“If Christ’s appeal to the human “heart” and, before that, his appeal to the “beginning” allow us to construct or at least to outline an anthropology that we can call “theology of the body”, this theology is at the same time a pedagogy. […] Christ’s statements have this end as well; they are “pedagogical” statement; they contain a pedagogy of the body expressed in a concise and, at the same time, remarkably complete way. […] The Creator has assigned the body to man as a task, the body in its masculinity and femininity.” [TOB 59:2]
He we conclude the second ‘panel’ of the ‘triptych’ of the words of Christ. In the first we looked at the Lord’s words concerning the indissolubility of marriage against the background of the Creator’s intentions for the human race. In the second we looked at Christ’s statement in the Sermon on the Mount concerning adultery in the heart. To “look to desire” is itself a violation of the covenant of love that constitutes marriage, because the look is directed not to the person but to an individual who can possibly satisfy one’s sexual desires.
Following up on St Paul’s teachings, St John Paul II emphasizes the importance of the virtue of purity for containing and governing oneself. Without virtue, especially the virtue of chastity, it is very difficult to love, because the impetuous desires interfere with the freedom of the gift that constitutes love.
In the mystery of the Redemption, this virtue of purity is enhanced and strengthened by the charismatic gift of piety, one of the seven gifts
of the Holy Spirit.
Adultery in the Heart - Summary