POH part 2 Powerpoint

Purity of Heart, part 2

Adultery within Marriage
• Is a man free to look lustfully at his wife?
• Adultery in the heart is defined by the presence of lust
• If a person reduces their spouse to an object for pleasure, this is adultery in the heart (3)
• The dignity and balance of human life depends on who men and women will be for each other

The Path to Purity
• Adultery is sinful because marriage is sacred
• Marriage - free, mutual giving, not taking
• The sixth commandment can only be fulfilled by purifying our heart
• We become pure of heart
– by restoring Christ’s lordship over our lives
– by battling lust(4)
– Christ wants to liberate us from lust; His words give us the power to save us

Embodied Morality
• Christ’s words have often been misunderstood
• Manichaeism -heresy
– matter is the source of all evil
– spirit is good
• A human being is a good spirit trapped in an evil body
– the body itself was the cause of sin; sexuality and procreation were degrading(5)
• Jesus located sin in the heart, not the body(6)
– He calls the total person to purity

The Value of the Body
• Christ’s words about lust affirm the value of the body
• The body shares in our dignity as persons
• The body is sacramental; it manifests the spirit and expresses the person
• Christians believe in the redemption and resurrection of the body
• Purifying the heart helps us to see the true value of the body

The Heritage of the Heart
• Nietzsche -will to power
– pride of life
• Marx -economic wealth
– lust of the eyes
• Freud -sexual urge
– lust of the flesh(8)
• Bible - hope of redemption
– man is afflicted by lust, but not defined by it(9)
• The heritage of our hearts from the beginning is the call to love

Passion and Purity
• Eros
– Greek word for romantic love - passion
– Genesis- the call to become one flesh
• Ethos
– what is good and right -purity
– Ethos understands Eros as a call to embrace the good, the beautiful and the true(10)
• Passion and purity are called to meet and bear fruit in the human heart
• Christ’s call to overcome lust is a call to experience the fullness of erotic love

The Hidden Spring
• Does ethos (morality) suffocate eros?
• Christ does not limit our hearts, but liberates them and calls them to fullness
• Our hearts are the hidden spring - guard them against impurity
• We need to fully understand and live our masculinity and femininity
• This requires a deep study of oneself(11)

The New Man
• Christ introduces a new way of living as an embodied person
• All of Christ’s work is directed toward the redemption of the body
• Without redemption, we would be in permanent bondage to lust and decay
• Freedom is the fruit of self-control and the foundation for love(12)
• Love can only flourish where there is purity of heart

True Purity
• The Old Testament placed great importance on ritual purity
• Purity became understood in an external sense
• Jesus taught that only what is in the heart can make a person pure or impure(13)
• The human heart is the battleground between purity and impurity(14)

Living by the Spirit
• St Paul uses the terms “flesh”and “Spirit” he does not mean body and soul
– Flesh - the part of the heart dominated by sin
– Spirit - the Holy Spirit who lives in the heart of every Christian
• We overcome sinful nature and develop a disposition of purity
– by the power of Christ operating with us through the Holy Spirit(15)
• The fruits of the Spirit flow from a heart given over to Christ

Freedom in the Spirit
• Christ’s saving work is cosmic; it rescues the universe from sin
• It begins with man and the redemption of the body(16)
• Self-control is essential for living by the Spirit(17)
• Living by the flesh
– bondage to sin and decay
• Living by the Spirit
– true freedom(18)

Love Fulfills
• The Gospel is an appeal to human freedom
• All of Christian morality finds its fulfillment in a single word - love
• Christ sets us free so that we may love
• Using our freedom to indulge in sin is the opposite of true freedom(19)
• A heart given over to Christ expresses itself through self-control and acts of love

Honoring the Body
• Purity is more than just abstaining from lust
• Purity -
– directing our desires towards the true, the beautiful and the good
– using self-control to direct the body towards holiness and honor
• The negative and positive poles of purity(20)
– Abstinence and self-control depend on each other
• Self-control -not because the body is evil, but because the body is worthy of honor

Restoring Harmony
• St Paul describes the entire human person
• Because of its divine creation and redemption, it is worthy of honor(21)
• We restore order in our lives by controlling our bodies in holiness and honor(22)
• Harmony in the body springs from harmony in the heart

Bought with a Price
• When the Word became flesh, the human body was brought into the life of the Trinity(24)
• “You are not your own; you were bought with a price”
• The fruit of redemption is the Holy Spirit, who dwells within the body as a temple
• By accepting the Spirit, the Christian receives himself again as a gift
– He becomes who he was meant to be(25)

Purity and Love
• Purity is both a virtue and a gift
– The virtue of self-control prepares our heart to receive the gift, which is the sight of God
– The gift strengthens the virtue, enabling us to enjoy the fruits of a pure life in the Spirit(26)

Purity and Joy
• God inscribed his love in the human body by creating man in his image, as male and female(27)
• When purity is gained, we are free to experience the body in all its fullness and joy
• We receive the gift of ourselves by controlling our bodies in holiness and honor through the Holy Spirit(28)
• Only then can we become a true gift for another person

An Education in Being Human
• The Creator gives us all a task; to declare, through the body, the dignity of their person(29)
– we must fulfill the sign of the gift by truly becoming a gift
• Science treats the body as an object to be manipulated(30)
– This alienates the body from the spirit
• Spiritual maturity must accompany science to find the true meaning of the body

The Role of Culture
• What happens when the body becomes the subject of art?
• How do we relate to depictions of the body with purity of heart?
• How can we foster a culture that promotes the truth about being human?

The Veil of Shame
• The role of art in encouraging purity of heart
– The naked human body has the meaning of a gift from person to person
– sin brought shame and a need for bodily privacy; sexual privacy shields the gift from the gaze of lust
– The right to privacy must be respected in art and the gift-giving meaning of the body must be preserved(31)

The Naked Truth
• When the meaning of the body is obscured, distorted or misrepresented, art becomes a lie(32)
• Art must not separate the body from the person and make it an anonymous object
• We must oppose pornography out of respect for the true dignity of the body(33)

Building a Culture of Purity
• The question is not whether the body should be described in art, but how
• An artist should be pure of heart
• Artistic morality also involves the recipient of the work
– not a mere consumer of sensuality, but an active seeker of the truth
• We should always live in a way that affirms the dignity of the body
• The affirmation of the body is essential for fostering a healthy culture(34)

Sex outside of marriage?
• The one flesh union is designed to be a reflection of God’s love
• If it is not, it cannot be authentic love
• God’s love
– Total gift of self
– Freely given
– Fruitful; open to the gift of new life
– Faithful
– Forever - lifetime commitment
• If it doesn’t meet these standards, it is immoral