I’m currently reading a book for pre-publication in order that I can write an endorsement. I am absolutely loving this book and can’t wait to recommend it to all of you. I am actually on my second read through, I love it that much. In this morning’s reading, I was struck by a quote the author cites from St. Augustine’s Confessions. It is this: “Saint Augustine said, ‘He who loses himself in his passion is less lost that he who loses his passion.'”

So Saint Augustine seems to be saying that an alcoholic is in a more advantageous place spiritually than a strong Catholic who struggles to suppress every desire and passion. How can this be? Because the heart of our relationship with God is desire, not keeping the law. God thirsts for us, and he has placed an unquenchable thirst for him in each of us, a thirst that is meant to drive us to him. if we lose our passion, therefore, we are in trouble. This thirst is meant to act as a homing device, an internal GPS, that will not be satisfied unless it finds its destination. We may go down side streets and dead ends, but this thirst is meant to eventually bring us to the only One who can and will satisfy us. So someone whose passion is misdirected at least still has passion that has some capacity to be drawn to God, just like a car that is moving will much more likely reach its destination than a car sitting in a parking lot.

This puts a whole new perspective on the work that my Sisters are doing on the east side of Flint. Better to be addicted to something than to have no feeling whatsoever. Addiction is a starting place, a passion to be redirected, to be uncovered and named, a misdirected longing that can only be filled by God. The good news is that, according to Augustine, a person struggling with his addiction is closer to finding God than someone who has suppressed all desire. Each struggling addict on the east side is a potential passionate lover of God.

And the good news is also that any of us who struggle with seemingly less serious addictions can also have hope because God wants to do the same for us as we turn to him and return our passion (for whatever) to him. He will meet us right there in that very misguided longing, redirecting and purifying it until he alone satisfies us.

In our addictions, at least he has a starting place. “He who loses himself in his passion is less lost that he who loses his passion.”