Pope Francis has dedicated a recent catechesis to the vice of lustIn continuity with the plan to teach the evil of the capital vices, as he taught earlier in another catechesis on gluttony, St. Paul said, these are behaviors that harm the human condition and keep a person on a low level because of sensuality or life according to the flesh. These are behaviors that damage the human condition and keep a person on a low level because of sensuality or life according to the flesh, as St. Paul said, because they blind the development of the spirit.
The horizon of chastity
The Pope emphasized that in Christianity, sexual instinct is not condemned and is part of the human condition at the service of love and life. In the Bible, the Song of Songs is a wonderful poem of love between two bride and groom, which serves as a guide for the gift of self to God and neighbor. However, the Pope continued, this beautiful dimension of our humanity is not exempt from the dangers of the sins of the flesh and therefore the conquest of chastity requires effort, an exercise of fortitude, and righteousness when struggling to love God above all things, above all affections, not to nullify them but to bring them to fullness.
He recalled that "The Bible and Christian Tradition offer a place of honor and respect to the human sexual dimension. It is never condemned when it preserves the beauty that God has inscribed in it, when it is open to the care of others, to life and to mutual help. Therefore, let us always take care that our affections and our love are not contaminated by the desire to possess the other".
Voracious appetite
Pope Francis has defined lust on this occasion as "A vice that attacks and distracts all our senses, our body and our psyche. This vice presents itself as a voracious appetite that drives us to use people, to prey on them and to steal from them, seeking in them a disordered pleasure".
When we understand the greatness of the dignity of the person, we also understand the evil of impurity and abuse that involves objectifying the other, since it is equivalent to stripping him of that dignity, of his intimacy, of his value and of his attractiveness as a person. This is what happens in pornography and prostitution. They are sins against chastity not because love is forbidden but because they impede it, that is to say, it is not a prohibition of the Church nor an imposition of God against personal freedom, but the opposite so that man and woman can develop in true love.
According to the Gospels, the Church has consistently taught that "the deliberate use of the sexual faculty outside of normal conjugal relations contradicts their purpose, whatever the motive behind it. Thus, sexual enjoyment is sought here outside "the sexual relationship required by the moral order; that relationship which realizes the full meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love" (CDF, Decl. "Human Person" 9)". (Catechism, n. 2352). It refers primarily but not only to the sins of masturbation and extramarital relations, such as adultery and fornication.
Returning to the Pope's words, he teaches that "The lustful person seeks only shortcuts: he does not understand that the path of love must be traveled slowly, and this patience, far from being synonymous with boredom, allows us to make our love relationships happy."This is the path of progress in courtship to refine the love affair and cultivate fidelity little by little. Precisely the courtship seeks that synthesis between reason, impulse and feeling that helps them to wisely lead their existence as persons called to holiness, because the virtues opposed to the vices suppose a wide frame of reference; it is not about being supermen or superwomen, but children of God called to bring to fullness the good work of God the Father Creator, following the example of Jesus Christ, perfect man and perfect God.
For this reason, he adds that "Of all man's pleasures, sexuality has a powerful voice. It involves all the senses; it inhabits both the body and the psyche; if it is not patiently disciplined, if it is not inscribed in a relationship and a history in which two individuals turn it into a loving dance, it becomes a chain that deprives man of freedom. Sexual pleasure is undermined by pornography: unrelated satisfaction that can generate forms of addiction."
Chastity is possible and varied
There are various ways of living the virtue of chastity according to the state of each person throughout his or her vital development; it is learned in childhood, discovered in adolescence, enjoyed in love and prolonged in children as a natural fruit of marriage open to life.
This is the usual way to grow in charity-driven virtues and to form a family as a natural environment for welcoming the love of husband and wife, of siblings, of grandparents, and of other relatives.
Others are also called to live full chastity when they respond to the call of God's love, with an undivided heart and at the service of their neighbor, as priests and religious do, and also in apostolic celibacy.
In today's sensual and sexualized environment, it is difficult to understand celibacy as love elevated as a gift of God for a mission of service to others through the apostolate, although it is true that this witness helps to better understand human dignity, generous love and spiritual life.
As is well known, this virtue of chastity is part of the cardinal virtue of temperance by which the person masters the appetites, integrating them into personal maturity, as the Catechism teaches: "Chastity has laws of growth; it passes through degrees marked by imperfection and, very often, by sin. "But man, called to live responsibly the wise and loving plan of God, is a historical being who builds himself up day by day with his numerous and free choices; for this reason he knows, loves and realizes the moral good according to the various stages of growth" (FC, 34). (n. 2343).
Regarding homosexuality, it teaches that "Homosexuality designates relationships between men or women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction to persons of the same sex. It has taken many different forms over the centuries and across cultures. Its psychic origin remains largely unexplained. Relying on Sacred Scripture, which presents them as grave depravities (cf. Gen 19:1-29; Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10), Tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered" (CDF, Decl. "Human Person" 8). They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a true affective and sexual complementarity. They cannot receive approval in any case" (n. 2357).
However, it recognizes that: "An appreciable number of men and women present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies. This inclination, objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a real trial. They should be received with respect, compassion and sensitivity. All signs of unjust discrimination are to be avoided in their regard. These persons are called to carry out the will of God in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's cross the difficulties they may encounter because of their condition" (n. 2358). (n. 2358).
Always welcome
With good pastoral sense, the Catechism points out that feeling this tendency is different from consenting to those acts that are especially contrary to chastity, and that these persons, like everyone else, must use the means to flee from the occasions of sin, to have recourse to the sacraments, especially the sacrament of penance, and to prayer entrusted to God the Father, to Jesus Christ and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. These are the means that we must all use as part of the ascetical struggle to overcome our selfish or objectifying tendencies towards our neighbor and to respond to God's call to love at every stage of life.
Jesus Christ himself gave an example of rejecting sin and welcoming the sinner, as he did with the adulterous woman to whom he gave the grace of a firm conversion: "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more. And immediately she became an enthusiastic apostle when she was freed from her sins and discovered the Savior Messiah in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
In short, we are moving forward as a missionary Church whose doors are open to all, conscious of being the universal sign or sacrament of salvation and the way willed by God to find and develop the vocation to holiness, which consists fundamentally in union with Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. And so the Christian life continues in a continuous process of seeking Jesus Christ, of finding Jesus Christ, and of loving Jesus Christ.
