There is a fable written by Fr. Castellani about a dialogue between a “sábalo” and a “boga”. Both are types of fish from “Paraná” river in Argentina (Fr. Castellani’s country). The sábalo is a big fish (1.5 ft to 2.6 ft) and sucks and eats organic mud. The “boga” is smaller than the “sábalo” and eats water plants, crabs, insects and river snails.
- Do not go out of the water – the boga said to the sábalo – the fisherman is over there.
- Why do you go out?
- Because I need to feed my body, otherwise I would not go out. I do not eat mud as you do.
- I go out because of curiosity. Knowing things is for me what eating is for you. I am an intellectual. Everything is possible to know. Knowledge does not take up room and never does evil…
- Look at this tasty locust! – interrupted the boga jumping out of the river.
The sábalo no longer saw the boga. The sábalo guessed that the boga was caught. But his curiosity to know what happened with the boga was very strong. He turned about, jumped out, saw the sky and the sun, the trees and the man who caught him. It was his miserable end.
- Uncle – the boy asks the narrator – I do not understand this fable. The boga died because of a vicious gluttony. But, why did the sábalo die? It did not have a vice.
- It did not have a vice, but rather it had an indomitable passion.
An indomitable passion is as dangerous as a vice. Part of our spiritual work should be to dominate our passions. Passions do not have a moral connotation in themselves. A passion could be good or bad. “They are morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and will. Passions are said to be voluntary, either because they are commanded by the will or because the will does not place obstacles in their way” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1767).
It belongs to the perfection of morality that the passions be governed by our will. We must govern them in order to use them in our actions. “Passions are morally good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1768).
If we work hard to educate them, they will be integrated in our spiritual perfection. Otherwise, they will betray us. Perhaps, now I have a passion that is not under the control of my will, but I do not commit a grave sin following it, so, I do not care about it. However, if I do not educate it and work on attaining the moral virtue to regulate this passion, in the future it is very likely that it will cause me to commit a grave sin, and since it is an indomitable passion, I will not be able to control it.
