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GENERAL AUDIENCE OF 3 DECEMBER
On Wednesday, 3 December, the Holy Father returned to his analysis
of the Sermon on the Mount in his address to thousands gathered in the
Paul VI Hall.
1. At the beginning of our considerations on Christ's words in the
Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:27-28), we saw that they contain a deep ethical
and anthropological meaning. It is a question here of the passage in which
Christ recalled the commandment, "You shall not commit adultery," and
added, "Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart." We speak of the ethical and
anthropological meaning of these words, because they allude to the two
closely connected dimensions of ethos and historical man. In the course of
the preceding analyses, we tried to follow these two dimensions, always
keeping in mind that Christ's words are addressed to the heart, that is,
to the interior man. Interior man is the specific subject of the ethos of
the body, with which Christ wishes to imbue the conscience and will of his
listeners and disciples. It is certainly a new ethos. It is new in
comparison with the ethos of the Old Testament, as we have already tried
to show in more detailed analyses. It is new also with regard to the state
of historical man, subsequent to original sin, that is, with regard to the
man of lust. It is, therefore, a new ethos in a universal sense and
significance. It is new in relation to any man, independently of any
geographical and historical longitude and latitude.
Towards the redemption of the body
2. We have already called this new ethos, which emerges from the
perspective of Christ's words in the Sermon on the Mount, the "ethos of
redemption" and, more precisely, the ethos of the redemption of the body.
Here we followed St. Paul. In the Letter to the Romans he contrasts
"bondage to decay" (Rom 8:21) and submission "to futility" (Rom 8:20)in
which the whole of creation has become participant owing to sinwith
the desire for "the redemption of our bodies" (Rom 8:23). In this context,
the Apostle spoke of the groans "of the whole creation," which "waits with
eager longing..." to "be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the
glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom 8:20-21). In this way, St.
Paul reveals the situation of all creation, especially that of man after
sin. The aspiration whichtogether
with the new "adoption as sons" (Rom 8:23)strives
precisely toward "the redemption of the body," is significant for this
situation. The redemption of the body is presented as the end, the
eschatological and mature fruit of the mystery of the redemption of man
and of the world, carried out by Christ.
Perspective of redemption alone justifies
3. In what sense, therefore, can we speak of the ethos of redemption
and especially of the ethos of the redemption of the body? We must
recognize that in the context of the words of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt
5:27-28), which we have analyzed, this meaning does not yet appear in all
its fullness. It will be manifested more completely when we examine other
words of Christ, the ones, that is, in which he referred to the
resurrection (cf. Mt 22:30; Mk 12:25; Lk 20:35-36). However, there is no
doubt that also in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ spoke in the
perspective of the redemption of man and of the world (and, therefore,
precisely of the redemption of the body). This is the perspective of the
whole Gospel, of the whole teaching, of the whole mission of Christ. The
immediate context of the Sermon on the Mount indicates the law and the
prophets as the historical reference point, characteristic of the People
of God of the old covenant. Yet we can never forget that in Christ's
teaching the fundamental reference to the question of marriage and the
problem of the relations between man and woman referred to the beginning.
Such a reference can be justified only by the reality of the redemption.
Outside it, there would remain only the three forms of lust or that
"bondage to decay," which Paul writes of (Rom 8:21). Only the perspective
of the redemption justifies the reference to the "beginning," that is, the
perspective of the mystery of creation in the totality of Christ's
teaching on the problems of marriage, man and woman and their mutual
relationship. The words of Matthew 5:27-28 are set, in a word, in the same
theological perspective.
