Looking for reasons

Hippocrates (b. ca. 460 B.C.) was a man of science, he love to discover the new and exciting to look in to the core of man to discover the meaning of life.

One of the finding was the four humors, or as we would think of them, personality types. Our ancestors were trying to discover the same things we are, the how and whys of who we are.

The Catholic Church also looked in to this, discovering what makes us tick, using the knowledge to advance humanity.

St. John Damascene wrote about the four sessions and how they related to the four temperaments or humors.

"Exposition of the Orthodox Faith":

The course which the Creator appointed for them [the planets] to run is unceasing and remaineth fixed as He established them. For the divine David says, The moon and the stars which Thou establishedst, and by the word ‘establishedst,’ he referred to the fixity and unchangeableness of the order and series granted to them by God. For He appointed them for seasons, and signs, and days and years. It is through the Sun that the four seasons are brought about.

And the first of these is spring: for in it God created all things, and even down to the present time its presence is evidenced by the bursting of the flowers into bud, and this is the equinoctial period, since day and night each consist of twelve hours. It is caused by the sun rising in the middle, and is mild and increases the blood, and is warm and moist, and holds a position midway between winter and summer, being warmer and drier than winter, but colder and moister than summer. This season lasts from March 21st till June 24th.

Next, when the rising of the sun moves towards more northerly parts, the season of summer succeeds, which has a place midway between spring and autumn, combining the warmth of spring with the dryness of autumn: for it is dry and warm, and increases the yellow bile. In it falls the longest day, which has fifteen hours, and the shortest night of all, having only nine hours. This season lasts from June 24th till September 25th.

Then when the sun again returns to the middle, autumn takes the place of summer. It has a medium amount of cold and heat, dryness and moisture, and holds a place midway between summer and winter, combining the dryness of summer with the cold of winter. For it is cold and dry, and increases the black bile. This season, again, is equinoctial, both day and night consisting of twelve hours, and it lasts from September 25th till December 25th.

And when the rising of the sun sinks to its smallest and lowest point, i.e. the south, winter is reached, with its cold and moisture. It occupies a place midway between autumn and spring, combining the cold of autumn and the moisture of spring. In it falls the shortest day, which has only nine hours, and the longest night, which has fifteen: and it lasts from December 25th till March 21st. For the Creator made this wise provision that we should not pass from the extreme of cold, or heat, or dryness, or moisture, to the opposite extreme, and thus incur grievous maladies. For reason itself teaches us the danger of sudden changes.

Fasting during the various seasons, such as we do during Ember Days, helps bring the humors into balance. The Golden Legend, written by Blessed Jacopo de Voragine (A.D. 1230-1298), Archbishop of Genoa, gives the following as one of eight reasons for our Ember Day fasts:

The fifth reason, as saint John Damascenus: in March and in printemps the blood groweth and augmenteth, and in summer coler, in September melancholy, and in winter phlegm. Then we fast in March for to attemper and depress the blood of concupiscence disordinate, for sanguine of his nature is full of fleshly concupiscence. In summer we fast because that coler should be lessened and refrained, of which cometh wrath. And then is he full naturally of ire. In harvest we fast for to refrain melancholy. The melancholious man naturally is cold, covetous and heavy. In winter we fast for to daunt and to make feeble the phlegm of lightness and forgetting, for such is he that is phlegmatic.

http://www.fisheaters.com/fourtemperaments.html

 

We all look for meaning, for reasons on why we are whom we are, the church has also been looking, as has man from the beginning of time. The search will continue and man will always look for the deeper meaning in al he discovers.

I offer the above as a start to your discovery, and as just interesting information…

Paul