- by Monsignor Richard T Doherty- by Monsignor Richard T Doherty
During the year 1958, forcible rape occurred once every 36 minutes in the United States.
This is revealed in the FBI's Law Enforcement Bulletin for January, 1960. "A truly shocking and shameful state of affairs," said J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Shocking as it is, it is not the whole sordid story. Forcible rape is but one of innumerable crimes of injustice and violence which spring from lust. The power and influence of lust is like a tidal wave sweeping all those under its sway into many other kinds of sin.
That is why it is called a capital sin. That is to say, with Saint Thomas Aquinas (II-II, Q.153, a.4), that "in his desire for it, a man proceeds to commit many sins, all of which are said to arise from lust as from a principal vice."
Over and above the gamut of crimes incurred for its sake, the inordinate desire for sex pleasure endangers the common good. For example, it propagates dread disease. Ultimately its attack is aimed at the basic social unit, the family.
Those who continually seek sinful pleasure in thoughts, words or actions soon find it well nigh impossible to restrain this appetite. Its demands increase with each satisfaction.
When they discover that they are more or less trapped, they feel that it is impossible to bring their conduct into line with their religious convictions. So they bring their belief into line with their conduct. Hence, loss of faith is frequent among those who are impure. Moreover, they are tempted by the worst of all sins, hatred of God Who forbids and punishes the pleasure to which they have dedicated themselves. Despair is often their lot.
Just as this vice alters man's relations with his God, it likewise disturbs, within himself, the balance of his faculties. The lower appetite is indulged at any cost, even when it's clearly unreasonable.
This imbalance modifies, in turn, his ability to communicate normally with other human beings. The soaring rate of forcible rape, already mentioned, is but one indication of this. Even if the lustful person is not criminally unjust and cruel, his relationships are impaired none the less. Sometimes he is unfit for normal marital relations.
The fact that mental disease is our number-one health problem dovetails with the now half-forgotten Kinsey reports. This is the heart of the matter. Lust is but a desire for sex pleasure contrary to right reason.
Our age has developed a rational attitude toward food. Self-control in this area goes by the name of dieting. One who improves his appearance and health by scientific regulation of both the quality and the quantity of his food receives the plaudits of others. All social pressures favor such intelligent procedure today.
The ancient Roman, however, did not see it that way. At his sumptuous banquets he could observe all the amenities of polite society in going to the vomitorium. He was not ashamed that others knew what he was about. It was the thing to do.
Now, in retrospect, everyone instinctively feels that this was a revolting frustration of nature. Obviously the pleasure of eating is not an end in itself. It should conduce to the health and maintenance of the body.
Ironically, however, many who would condemn the ancient Roman have an attitude toward sex pleasure that is very like his attitude toward food.
Sex pleasure is ordained by nature as an inducement to perform an act which has for its purpose the procreation and education of children, duties which cannot be rightly attended to except in the married state. Hence, those who seek this gratification outside of matrimony or who, in matrimony, seek it to the exclusion of the very purpose of the satisfaction, act contrary to reason.
This is likewise true of those thoughts, words, looks, kisses and embraces which are preparatory to and, of their very nature, lead up to the marriage act. To take pleasure in them is lawful for those for whom complete pleasure is lawful.
If this gratification is voluntary or fully consented to, no matter how slight the excitement of the lower appetite, no matter how far from the consummated act, there is always serious injury to a great good, or, at least, the proximate danger of such injury and hence grave sin. A small spark of flame is not trivial if it is in the vicinity of a gasoline tank.
Admittedly it is the most difficult of all the virtues because it seeks to subject to right reason the most unruly of the passions. However, it is not impossible for God never commands that. But He does require us to do what lies in our power and to pray for the grace of doing that which, of ourselves, we are incapable of doing.
To prayer must be joined frequent reception of the sacraments. The tribunal of Penance, where one makes a frank avowal of faults, sometimes affords better mental hygiene than the psychiatrist's couch. When it comes to restoring balance between reason and desire, the more personal, the more sincere the effort, the better the therapy, to say nothing of the tremendous power of sacramental grace. Even more helpful is the grace of intimate union with Christ in Holy Communion.
However, we should not rely solely on prayer and the sacraments. There is profound wisdom in the counsel of restraint, self-denial, mortification, preached by Christ and the Church. We should take it upon ourselves every day to do some little thing that is disagreeable or unpleasant, so that we may always have mastery over our impulses.
We say "some little thing," because right reason must govern our mortifications as well as our indulgences. If little chastisements prove inadequate, then one should consult his confessor before adopting more arduous ones, such as fasting, wearing penitential cords or chains, to say nothing of inflicting the discipline on oneself or wearing a hair shirt.
In times past, however, even the latter two were widely used among lay people, many of whom are now canonized saints. They are not mentioned by way of recommendation but to point out that "where there is a will there is a way."
The spark of lust can't spread unless it's fed, and it's our job to make sure we don't fall into occasions which lead us into sins of lust and the countless other sins that spring from it.
- from the book Seven Roads to Hell and 'Ave Maria' magazine