Dear Irene,

God, the Son, as the Man, Jesus Christ, has emotions. Indeed, He still has them in Heaven, and so will we. God as God, by nature, does not have emotion, but He has, or rather is, that which prompts emotion: He is truth, beauty, love, and reality.

Emotion is a response to reality felt by a living bodily creature, a response of the body in tune with the response of the mind and heart. Emotions are wonderful, and we need them and should use them in God's service.

Due to original sin, our original unity was lost, and our emotions sort of have a life of their own, but we can reclaim them, tame them, if need be, and enjoy them as we harness them for the fulfillment of a true human life in God's Will.

Being made in the image and likeness of God doesn't mean that God is the image of us!

We image Him in our ability to know, love, and remember, as St. Augustine says. We image Him in our complementarity as man and woman, as a union of persons that helps bring another to life, just as God creates out of the desire to share His Inner Life. We carry out our knowing and loving and creating/sharing in time and space, which are the conditions necessary for the existence of material creatures.

Actually, you could say time and space are functions of matter. Matter changes. Change is the process whereby matter comes to be, comes to perfection, and decomposes. God is the same all the time. We change. Our changes are physical, spiritual, and intellectual but all of these intersect in the emotions, which the old-time philosophers called, the passions.

Passions are good. The passions are meant to help us respond to reality, to move us with the power to accomplish what we need or ought to do:

• to survive
• to work
• to know
• to love, and
• to serve.

God does not have a material body, so he does not have bodily instincts. He is The Mover of all things, not the one who is moved, though He allows Himself to be moved out of love for us.

I hope this helps.

— Mary Ann