Appetiti come energie disperse secondo la ‟Salita al Monte Carmelo” di San Giovanni della Croce

Abstract

The theme of appetites is without doubt one of the most important for John of the Cross. It is closely linked to the reality of original sin and its consequences in the life of man. After having rejected the plan of God, man has chosen to live alone and in this rebellion, consists of his sin. It, breaking the orientation toward God of human existence that is no longer living with the theological sense, breaks equally inner harmony of man that begins to live under the sign of contradiction, of rupture and the conflict caused by the appetites and passions disordered. Starting from this general vision based on the Ascent of Mount Carmel – in the article has been examined the significance and role of appetites. In the philosophical conception of man St John of the Cross is anchored to the world of philosophy of Thomism, however he is not bound nor (he) follows blindly any system or any author. So even appetites are not analyzed by him in the abstract but in concrete life and consequently are presented as the main obstacle that bar the path of union with God. Their description, even if from the point of view of systematic is not accurate and has certain shortcomings (e.g. missing their very precise definition), from a psychological point of view, theological and moral is whatever abundant, rich and evocative. First of all, he discovers in the phenomena and in human behavior intimate relations between the psychological element and the moral. Thus, appetites to which man succumbs knowingly and willingly (moral aspect) the cause serious damage to psychic level (psychological aspect). On the contrary, to arrive to the purity and uprightness that form the moral aspect, must be the renunciation, mortification, emptying of the desire that you experience very on a psychological level. The reason for this unit and connection lies in the fact that John of the Cross, to give a classification of psychic phenomena, don’t start from a psychological level, nor, to analyze the moral dimension of the behavior, don’t part from the moral level, but goes deeper until you arrive at the theological level, from which the rest begins to deal with this topic. Here he discovers the essential structure expressed by psychological phenomena and from which it is derived also the moral attitudes. This theological reality essential is God and man that „search” reciprocally to meet: God in his transcendence and man in his misery. The experience of the grace of such a „quest” of man by God performed in Christ becomes for man a strong thrust to imitate Jesus and to undertake the first treatments for purifying appetites, in order to win the leadership of his own life to put it at the service of Christ. It is also the grace implemented in the theological virtues, witch – with the docility and collaboration of man – gives him a radical voltage toward God and unites with Him fully after the purification process passive, making its complete integration to the deeper levels of being, leading it to its fullness, possible in this life, and opening him to the eschatological horizons.