and taking this further: to say 'tendency' is to indicate a popular manner of speaking, explicating what is our dominant post-modern interpretation of, say, aristotle, aquinas, et al. but it really skirts the line, almost, in carefully avoiding what catholics seem to really want to say about the subjects. (or, well, at least, what i want to say about them...)
but i feel it rather strongly, persistently, intensely. others would say it doesn't really impact me at all, i.e. suggesting if not directly instructing me that i am not one with those 'intrinsically disordered tendencies', that i somehow don't have the problem of not being able to change certain things about myself (on the contrary). what should i do, then? repent again? i'm sorry, but what for?
here, 'tendency' sounds rather weak, at least where mortal sin is involved. a tendency may be mortal, of course. ought we call them 'mortal tendencies', then? her substance abuse could lead to her driving accident, etc. calling him a "sinner" doesn't have quite the same sting, today, as perhaps it used to. it's exceedingly difficult for us to take mortal sin seriously, for some reason. do i call myself a sinner for nothing?
catholics should really go back to the drawing board, specifically with regard to tendency-talk in relation to 'sin'. the weight of the discourse surrounding tendency just doesn't seem to match up with the seriousness with which catholics readily understand mortal sin. it could perhaps become a virtuous habit, provided one is dead-set on avoiding the saying of offensive things to others, for catholics to unfold this phenomenality further: what could possibly motivate those 'tendentious' streaks, in the first place? what is it for something to be 'tendentious'? what is a 'disposition'? essentially? qualitatively? catholics usually don't go this far in unpacking what they mean, unless they are traditionalists - then only maybe they do.
a conventional understanding of teleology suggests 'all things move towards their end', in a certain order, 'disposition', etc. many of those 'tendencies' are, well, for a first pass, better described as habits. this is in large part, but not exclusively, a roman catholic gesture, to recognize: i realize i can do better than that, and then actually do something about it. it's not 'automatically', not necessarily automatically, entirely out of one's immediate control, that people, like rocks falling with gravity to the ground, adopt those tendencies. although, indeed, they may 'have' them, in a certain way.
and yet, one must take care, exactly here, with psychology and psychiatry often intertwining with catholic spirituality, to say they do not have have them like they have 'complexes', though. it would be a kind of mis-interpretation, i guess. all this arrives in the traditionalist catholic 'spirit' which takes hold in lieu of the opposite that is avoiding the consequences of admitting this one thing: that what you did (or might have done) was wrong, that it's a sin of a profound kind...
one must responsibility for 'fantasizing', too, for allowing those fantastic and fascinating 'tendencies' to recur, tendentiously as it were. and (so) catholics routinely emphasize and insist upon virtues, upon 'virtuous habits', etc. re-framing this tendency-discussion in terms of habits, with the additional ideal of the habitus fide, habit-of-faith, the most faithful habit, etc. is a good start. we 'wear' our tendencies, then, like monks wear their habits. our tendencies are a kind of 'skin', the mercification of which is already underway, under the way of the tendencies.
mercy orbits them, faster as it were. you must be fast.
we are back to the beginning, now, except this time there is a considerable mercy going around. those tendencies, well, they do seem to 'take hold' of us, in ways which we may be still unaware. for we all know how difficult it is to 'break' bad habits, after all. and we may know certain things to be virtuous, but we don't want any part in it. and even if we were to will to break our habits, to not-will, even, somehow the tendency-talk is quite likely to return again, precisely because of our seeming inability to particularly say what is really going on. oddly enough, though, mercy enters in through the doors. do we, as catholics, freely choose to allow it in, then? do we welcome this year of mercy?
it's not a question of the tendency to 'sin', so much as what keeps you going, in pursuit of virtuous habits, desire, etc. and mercy picks up the momentum again from the back-end. so here we are beyond explications, and still, one presses on. why? i felt like it, i guess, and i can go on & on, if you'd like. and what is this merciful feeling, which allows one to go on? 'cause, yeah, i'm feeling merciful today. it is my particular habit as a catholic.
mercy is the color of my skin.