Lust is the fourth in a series of Seven Deadly Sins. Their name describes their severity: these are mortal sins.
The church teaches that when someone chooses mortal sin they exercise their free will to forfeit heaven and choose hell.
The seven vices also known as “Capital Sins” or “Deadly Sins” lead to breaking one or more of the Ten Commandments, so they are, in fact, quite serious sins.
What are Mortal Sins, Anyway?
A mortal sin is an act or thought which makes one turn away from God and turn toward something ungodly instead.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, mortal sin “destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God… (CCC 1855).
The church believes that mortal sin erodes the presence of Christ in the sinner’s soul. It brings pain, anguish and suffering to the one who sins and to those around him. Mortal sins jeopardize a soul’s eternal life.
Is Attraction the Same as Lust?
The church thinks that it’s normal and healthy to be attracted to and appreciative of the opposite sex. That’s not lust, and it’s not a sin.
Lust is considering and treating others as mere sex objects, not people but rather dispensable things which gratify sexual cravings. Lust is having someone please you, whether in fantasy or reality; it depersonalizes the object of lust. It divides that which God meant to join together: sexual love with committed married life.
What is Lust, Exactly?
Lust, like greed and gluttony is a sin of imbalanced attachment to physical things. Lust is an imbalanced attachment to sexual activity and the physical pleasure it brings.
One of Jesus’ greatest concerns from his sermon on the mount (see Matthew chapter 5) is that we need to not treat people as objects, and lust does just that.
Lust reduces a person from a whole being made in the image of God to a mere object of personal satisfaction. It leads us away from God and hurts our relationships with other people. Lustful relationships can never be enduring, satisfying and healthy ones.
What Kind of Thoughts Count as Lust?
Spontaneous involuntary sexual thoughts, like the ones that occur during adolescence, aren’t sinful because they aren’t an act of conscious free will. These thoughts can be rejected and dismissed without sin occurring.
The sin of lust occurs when one intentionally initiates and continues fto antasize about another person in a lustfully sexual way, knowing that it is wrong, but choosing to do it anyway.
When Jesus said “that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart” (Matthew 5:28) he taught that sins begin with a thought.
Thinking lustful thoughts about another person is sinful, but acting on that thought is even worse because it has social consequences. One thought-sin of lust can lead to a worse one.
The Antidote to the Deadly Sin of Lust - Chastity
Chastity is refraining from sexual activity until marriage and then enjoying a lifetime of sexual activity within the bounds of marriage.
Chastity is also moderation in dress, speech, thoughts, and sexual activity. Without chastity, humans are not unlike animals which copulate purely out of instinct. Chastity compliments the higher intelligence of humans.
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