GENERAL AUDIENCE OF 30 APRILContinuing with the cycle of
catechesis on the subject of adultery, the Holy Father delivered the
following address to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for the
General Audience on Wednesday, 30 April.
1. During our last reflection, we said that the words of Christ in the
Sermon on the Mount directly refer to the lust that arises immediately in
the human heart. Indirectly, however, those words guide us to
understanding a truth about man, which is of universal importance.
The words of Christ, taken from Matthew 5:27-28, direct us toward this
truth about "historical" man, of universal importance. It seems to be
expressed in the biblical doctrine on the three forms of lust. We are
referring here to the concise statement in 1 John 2:16-17: "For all that
is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the
pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world
passes away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides
forever."
To understand these words, obviously it is necessary to carefully
consider the context in which they appear, that is, the context of the
whole Johannine theology.(1) However, the same words are inserted, at the
same time, in the context of the whole Bible. They belong to the whole
revealed truth about man, and are important for the theology of the body.
They do not explain lust itself in its threefold form, since they seem to
assume that "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life," are, in some way, a clear and known concept. However, they
explain the genesis of lust in its threefold form, indicating its origin
which is "not of the Father," but "of the world."
2. The lust of the flesh and, together with it, the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life, is "in the world." At the same time it "is of the
world," not as the fruit of the mystery of creation, but as the fruit of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil in man's heart (cf. Gn 2:17). What
fructifies in the three forms of lust is not the "world" God created for
man, the fundamental "goodness" of which we have read several times in
Genesis 1: "God saw that it was good.... It was very good." On the
contrary, in the three forms of lust there fructifies the breaking of the
first covenant with the Creator, with God-Elohim, with God-Yahweh. This
covenant was broken in man's heart. It would be necessary to make here a
careful analysis of the events described in Genesis 3:1-6. However, we are
referring only in general to the mystery of sin, to the beginnings of
human history. The "world" of Genesis has become the "world" of the
Johannine words (cf. 1 Jn 2:15-16), the place and source of lust, only as
the consequence of sin, as the fruit of the breaking of the covenant with
God in the human heart, in the inner recesses of man.
In this way, therefore, the statement that lust "is not of the Father
but is of the world," seems to direct us once more to the biblical
beginning. The genesis of lust in its three forms presented by John finds
in this beginning its first and fundamental elucidation. This explanation
is essential for the theology of the body. To understand that truth of
universal importance about historical man, contained in Christ's words in
the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:27-28), we must return once more to Genesis.
We must linger once more at the threshold of the revelation of historical
man. This is all the more necessary, since this threshold of the history
of salvation proves to be at the same time the threshold of authentic
human experiences, as we will see in the following analyses. The same
fundamental meanings that we drew from the preceding analyses will come to
life in them again, as essential elements of a fitting anthropology and
the deep substratum of the theology of the body.
3. The question may arise again whether it is permissible to transport
the content typical of the Johannine theology, contained in the entire
First Letter (especially in 1 Jn 2:15-16), to the ground of the Sermon on
the Mount according to Matthew, and precisely of Christ's statement in
Matthew 5:27-28. ("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.") We will come back
to this matter several times. Nevertheless, we are referring straightway
to the general biblical context, to the whole truth about man revealed and
expressed in it. Precisely in the name of this truth, we are trying to
understand completely the man that Christ indicates in the text of Matthew
5:27-28, that is, the man who looks at a woman lustfully.
Is not this look to be explained by the fact that man is precisely a
"man of lust," in the sense of the First Letter of St. John? Both the man
who looks lustfully and the woman who is the object of this look are in
the dimension of lust in its three forms, which "is not of the Father but
is of the world." It is necessary to understand what that lust is, or
rather who that "lustful man" of the Bible is. This is necessary in order
to discover the depths of Christ's words according to Matthew 5:27-28, and
to explain the significance of their reference to the human heart, so
important for the theology of the body.