Rediscovering what is truly human
4. In the Sermon on the Mount Christ did not invite man to return to
the state of original innocence, because humanity has irrevocably left it
behind. But he called him to rediscoveron
the foundation of the perennial and indestructible meanings of what is
humanthe
living forms of the new man. In this way a link, or rather a continuity is
established between the beginning and the perspective of redemption. In
the ethos of the redemption of the body, the original ethos of creation
will have to be taken up again. Christ did not change the law, but
confirmed the commandment, "You shall not commit adultery." At the same
time, he led the intellect and the heart of listeners toward that
"fullness of justice," willed by God the Creator and legislator, that this
commandment contains. This fullness is discovered, first with an interior
view of the heart, and then with an adequate way of being and acting. The
form of the new man can emerge from this way of being and acting, to the
extent to which the ethos of the redemption of the body dominates the lust
of the flesh and the whole man of lust. Christ clearly indicated that the
way to attain this must be the way of temperance and mastery of desires,
that is, at the very root, already in the purely interior sphere
("Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully..."). The ethos of redemption
contains in every areaand
directly in the sphere of the lust of the fleshthe
imperative of self-control, the necessity of immediate continence and of
habitual temperance.
Realized through self-mastery
5. However, temperance and continence do not meanif
it may be put in this waysuspension
in emptiness: neither in the emptiness of values nor in the emptiness of
the subject. The ethos of redemption is realized in self-mastery, by means
of temperance, that is, continence of desires. In this behavior the human
heart remains bound to the value from which, through desire, it would
otherwise have moved away, turning toward pure lust deprived of ethical
value (as we said in the preceding analysis). In the field of the ethos of
redemption, union with that value by means of an act of mastery is
confirmed or re-established with an even deeper power and firmness. It is
a question here of the value of the nuptial meaning of the body, of the
value of a transparent sign. By means of this the Creatortogether
with the perennial mutual attraction of man and woman through masculinity
and femininityhas
written in the heart of them both the gift of communion, that is, the
mysterious reality of his image and likeness. It is a question of this
value in the act of self-mastery and temperance, to which Christ referred
in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:27-28).
Experiencing freedom
6. This act may give the impression of suspension "in the emptiness of
the subject." It may give this impression especially when it is necessary
to make up one's mind to carry it out for the first time, or, even more,
when the opposite habit has been formed, when man is accustomed to yield
to the lust of the flesh. However, even the first time, and all the more
so if he then acquires the capacity, man already gradually experiences his
own dignity. By means of temperance, he bears witness to his own
self-mastery and shows that he is carrying out what is essentially
personal in him. Furthermore, he gradually experiences the freedom of the
gift, which in one way is the condition, and in another way is the
response of the subject to the nuptial value of the human body, in its
femininity and masculinity. In this way, the ethos of the redemption of
the body is realized through self-mastery, through the temperance of
"desires." This happens when the human heart enters an alliance with this
ethos, or rather confirms it by means of its own integral subjectivity;
when the deepest and yet most real possibilities and dispositions of the
person are manifested; when the innermost layers of his potentiality
acquire a voice, layers which the lust of the flesh would not permit to
show themselves. Nor can these layers emerge when the human heart is bound
in permanent suspicion, as is the case in Freudian hermeneutics. Nor can
they be manifested when the Manichaean anti-value is dominant in
consciousness. The ethos of redemption, on the other hand, is based on a
close alliance with those layers.
Purity a requirement
7. Further reflections will give us other proofs. Concluding our
analyses on Christ's significant enunciation according to Matthew 5:27-28,
we see that in it the human heart is above all the object of a call and
not of an accusation. At the same time, we must admit that the
consciousness of sinfulness is, in historical man, not only a necessary
starting point. It is also an indispensable condition of his aspiration to
virtue, to purity of heart, to perfection. The ethos of the redemption of
the body remains deeply rooted in the anthropological and axiological
realism of revelation. Referring in this case to the heart, Christ
formulated his words in the most concrete way. Man is unique and
unrepeatable above all because of his heart, which decides his being from
within. The category of the heart is, in a way, the equivalent of personal
subjectivity. The way of appeal to purity of heart, as it was expressed in
the Sermon on the Mount, is in any case a reminiscence of the original
solitude, from which the man was liberated through opening to the other
human being, woman. Purity of heart is explained, finally, with regard for
the other subject, who is originally and perennially co-called.
Purity is a requirement of love. It is the dimension of its interior
truth in man's heart.
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