Seven Deadly Sins: Lust
By Jeri Holladay 2/25/2009Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Lust offers a beguiling counterfeit, a way to have the illusion of “love” without the surrender of real love.
WITCHITA, Kansas (Catholic Online) - When I open my email, I am often hit with singles ads. Young women seeking to meet men post their photos with descriptions of their bodies. Will the lust they excite in their respondents help them forge real relationships?
The human desire for union with another is built into the very nature of what it means to be human. As Chesterton once said, “Everyone who knocks at a brothel door is seeking Christ.” Even those consumed by lust seek human connection, but in a seriously distorted way.
Pope John Paul II, in Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, tells us that the body is not a disposable part but is integral to the meaning of the human person. He says, “the body is a primordial sacrament. . . a sign that efficaciously transmits in the visible world the invisible mystery hidden in God from eternity. . . . In fact, through his bodiliness, his masculinity and femininity, man becomes a visible sign of the economy of Truth and Love.” (p.203)
This communion can only be attained through the total gift of self in marriage in which unconditional love is achieved over a lifetime. The fulfillment it brings is a joy, but it does require a dying to self that selfishness finds distasteful.
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 4:25 PM
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