The Look of Lust
One
‘You have heard it said…but I say to you…’ Our Lord begins much of His teaching in the Sermon on the mount with this phrase—a cryptic way that reveals His authority. Who dares to add correction or clarity to the teachings of Moses? No man could even place his teachings on par with Moses unless… that man is Jesus Christ. Only One who is the source of God’s law could offer such amazing clarity and specialized application. The Mosaic law governed external practices. Jesus’ law brings it into our heart with a new power to obey it. These expectations shocked His audience, but He offered them unapologetically. “You have heard it said, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’ but I say to you that anyone who looks lustfully at a woman in his heart has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:27-28). With these words, Jesus demands that our hearts be pure, that our desires be freed from the taint of selfishness! This is crazy! How can men obey such a teaching and have such purity of heart? Only by the power of grace! St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that God not only motivates human persons to our natural good but also our supernatural good, giving us powers that inclines our choices and actions in a heavenly way, rather than worldly. This is how we’re healed, perfected, and elevated. Grace doesn’t make it easy but does make it possible. Now the pure of heart are truly blessed.
Two
“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Mt 5:29). These words of our Lord shocked His audience in His day but appears to have been forgotten in our own. Sexual sins are treated lightly in our culture. In fact, they’re not even considered sins at all or even flaws, but rights and sources of self-identity. Our sensitivity to what offends God is not only defective but worse, has been replaced with a sense of entitlement: my fallen desires are now rights which can’t be denied. To do so is unjust. Thus does our modern culture contradicts the very Word of God. Our culture teaches us to define ourselves by our selfish goals and desires, rather than by our origin and ultimate destiny in God.
However, Jesus’ teaching is hardly unjust. Rather, it elevates us by connecting our identity to God as His own children rather than to our own selfish desires. In calling us to purity of heart, He reveals that we, too, have the honor of receiving and giving His own pure and divine love. This purity must reside and flow from our own hearts. This is good news! Our hearts no longer need to be seed-beds of lust, selfishness, and use! We are indeed elevated to the level of Divine! To reject this identity won for us is to reject our own victory with God in heaven. This is why Jesus warns us of hell. We can either love God to the exclusion of self, or love self to the exclusion of God. it is our choice.
Three
Due to the fall, we have a natural tendency to sin known as concupiscence. This tendency remains even after baptism because our Lord wants us to fight against it and grow strong. (cf. CCC # 1264). We can never make peace with it but must fight it to have freedom and joy. To indulge in it is to become a slave to selfishness. Jesus came to set us free from slavery and to call us to share in His Divine life and love. His teachings in the Sermon on the mount capture and communicate this vocation. St. Paul tells us, “God’s love has been poured forth into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5). Our hearts are now the dwelling place of God. This is why Jesus can offer such a shocking commandment, telling us not to look lustfully at another from our heart, because our hearts are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls us to master our passions and to harmonize our loves, so that we can love our spouses all of our lives, love our children as fruits of this love, and thus create what St. JPII called a “Civilization of love.” Nothing should be prioritized above living this life of purity, not even the physical integrity of our body. Both Divine Love and heaven are worth it!
Four
Jesus continues, “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Mt 5:31-32). The love of God poured forth in our hearts demands that our love reflect His. This is what He meant when He said, ‘Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). The qualities of His love are permanence—He never stops loving us; fruitfulness—His love is creative and life giving; Faithfull—His love reveals His belief in us the was are destined for happiness; and Free—He offers this love by choice, not be necessity, thereby enhancing its vigor and our dignity. Our love is now empowered to reflect the same. This, in fact, is exactly what we swear in our vows at our Marriage. To stay married, even in the bad times; to be open to children; to be committed solely to the other; and to do so freely. Therefore, marriage is permanent, and why our Lord condemns divorce. When He inserts the phrase, ‘except for unchastity,’ Jesus is not providing a condition under which divorce would be accepted, but rather referring to marriages where the spouses were too closely related, like siblings or parents and stepchildren, creepy but all-too-common practices in the Greek culture of the day. In those cases, the couple isn’t even married therefore divorce is not possible since no marriage existed. His teachings are difficult, but He gives us strength and mercy. This is why the Church allows for declarations of nullity in cases where the conditions for a sacramental marriage were not present, and therefore the natural bonds are annulled. But we mustn’t get preoccupied with the difficult teachings but recognize that our love for each other is supposed to reflect and be empowered by God’s love. When you love others do you realize that it’s God loving them through you?
Five
A heart without selfishness is not only possible but is our vocation and destiny. This destiny allows us to conquer all foes, even death! Jesus’ teachings on marriage corresponds to his teaching to love one another the way He loves us. (cf. Jn 13:34). In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is training us that to live in Him is to live the demands of love, demands that also bring eternal rewards. As St. Thérèse of Lisieux exclaimed, “let us love, since that’s what our hearts are made for.” Lord, in your eyes adultery and idolatry are the same. May we love you and our spouses with a love so pure, so noble, and so divine as to bring us the fullness of all joy and happiness, both now and forever. Amen.