Salesian Literature

Chapter 11:  The human soul has two parts

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Each human soul, Theotimus, is unique; it is also indivisible.  However, each human soul has several operational levels: living, sensitive, rational.  From these various stages flow its functions, its tendencies – the roots of aversion or attraction.

 

Since we are rational, we possess a will which impels us to seek what is good, to he extent that reason perceives or judges it to be so.  Now we can clearly distinguish in the human soul, in so far as it is reasonable, two natural levels which St. Augustine (followed by all theologians) called the two parts of the soul, the lower and the higher.  The lower part is that which reasons and draws conclusions based on information supplied by the intellect – information derived, not from sense data, but from mental sagacity, from judgement.  In addition, the higher part is usually called “mind”, the mental part of the soul; while the lower part is normally called “sense”, “feeling”, human reason as opposed to animal instinct.

 

The reasoning of the higher part is based on two kinds of knowledge: natural knowledge – the way of philosophers, of those who follow scientific reasoning; supernatural knowledge – the way of theologians, of Christians, whose reasoning is based on faith, on God’s revealed word (especially those whose minds are guided by specific enlightenments, inspirations, or the impulse of grace).  So St. Augustine described the higher part of the soul as the faculty through which we bind ourselves to obey the eternal law.

 

When an angel foretold to Abraham the birth of a son, the patriarch appeared to harbour misgivings: So I have a son when I am a hundred years old? (Gen. 17:17).  That was the reaction of the lower part of his soul.  In the higher part, he put his faith in God, and it was reckoned virtue in him (Gen. 15:6).  When later told to sacrifice the child (Gen. 22:2), he was undoubtedly very distressed in the lower part of his soul; yet, in the higher part, he resolved to perform the act, cost what it might.

 

In our own case this opposition of intentions is a daily experience.  Although a father sends his son away to court or to college, he is sad to see him go.  Clearly, though the higher part of the parent’s soul is set upon the child’s development, still the lower part resents the parting this must bring.  A girl may make a marriage that meets with her parent’s entire approval; for all that, they find themselves reduced to tears when the time comes for giving her their blessing – as their lower will betrays reluctance, though their higher will consents to her departure.

 

It is our blessed Lord, however, who provides the best example on this topic – as can be seen from studying his passion.  No longer can we question, after that, the validity of distinguishing between a higher and a lower part in the soul.  Any theologian knows that the Saviour enjoyed perfect beatitude from the moment he was conceived in the Virgin’s womb; yet, at the same time, he was a prey to sadness, reluctance, heartaches.  W are not to conclude that his sufferings were merely physical, or simply in the sensitive part of his soul.  We have his own word for the contrary (before he suffered any physical pain, or even saw his torturers closing in upon him): My soul, he said, is ready to die with sorrow.

 

No sooner had our Lord given rein to the activity of the lower part of his soul, however, by betraying a longing to escape his painful sufferings – a desire to which his thoughts had given birth – than he went on to show that his soul also had a higher part.  Because this was unswervingly dedicated to the eternal will, to his heavenly Father’s decree, he deliberately submitted himself to die.  Overruling the resistance of the lower part of his soul, he exclaimed: Only as thy will is, not as mine is (Lk. 22:42).  This reference to his own will indicated the inclinations of its lower part – a reference which, because it was deliberate, showed that he also had a higher will.

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