Our emotions are a wonderful gift God has bestowed on human beings. When considering others, our emotions can help us to support those who are struggling or participate in celebrating their milestones. I’ve noticed an increase in our society, either in social media or through traditional entertainment avenues, of frequently commenting on how a person feels, especially in what makes them happy. It seems like feelings and emotions are how people make decisions rather than using them as some of the inputs or considerations to make a decision. Given our fallen nature, our feelings can lead us astray when we use them in comparing ourselves to others.

The way we feel when we get up in the morning can be drastically different by the time we’re ready for our nightly slumber. We can jump joyfully out of bed to start our day and crawl back into it at night feeling frustrated and defeated. Or we can wake up in a melancholy mood to match a rainy day, only to be all smiles and contentment at night. Ignatian spirituality teaches a pendulum-type flow between consolation, that state of spiritual joy or happiness, and desolation, the spiritual state of sorrow or pain. It is important to discern what state one is in to avoid making rash judgments that will result in negative consequences. 

Emotions and feelings help human beings to bond with each other. In and of themselves, emotions are neither good nor bad, rather it is our actions when we are experiencing a particular emotion that would be judged as good or bad. In simple examples, smiling when someone waves hello to us, is a good reaction, but speaking condescendingly to another because we feel jealous of what they have is not a good reaction. In our modern culture of oversharing and following influencers on social media platforms, it’s almost impossible not to start to compare and evaluate our circumstances and situations against these carefully crafted micro moments. Modern technology greatly exploits our human weaknesses and is not solely to blame, but just a factor in exacerbating our inclination to set happiness as our goal in life instead of God. 

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

Lk 9:23-24

Jesus’ secret to happiness is not looking for what makes us happy from a human perspective, but finding happiness in doing God’s will. There will be suffering and sacrifice, yet if we try our best to offer that up to God and persevere in believing that God can bring beauty and light to our darkest circumstances, we will find blessing and grace to aid us in our life’s journey. I think when Jesus remarked about denying ourselves, it’s about not being hyper focused on our feelings and emotions, but acknowledging them and using them as tools to support our relationships with others. It’s choosing to visit and hold the hand of a sick person rather than endlessly scrolling on a mobile device. It’s buying some extra cans of staple ingredients to donate to a food pantry rather than snacks and sweets for ourselves. It’s not saying we should never do the latter, but to keep a balance in our lives, especially spiritually. 

There have been times when I’m scheduled to present a topic to those converting to the Catholic faith through the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults, or the children’s version, which coincides with a rather stressful work day or week. More than once I’ve wished that I could take that time for myself. Yet those can be the times when you see a spark of wonder or excitement at learning more about the faith. While I may be the facilitator of the information, I know it’s not me they are reacting to, but rather they are excited about God. I am humbled to witness it and even if it is just one person’s reaction, that makes the sacrifice of time so very worthwhile.

Like most things in this world, our emotions and feelings can corrupt us when we try to use them for selfish gain. Let us recognize the tools and gifts they are from God and put them to use to bring a little bit of heaven to earth.