So, we leave off on poor adam and eve right before the fall of man. and with the fall comes original sin, and with original sin comes our new perspective on love, lust, and our sexuality.
The Pope begins his new addresses taking a subjective look on adam's reaction to losing all that he had without original sin. And yes, this is pretty scary stuff to see how far we've fallen as a society. but the good news is awesome. Jesus died on the cross for us so that we could be redeemed through Him.
The Pope also makes a huge point that Christ called us back to "the beginning." Because we all have a shadow of that same beginning without original sin within us. The more we realize that God calls us to love as He loves the more we realize the trap of lust and how poor of a counterfeit it truly is for real love.
So, before we return to adam and eve at the tree of knowledge, there are some points about Jesus' message that need to be made. In His service on the Mount, Jesus says, "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 and 28)
What does this mean to us? This is Jesus appealing to our original selves, our concience to be put simply. Everyone feels that it is wrong to look at a woman with lust unless they have perverted their view of what is right. So, Christ appeals to this part of us, rather than whip out tons of objective laws like God did for Moses. Because Jesus knows that if we truly pick up our cross and follow Him, then we will listen to that and it will have true meaning behind it rather than objective laws. Notice, Jesus did not take out these objective laws, but in the end He "fulfilled them" as He says at the end of his sermon on the Mount. Christ came so that we might fully live our life.
Here's where society's view of freedom and real freedom differ. In society's view of freedom, freedom means the ability to do as you wish with no consequences. True freedom is the freedom Christ supports here, to be free of the chains of lust in our body, mind, and soul. Society supports the freedom to use other people as objects, but then before long the users have been taken in by lust, addicted to it one might say. If you love as God loves, then lust will not have any hold on your heart. This is fulfillment of freedom in Christ. And despite the fact that the person may still have small struggles with lust, they know of the true and beautiful real version God meant for us, love.
Here is where we come back to our Adam and Eve, hanging out in the garden. Eve meets Satan in the garden, and in simple terms, this is what he says: "God does not love you, you are his slave. He doesn't want you to eat this apple because He knows that after that, you'll be just as good as Him. And He doesn't want you to be that, so just take it for yourself" Satan attacks the basis of Adam and Eve's relationship with God, God is our loving Father and we are to receive his love. Instead, Satan says that he is the master and Adam and Eve are the slave, and if they want anything they have to take it for themselves.
This brings up an aspect of love. Love is receptive, not to be taken. A person's love for another has to be free, or else it is not truly love. If a person takes another as an object for pleasure it is not love.
So, Adam and Eve take the apple. Immediately, "they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves." This was their first realization after the fall. Here, original nakedness is lost and we fall into Historical Man's view. Adam and Eve immediately felt the change in their souls, and they reacted. They must have looked up, and for the first time felt lust. And they especially of all people realized that their bodies were not meant to be used. They had lost the ability to look at one another in a sexual and yet completely pure way. Sexual desire was changed from giving and receiving to taking. But as they did clothe themselves, they still knew that they were called to love as God loves, and if clothes were the only way to do that then they knew that was what they needed to do.
Here's where a touchy point of Theology of the Body enters, the viewpoint that marriage is an end of lust. Lust can still enter within the marriage, and if lust is there then sex at that time is sinful. Because even a spouse can degrade the other down to only a sexual value.
How do we not lust then? Through self-control. This is not the same self control as in trapping a wild horse. Because if for an instance the gate was opened, the horse would go wild again and escape. It's a complete retraining of the horse, and soon the horse would even realize that it never wanted to be wild in the first place.
Posted by theologyofthebody0
at 10:42 AM MDT