Thomas Aquinas says our behavior is driven by two powers: the irascible appetite and the concupiscible appetite. Since Freud society has put most of its attention on the concupiscible appetite, i.e. the desire for pleasure, satisfaction, comfort. St. Paul was certainly aware that this appetite is a “work of the flesh; immorality, impurity … drinking bouts, orgies…” However, he seems equally concerned about the irascible appetite, the tendency to look out for oneself and push people away which he also sees as a “work of the flesh: hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy…” When people come to confession they readily notice the sins of concupisence — sexual sins, gluttony, greed. As a confessor I haven’t notice as much attention to sins of “rivalry, jealousy, fury, selfishness dissension, factions.” In examining our conscience perhaps we need to notice how our human interactions inhibit our life in the spirit.
