Balanced Passion

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The term the passion of Christ came from a Latin term meaning suffering and enduring. This then extended to the suffering of martyrs and then to suffering in general. The word passion evolved to include a sense of sexual love and then strong liking and enthusiasm for something. (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=passion)

Just as the word passion has its root in suffering, so too does our physical passions, whether they be sexual or for an inanimate object or activity, because all passion stems from a discordant sense of self as separate from the Eternal. If we believe we are separate, we suffer. We hunger for passion, the passionate embrace of another human, because we have displaced our hunger for God and combined it with our innate desire to mate.

God blessed us with this attraction – male and female like two poles – opposites attract. We fit together and when joined we potentially create life like ourselves – life continues – the next generation grows up, produces, provides, protects and so on.

Animals mate to reproduce. It is instinctive and an animal is not sexual its entire life – only when it is in its mating stage. Humans have taken the reproductive act and placed its importance center stage.

Not the reproducing – birthing new life – that has been placed so to speak on the back burner, but the act. Desires burn – but the part leading up to the act is what is exciting and pleasurable – the passion – the act itself is a release of this buildup of passionate energy. We are disconnected from our God, leaving a hole in our souls. This hole is briefly filled with the buildup and release of passion. Many get addicted to the “rush” of this physical experience … but it is all done without regard to its original purpose. In so doing we have made the sacred profane. The worship of filling our bodies and their urges calls to us stronger than the voice of God which we have drowned out through the bellows of our pride.

The sexual act takes center stage to the exclusion of its main purpose in nature and its potential result. Through this act we also escape our fears if even briefly. Love has been removed from the physicality. Of course, many still unite in love and make a vow of this union before their family, friends, and Creator. This references merely the loveless physical bonding, as well as the eradication of the possibility or the reality of the fruits of this bond.

Some say when love has been removed we are like animals, but we are not at all. Animals are unconscious and connected to all nature. Swans, for example, mate for life. When we remove love from the act, we become even more cut off from the Source of All life, our Creator. This is hell. To change, reprioritize. Love God with one’s whole being. Surrender to the All. Trust in this surrender and in the All. Love your spouse – uniting mind, heart and soul, prior to the uniting of bodies.

Men tried to take the power of attraction and desire they felt for women by creating cultural rules around chastity. As example, a woman is only of value if she has not been with any other man. The male then knows beyond a doubt the children are his. However, the male can be with as many women as he desires. He takes one woman to bear his children within tribal laws; other women he takes to bed, but has no obligation to provide for or protect them. If a man pursues a woman without the intent of providing for her and protecting her, she has the right of refusal, and that would be in her best interest. In our culture, the exchange of marriage vows is one way of showing commitment.

Why is a long-term relationship important? A big reason is because often the result of copulation is children and without two parents committed to one another the ones who lose out are the ones born in this union. Whether one is religious or not, a child being raised by two or more emotionally healthy, loving adults in a home free from impoverishment is a great boon to the health of the child.

The uniting of the male and female to raise their offspring creates family. Families unite and create communities. They all work together as each individual has been blessed with unique gifts that help in the work of nurturing, raising the young, creating homes, procuring resources and protection of the community. All in balance.