1.
Today I wish to conclude the analysis of the words spoken by
Christ in the Sermon on the Mount about adultery and lust, and
especially the last element of this enunciation, in which "lust
of the eyes" is defined specifically as "adultery committed in
the heart."
We
have already seen that the above-mentioned words are usually
understood as desire for another's wife (that is, according to
the spirit of the ninth commandment of the Decalogue). However,
it seems that this interpretation—a more restrictive one—can and
must be widened in the light of the total context. The moral
evaluation of lust (of looking lustfully), which Christ called
adultery committed in the heart, seems to depend above all on
the personal dignity itself of man and of woman. This holds true
both for those who are not united in marriage, and—perhaps even
more—for those who are husband and wife.
Need to amplify
2.
The analysis which we have made so far of Matthew 5:27-28
indicates the necessity of amplifying and above all deepening
the interpretation presented previously, with regard to the
ethical meaning that this enunciation contains. "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." Let us dwell on the
situation described by the Master, a situation in which the one
who commits adultery in his heart by means of an interior act of
lust (expressed by the look) is the man. It is significant that
in speaking of the object of this act, Christ did not stress
that it is "another man's wife," or a woman who is not his own
wife, but says generically, a woman. Adultery committed in the
heart is not circumscribed in the limits of the interpersonal
relationship which make it possible to determine adultery
committed in the body. It is not these limits that decide
exclusively and essentially about adultery committed in the
heart, but the very nature of lust. It is expressed in this case
by a look, that is, by the fact that that man—of whom Christ
speaks, for the sake of example—looks lustfully. Adultery in the
heart is committed not only because man looks in this way at a
woman who is not his wife, but precisely because he looks at a
woman in this way. Even if he looked in this way at the woman
who is his wife, he could likewise commit adultery in his heart.
To satisfy his own instinct
3.
This interpretation seems to take into consideratiion more amply
what has been said about lust in these analyses as a whole, and
primarily about the lust of the flesh as a permanent element of
man's sinfulness (status naturae lapsae). The lust which, as an
interior act, springs from this basis (as we tried to indicate
in the preceding analyses) changes the very intentionality of
the woman's existence "for" man. It reduces the riches of the
perennial call to the communion of persons, the riches of the
deep attractiveness of masculinity and femininity, to mere
satisfaction of the sexual need of the body (the concept of
"instinct" seems to be linked more closely with this). As a
result of this reduction, the person (in this case, the woman)
becomes for the other person (the man) mainly the object of the
potential satisfaction of his own sexual need. In this way, that
mutual "for" is distorted, losing its character of communion of
persons in favor of the utilitarian function. A man who looks in
this way, as Matthew 5:27-28 indicates, uses the woman, her
femininity, to satisfy his own instinct. Although he does not do
so with an exterior act, he has already assumed this attitude
deep down, inwardly deciding in this way with regard to a given
woman. This is what adultery committed in the heart consists of.
Man can commit this adultery in the heart also with regard to
his own wife, if he treats her only as an object to satisfy
instinct.
Better interpretation
4.
It is not possible to arrive at the second interpretation of
Matthew 5:27-28, if we confine ourselves to the purely
psychological interpretation of lust without taking into account
what constitutes its specific theological character, that is,
the organic relationship between lust (as an act) and the lust
of the flesh as a permanent disposition derived from man's
sinfulness. The purely psychological (or "sexological")
interpretation of lust does not seem to constitute a sufficient
basis to understand the text of the Sermon on the Mount in
question. On the other hand, if we refer to the theological
interpretation—without underestimating what remains unchangeable
in the first interpretation (the psychological one)—the second
interpretation (the theological one) appears to us as more
complete. Thanks to it, the ethical meaning of the key
enunciation of the Sermon on the Mount, to which we owe the
adequate dimension of the ethos of the Gospel, becomes clearer.
Fulfillment in the heart
5.
