Lust

What is the nature of lust?

a.       Like food, human sexuality is a great gift from God

                                                               i.      It brings together all our faculties for love – physical, emotional, parental – in a way that nothing else on earth does.

                                                             ii.      It reflects the love of the Trinity, where the love between persons proceeds into another Person

                                                           iii.      And it serves as one of the primary images of God’s radical love for us, especially in Christ

b.       So clearly, sexuality is meant to be directed to the ultimate human good of love

                                                               i.      Lust is where we lose that direction. It’s where we pursue sexuality that’s disconnected from, and even an attack on, our capacity for love.

c.       We are incredible people composed of both body and soul

                                                               i.      And there should be a symmetry with what happens at the level of our bodies and what happens at the level of our personhood

1.       Otherwise, there’d be a lack of integrity – a profound dis-alignment – between the two halves of what we are.

d.       Well, sexual love is designed to be a total physical self-gift: one gives one’s whole body, and even one’s genetic makeup in the reproductive material – to the other person.

e.       But if it’s a total self-gift at the physical level, then that could only make sense in the context of a relationship of total self-gift at the personal level.

                                                               i.      Otherwise, we’d be doing something physically that didn’t reflect who we are personal – and that’s just a lack of integrity?

                                                             ii.      So what is the relationship of total personal self-gift that can be the context for the physical total self-gift of sexuality?

1.       Very simply, it’s called marriage. And sexual activity that happens outside of that complete personal love is simply a violation of the way the human person – body and soul – is structure for love.