Lust is the inversion of sexual desire which resulted when the first man and woman closed their hearts to divine love. Shame, as a response to lust, is a natural form of self defense against the danger of being treated as an object for sexual use.
Christ's words about committing adultery "in the heart" do not condemn sexual desire but invite us to reclaim sexual desire as God created it to be. Christ calls us to rediscover a pure way of looking at others capable of respecting the "gratuitous beauty" of the human body in it's masculinity and femininity.
In effect, Christ says in his sermon on the mount, "You have heard the ethic not to commit adultery, but the problem is, you desire to commit adultery. Your ethos is skewed." Christina ethos involves a transformation of desire such that we come to experience the body and sex according to God's original plan.
Christ did not die on the cross and rise from the dead to simply give us more rules to follow. He came to change our hearts so that we would no longer need the rules. To the degree that God's law(ethic) is written on our hearts(ethos), we are free from the law--not free to break it, but free to fulfill it.
The redemption of the body is the foundation of everything JPII teaches in the TOB. It refers to the power at work in us now able to do far more than we ever imagined.
Christ's words about committing adultery "in the heart" do not condemn sexual desire but invite us to reclaim sexual desire as God created it to be. Christ calls us to rediscover a pure way of looking at others capable of respecting the "gratuitous beauty" of the human body in it's masculinity and femininity.
In effect, Christ says in his sermon on the mount, "You have heard the ethic not to commit adultery, but the problem is, you desire to commit adultery. Your ethos is skewed." Christina ethos involves a transformation of desire such that we come to experience the body and sex according to God's original plan.
Christ did not die on the cross and rise from the dead to simply give us more rules to follow. He came to change our hearts so that we would no longer need the rules. To the degree that God's law(ethic) is written on our hearts(ethos), we are free from the law--not free to break it, but free to fulfill it.
The redemption of the body is the foundation of everything JPII teaches in the TOB. It refers to the power at work in us now able to do far more than we ever imagined.