Is passion about having or doing? Is passion about fun? That is not the whole story. A musician who is passionate about his cello will go through a great deal of pain and boredom to gain precision through practice. An athlete will practice her serve over and over again because of her passion for tennis. Passion combines love and discipline, devotion to a goal and self-forgetfulness (#1768).

Our passions are essential (#1770). They connect the senses to the mind (#1764). This connection is not one of automatic response; we need not react to every stimulus or follow every impulse.

Sin complicates our passions. Vision blurs. Choices confuse. Bad habits predispose us to bad selections (#1754-1755). The ordinary human resources compete inside of us (#1756, 1766). Thomas Aquinas said that we do not seek evil for itself so much as we seek good in ill-focused, out-of-balance ways. Certainly our passions can be misguided. What we apply them to matters (#1767).

Christian passion holds a paradox. Any human desire will eventually fail us if we try to sustain it as our most important goal. On the other hand, if we set our hearts on the One who has made our hearts for himself, we are not only fulfilled, but our other passions find a place and deepen too (#1762).