I’ve been wondering recently about the precise meaning of this verse. I, too, was wondering whether it meant that we are only to think about positive things or whether it actually referred to meditation on what was virtuous so as to encourage the mind to practice virtue, especially given the following verse.
As an INF with a strong “empathic” sense, I have always found literature/art/etc. of a more pathetic (in the more ancient sense) nature to be quite moving/inspiring. This is why the Passion of our Lord, in particular, has always moved me so. (Heck, when I was very young…and even Protestant…I even prayed, perhaps somewhat ignorantly and arrogantly(?), for the stigmata, if it was God’s Will that I might more fully share in His suffering and bear its marks!) Even concerning the Problem of Evil (and I hope I’m not bordering on heresy here), I’ve always held this line in a song to be very informative: “Be there no tears of joy when the heart feels no pain.” (Miriam Stockley) For me, trouble brings forth the opportunity to love. There is thus a kind of perfection in imperfection.
This is not to say that I am not a joyful person where appropriate, but I am also a very sober person, realizing that there is much trouble and sin in the world. It is actually something I meditate on a lot, not to make myself sad, but to make myself feel empathy for those going through it and to inspire myself to action and to love.
Given the Philippians verse, is such an attitude toward the “darker side” of life a Christian one? Is there any kind of Church consensus (infallible or otherwise; papal or of the counsels) on the interpretation of this verse?
Indeed, I’ve always taken the word “think” here to have the sense of “meditation” or “a taking account of”. (The Greek could, indeed, suggest this.) Thus, could Paul here be speaking of the kind of “meditation” we do on God’s Word so as to promote the practice of a godly life?
I’m so “pathetic”, aren’t I?
