said that in your response to me. Darn ...
I 100% agree with you that it's a commendable thing to apply mild pain to oneself in order to increase self-control. I just worried that the way you seemed to command readers to deter lust with physical pain would be misinterpreted by some of them as something greater than mild ... maybe it was just me.
I just assumed you had a Switch and played Octopath since the Switch reveal presentation was how you said you found out about I Am Setsuna, so I thought I'd ask about it at the end to lighten the comment's tone a little. No big deal.
March 17, 2019 at 7:34 PM