4. Let us return again to the Yahwist narrative. In it, the same man,
male and female, appears at the beginning as a man of original innocence
before original sin. Then he appears as the one who lost innocence, by
breaking the original covenant with his Creator. We do not intend here to
make a complete analysis of temptation and sin, according to the same text
of Genesis 3:1-5, the doctrine of the Church in this connection and
theology. It should merely be observed that the biblical description
itself seems to highlight especially the key moment, in which the gift is
questioned in man's heart. The man who gathers the fruit of the "tree of
the knowledge of good and evil" makes, at the same time, a fundamental
choice. He carries it out against the will of the Creator, God-Yahweh,
accepting the motivation suggested by the tempter: "You will not die. For
God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will
be like God, knowing good and evil." According to old translations: "You
will be like gods, who know good and evil.(2)
This motivation clearly includes questioning the gift and the love from
which creation has its origin as donation. As regards man, he receives the
"world" as a gift and at the same time the image of God that is, humanity
itself in all the truth of its male and female duality. It is enough to
read carefully the whole passage of Genesis 3:1-5, to detect in it the
mystery of man who turns his back on the Father (even if we do not find
this name applied to God in the narrative). Questioning in his heart the
deepest meaning of the donation, that is, love as the specific motive of
the creation and of the original covenant (cf. Gn 3:5), man turns his back
on God-Love, on the Father. In a way he casts God out of his heart. At the
same time, he detaches his heart and almost cuts it off from what "is of
the Father." Thus, there remains in him what "is of the world."
5. "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were
naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons" (Gn
3:7). This is the first sentence of the Yahwist narrative, which refers to
man's situation after sin and shows the new state of human nature. Does
not this sentence also suggest the beginning of lust in man's heart? To
answer this question more thoroughly, we cannot stop at that first
sentence, but must read the whole text again. However, it is worth
recalling here what was said in the first analyses on the subject of shame
as the experience "of the limit."(3)
Genesis refers to this experience to show the "frontier" between the
state of original innocence (cf. Gn 2:25, to which we devoted a great deal
of attention in the preceding analyses) and man's sinfulness at the very
"beginning." Genesis 2:25 emphasizes that they "were both naked, and were
not ashamed." But Genesis 3:6 speaks explicitly of shame in connection
with sin. That shame is almost the first source of the manifestation in
both man and woman of what "is not of the Father, but of the world."
NOTES
1) Cf. e.g.; J. Bonsirven, Epitres de Saint Jean (Paris:
Beauchesne, 1954), pp. 113-119; E. Brooke, Critical and Exegetical
Commentary on the Johannine Epistles, International Critical
Commentary (Edinburgh: Clark, 1912), pp. 47-49; P. De Ambroggi, Le
Epistole Cattoliche (Torino: Marietti, 1947), pp. 216-217; C. H. Dodd,
The Johannine Epistles, Moffatt New Testament Commentary (London:
1946), pp. 41-42; J. Houlden, A Commentary on the Johannine Epistles
(London: Black, 1973), pp. 73-74; B. Prete, Lettere di Giovanni
(Roma: Ed. Paoline, 1970), p. 61; R. Schnackenburg, Die Johannesbriefe,
Herders Theologischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament (Freiburg: 1953), pp.
112-115; J. R. W. Stott, Epistles of John, Tyndale New Testament
Commentaries (London: 1969), pp. 99-101.
On the subject of John's theology, see in particular A. Feuillet, Le
mystère
de l'amour divin dans la théologie
johannique (Paris: Gabalda, 1972).
2) The Hebrew text can have both meanings, because it runs: "ELOHIM
knows that when you eat of it [the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like ELOHIM,
knowing good and evil." The term elohim is the plural of eloah
(pluralis excellentiae).
In relation to Yahweh, it has a singular meaning, but it may indicate the
plural of other heavenly beings or pagan divinities (e.g. Ps 8:6; Ex
12:12; Jgs 10:16; Hos 31:1 and others).
Here are some translations:
—English:
"you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Revised Standard
Version, 1966).
—French:
"vous serez comme des dieux, qui connaissent le bien et le mal" (Bible
de Jérusalem,
1973).
—Italian:
"diverreste come Dio, conoscendo il bene e il male" (Pont. Istit.
Biblico, 1961).
—Spanish:
"seréis
como dioses, conocedores del bien y del mal" (S. Ausejo Barcelona
1964).
seréis
como Dios en el conocimiento del bien y del mal (A. Alonso-Schökel,
Madrid 1970).
3) Cf. general audience of December 12, 1979 (L'Osservatore Romano,
English edition, December 17, 1979).
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