Untitled Homily

Intro

Sex. It sells.

Imagine what society would be like if God’s moral laws about sex was followed. How much advertising is directly or indirectly amplified by exciting lust? How many bad decisions are driven by lust? How many relationships are destroyed either directly through adultery or indirectly by ignoring the bonding power of love over lust. How much violence is driven by lust?

What good comes out of lust?

References

The foot of the soul is properly understood as love. When it is misshapen it is called concupiscence or lust; when it is well formed it is called love or charity. Love moves a thing in the direction toward which it tends. - Saint Augustine. 2000. Expositions of the Psalms 1–32. Edited by John E. Rotelle. Translated by Maria Boulding. Vol. 15. The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press.

Footnote: A key idea with Augustine. In his Confessions XII,9,10 he speaks of all things being drawn to their proper places by a natural love comparable to “weight,” a stone downward, fire upward. Only when rightly ordered can they find their places, and therein also find rest. “Love is my weight,” he concludes.

there is no difficulty in abstaining unless when there is lust in enjoying. - Augustine of Hippo. 1887. “On Christian Doctrine.” In St. Augustin’s City of God and Christian Doctrine, edited by Philip Schaff, translated by J. F. Shaw, 2:564. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.

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