Sketching this dimension, Christ remains faithful to the law:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the
prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them"
(Mt 5:17). Consequently he shows how deep down it is necessary
to go, how the recesses of the human heart must be thoroughly
revealed, in order that this heart may become a place of
"fulfillment" of the law. The enunciation of Matthew 5:27-28,
which makes manifest the interior perspective of adultery
committed in the heart—and in this perspective points out the
right ways to fulfill the commandment: "Do not commit
adultery"—is an extraordinary argument of it. This enunciation
(Mt 5:27-28) refers, in fact, to the sphere which especially
concerns purity of heart (cf. Mt 5:8) (an expression which—.as
is known—has a wide meaning in the Bible). Elsewhere, too, we
will consider in what way the commandment "Do not commit
adultery"—which, as regards the way in which it is expressed and
the content, is a univocal and severe prohibition (like the
commandment, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife", Ex
20:17)—is carried out precisely by means of purity of heart. The
severity and strength of the prohibition are testified to
directly by the following words of the Sermon on the Mount, in
which Christ spoke figuratively of "plucking out one's eye" and
"cutting off one's hand," if these members were the cause of sin
(cf. Mt 5:29-30). We have already seen that the legislation of
the Old Testament, though abounding in severe punishments, did
not contribute to "fulfill the law," because its casuistry was
marked by many compromises with the lust of the flesh. On the
contrary, Christ taught that the commandment is carried out
through purity of heart. This is not given to man except at the
cost of firmness with regard to everything that springs from the
lust of the flesh. Whoever is able to demand consistently from
his heart and from his body, acquires purity of heart.
Two become one flesh
6.
The commandment "Do not commit adultery" finds its rightful
motivation in the indissolubility of marriage. In it, man and
woman, by virtue of the original plan of the Creator, unite in
such a way that "the two become one flesh" (cf. Gn 2:24). By its
essence, adultery conflicts with this unity, in the sense in
which this unity corresponds to the dignity of persons. Christ
not only confirms this essential ethical meaning of the
commandment, but aims at strengthening it in the depth of the
human person. The new dimension of ethos is always connected
with the revelation of that depth, which is called "heart," and
with its liberation from lust. This is in order that man, male
and female, in all the interior truth of the mutual "for," may
shine forth more fully in that heart. Freed from the constraint
and from the impairment of the spirit that the lust of the flesh
brings with it, the human being, male and female, finds himself
mutually in the freedom of the gift. This gift is the condition
of all life together in truth, and, in particular, in the
freedom of mutual giving. Both husband and wife must form the
sacramental unity willed, as Genesis 2:24 says, by the Creator
himself .
Mutual relationship
7.
As is plain, the necessity which, in the Sermon on the Mount,
Christ placed on all his actual and potential listeners, belongs
to the interior space in which man—precisely the one who is
listening to him—must perceive anew the lost fullness of his
humanity, and want to regain it. That fullness in the mutual
relationship of persons, of the man and of the woman, was
claimed by the Master in Matthew 5:27-28. He had in mind above
all the indissolubility of marriage, but also every other form
of the common life of men and women, that common life which
constitutes the pure and simple fabric of existence. By its
nature, human life is "coeducative." Its dignity and balance
depend, at every moment of history and at every point of
geographical longitude and latitude, on who she will be for him,
and he for her.
The
words spoken by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount have certainly
this universal and at the same time profound significance. Only
in this way can they be understood in the mouth of him who knew
thoroughly "what was in man," and who, at the same time, bore
within him the mystery of the "redemption of the body," as St.
Paul puts it. Are we to fear the severity of these words, or
rather have confidence in their salvific content, in their
power?
In
any case, the analysis carried out of the words spoken by Christ
in the Sermon on the Mount opens the way to further
indispensable reflections in order to reach full awareness of
historical man, and above all of modern man: of his conscience
and he for her.
Taken from: L'Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English 13
October 1980,page7
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