A Pure Way of Looking at Others Part I and II
By Christopher West
A Pure Way of
Looking at Others - Part I
In a culture
saturated with pornographic imagery, we would do well to
remember Christ’s words from the Sermon on the Mount: “You have
heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I
say to you that if you even look at that Victoria’s Secret
catalogue and lust, you have already committed adultery in your
heart” (Modern Christopher West Translation of Mt 5:27-28).
And lest women think they are off the hook, we could just as
aptly say, “If you even read that romance novel or watch
Desperate Housewives and lust, you’ve already committed adultery
in your heart.”
Christ isn’t saying a mere glance or momentary thought makes us
guilty of adultery. As fallen human beings, we’ll always be able
to sense the pull of lust in our hearts. This doesn’t mean we’ve
sinned. It’s what we do when we experience that pull of lust
that matters. Do we seek God’s help in resisting it or do we
indulge it? When we indulge it – that is, when we actively
choose “in our hearts” to treat another person as merely an
object for our own gratification – we seriously violate that
person’s dignity and our own. We’re meant to be loved “for our
own sakes,” never used as an object for someone else’s sake.
What are we to do, then, just stare at the sidewalk for the rest
of our lives? Sure, remember that song we sing in church: “They
will know we are Christians by our staring at the sidewalk...?”
Or, rather, is it “They will know we are Christians by our
love...?” Christ’s words are not merely a command to avert one’s
gaze. As John Paul II taught, Christ’s words about lust are “an
invitation to a pure way of looking at others, capable of
respecting the spousal meaning of the body” (Veritatis Splendor,
n. 15).
The body has a “spousal meaning” because it reveals the call of
man and woman to become a gift to one another. Maleness and
femaleness only make sense in light of each other. Spouses
express this truth most fully by becoming “one flesh.” In this
gift, spouses are meant to express the very love of God. They
are meant to reveal the “great mystery” of Christ’s love for the
Church (see Eph 5:31-32). Those who are pure of heart are able
to see this “great mystery” – this great plan of God’s love –
revealed through the human body. Seeing this and rejoicing in
this is very different than looking at the body as an object of
lust.
Obviously, if a person needs to avert his (or her) gaze in order
to avoid lusting, then, by all means, that person should do so.
We classically call this “avoiding the occasion of sin” by
“gaining custody of the eyes.” This is a necessary first step,
but John Paul II described such an approach as a negative
purity. As we grow in virtue we come to experience a positive,
more mature purity. “In mature purity man enjoys the fruits of
the victory won over lust.” He enjoys the “efficacy of the gift
of the Holy Spirit” who restores to his experience of the body
“all its simplicity, its explicitness, and also its interior
joy” (Theology of the Body, April 1, 1981).
Purity is not prudishness. It does not reject the body. “Purity
is the glory of the human body before God. It is God’s glory in
the human body, through which masculinity and femininity are
manifested” (TOB, March 18, 1981). Purity in its fullness will
only be restored in heaven. Yet, as the Catechism teaches, “Even
now [purity of heart] enables us to see according to God...; it
lets us perceive the human body – ours and our neighbor’s – as a
temple of the Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty” (CCC,
n. 2519).
If you find that
lust blinds you to the true beauty of the human body, take
heart: Jesus came preaching sight for the blind. Like the blind
man in the Gospel, we must all cry out to him, “Jesus, Son of
David, have mercy on me, I want to see!”
We’ll look more at the challenge of purity in part II of this
column.
A Pure Way of Looking at Others - Part II
This is part II
of a reflection on Christ’s words from the Sermon on the Mount:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit
adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”
(Mt 5:27-28).
John Paul II acknowledged that these are severe words. But he
asked, are we to fear the severity of these words, or rather
have confidence in their power to save us? (see Theology of the
Body, Oct 8, 1980). These words have power to save us because
the one who speaks them is the “Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).
Most people see in Christ’s words only a condemnation. Do we
forget that Christ came into the world not to condemn, but to
save? (see Jn 3:17). Christ’s words about lust call us back to
the original truth of the body and sexuality. As part of the
heritage of original sin, lust obscures in each of us God’s
original, beautiful plan for the body and sexual love – but it
hasn’t snuffed it out. John Paul II insisted that the heritage
of our hearts is deeper than lust and the words of Christ
reactivate that deeper heritage giving it real power in our
lives (see TOB, Oct 29, 1980).
Imagine the human heart as a deep well. Starting from the top we
have to pass through layers of muddy waters. But if we press
through, at the bottom of the well we’ll find a spring that,
when activated, can gradually fill the well to overflowing with
pure, living water.
If we think a “lustful look” is the only way a person can look
at the human body, then we subscribe to what John Paul II called
“the interpretation of suspicion.” Those who live by suspicion
remain so locked in their own lusts that they project the same
bondage on to everyone else. They can’t imagine any way to think
about the human body and the sexual relationship other than
through the prism of lust.
When we hold the human heart in a state of irreversible
suspicion because of lust, we condemn ourselves to a hopeless,
loveless existence. As St. Paul warns us, we must avoid the trap
of “holding the form of religion” while “denying the power of
it” (2 Tim 3:5). “Redemption is a truth, a reality, in the name
of which man must feel called, and called with efficacy” (TOB,
Oct 29, 1980). In other words, the death and resurrection of
Christ is effective. It can change our lives, our attitudes, our
hearts. Yes – Christ’s death and resurrection can change the way
we experience sexual desire, away from lust and toward the truth
of divine love.
Much is at stake. As John Paul II stated, “The meaning of life
is the antithesis of the interpretation ‘of suspicion.’ This
interpretation is very different, it is radically different from
what we discover in Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount.”
Christ’s words about lust “reveal ...another vision of man’s
possibilities” (Oct 29, 1980). Christ’s words reveal the
possibility of loving as God loves – not despite our sexuality
but in and through it.
John Paul II observed that this demands “perseverance and
consistency” in learning the meaning of our bodies, the meaning
of our sexuality. We must learn this not only in the abstract
(although this, too, is necessary), but above all in the
interior reactions of our own “hearts.” This is a “science,” the
Pope said, which can’t really be learned only from books,
because it’s a question here of deep knowledge of our interior
life. Deep in the heart we learn to distinguish between what, on
the one hand, composes the great riches of sexuality and sexual
attraction, and what, on the other hand, bears only the sign of
lust. And although these internal movements of the heart can
sometimes be confused with one another, we have been called by
Christ to acquire a mature and complete evaluation. And the Pope
insisted that “this task can be carried out and is really worthy
of man” (TOB, Nov 12, 1980).
©
Christopher West. All rights reserved.
Republished
with permission from:
http://www.christopherwest.com
original article:
http://www.theologyofthebody.com/10-13-06.asp
