What happened to the commandment “Do not commit adultery”?
Author: LOA Editorial Office,
"Love One Another!" 35/2016
Only a person with a pure heart is capable of love. And a pure heart means abiding in a state of grace; it is a relationship of love with God and other people.
A necessary condition for persevering in love is keeping the commandments. Jesus asks each one of us: “abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” (John 15:9–10)
“What happened to the commandment: ‘Do not commit adultery’ in our lives?” St John Paul II was asking us. “Are spouses really eager for their children to be born of pure parents? Do we understand the sense that the human body is called for resurrection and that we should care for the preservation of its dignity? Can we understand that human sexuality is evidence of an unheard trust that God gives to man, male and female, and do we try not to abuse that trust of God? Do we remember that every human is a person, and that another person must not be reduced to the role of an object, which can be watched with lust or which is simply used?” (4 June 1991)
Is it OK to commit adultery?
The truth about man, about his infinite dignity, which is revealed to us by Jesus Christ, is questioned by modern pagans and followers of gender ideology.
The rejection of Christian values always leads to moral degeneration, practical materialism, utilitarianism and hedonism.
If we question the existence of God and the immortal human soul, then the mystery of man is reduced to a material body, to a set of organs, which can be used according to the criteria of pleasure and efficiency. In this way, sexuality is devoid of the spiritual and personal dimension, it ceases to be a sign of love – an unselfish gift of self. On the contrary, it becomes a tool to satisfy selfish impulses and selfish desires. St John Paul II writes: “Thus the original import of human sexuality is distorted and falsified, and the two meanings, unitive and procreative, inherent in the very nature of the conjugal act, are artificially separated: in this way, the marriage union is betrayed and its fruitfulness is subjected to the caprice of the couple. Procreation then becomes the ‘enemy’ to be avoided in sexual activity: if it is welcomed, this is only because it expresses a desire, or indeed the intention, to have a child ‘at all costs’, and not because it signifies the complete acceptance of the other and therefore an openness to the richness of life which the child represents. In the materialistic perspective described so far, interpersonal relations are seriously impoverished.” (Evangelium vitae, 23)
“Every human is a person, and that another person must not be reduced to the role of an object, which can be watched with lust or which is simply used” (St John Paul II)
Shaped in this way, in human hearts and in society, is the culture of death, which corrupts human conscience. John Paul II warns that, due to the impact of the mass media, human conscience is subjected to an “extremely serious and mortal danger: that of confusion between good and evil, […] A large part of contemporary society looks sadly like that humanity which Paul describes in his Letter to the Romans. It is composed ‘of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth’ (Rom. 1:18): having denied God and believing that they can build the earthly city without him, ‘they became futile in their thinking’, so that ‘their senseless minds were darkened’ (Rom. 1:21); ‘claiming to be wise, they became fools’ (Rom. 1:22), carrying out works deserving of death, and ‘they not only do them but approve those who practise them’ (Rom. 1:32). When conscience, this bright lamp of the soul (cf. Matt. 6:22–23), calls “evil good and good evil” (cf. Isa. 5:20), it is already on the path to the most alarming corruption and the darkest moral blindness.” (Evangelium vitae, 24).
The revealed truth about sexual intercourse
God reveals to us that man was created in His image and likeness, and that man is a sign of His presence in the world. Man has been given the sublime dignity of a child of God, “in man there shines forth a reflection of God himself” (Evangelium vitae, 34). God calls man to love, to participate in his divine nature (cf. 2 Pet. 1:4), therefore everything in man, including the sexual domain, is to be subordinated to the law of love.
At the time of receiving the sacrament of marriage, Jesus consecrates man and woman and makes them husband and wife for each other. Then the spiritual and physical unity of sacramental marriage makes them both an image, an icon of the Holy Trinity. If the spouses are in a state of grace, then in the act of marriage they communicate to each other the love of Jesus who is present in their sacrament of marriage. Then they participate in the life and love of God in the Holy Trinity.
Sexual life for spouses who are pure of heart becomes a source of mutual sanctification, an experience of mutual love in the love of Christ, a place where God can bring new people into existence.
By contrast, sexual life outside sacramental marriage is an act of disobedience to God, a rejection of the commandment “Do not commit adultery”, a brutal murder of love, a terrible torment inflicted on Jesus. This is how St Faustina describes one of her mystical visions: “I saw the Lord Jesus tied to a pole, stripped of his garments, and immediately there was a whipping. […] Then the Lord said to me these words: ‘I suffer even greater pain than what you see.’ And Jesus showed me for what sins he underwent the whipping, and these are the sins of impurity. Oh, how terribly Jesus suffered morally when he surrendered to the whipping.” (Diary 445)
Conscious and willing premarital or extramarital sex, the use of contraception, petting, oral sex, homosexual acts, watching pornography, masturbation and other such activities are mortal sins that break the sixth commandment and introduce man to a hell of selfishness and enslavement by evil forces, making him addicted to sexual acts, as to drugs or alcohol.
Only Jesus Christ can deliver people from this bondage and addiction. Only He can heal various spiritual and emotional wounds caused by the sins of impurity and teach you to love with a pure heart. You only need to seek the treatment suggested by Jesus. First you have to tell Jesus in prayer that you cannot cope by yourself, that only He can heal you. The treatment Jesus suggests is simple. It involves a radical renunciation of sin and all that leads to it, a sincere repentance and going to the sacrament of penance, daily Eucharist and an hour of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and daily Rosary and Scripture reading. You also have to remember never to be discouraged and immediately go to confession after committing a mortal sin. You must also be patient and persevering, for a full recovery needs a long time. He who endures to the end, who will not get discouraged, will surely be healed. Jesus assures us: “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13).
To help you heal all the wounds of your heart and mature to love, the Lord Jesus invites you to the community of the Movement of Pure Hearts. He wants to shape your character, to free you from selfishness and from all addiction, to heal all the wounds of your heart and to teach you to love with pure love.
If the spouses are in a state of grace, then in the act of marriage they communicate to each other the love of Jesus who is present in their sacrament of marriage
When and how can you join the Movement of Pure Hearts? Any time! First, go to confession, and when you receive Jesus in Holy Communion, give yourself to him exclusively, saying the prayer of entrustment of the MPH.
Please, let the editors of Love One Another! know about your joining the MPH. Also, please write a short testimony. Then we will be able to send you a special blessing and write your name down in the Book of Pure Hearts. Every day, pray the prayer of entrustment of the MPH; remember its commitments and live by them. When you are attacked by temptations, then immediately turn to Jesus and Mary, crying out: “Lord Jesus, help me! Mary, protect me.” This short prayer really works. “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Cor. 10:13).
Every day, undertake systematic work on shaping your character. Organise your daily timetable in such a way as to find time for prayer, work and rest. Being faithful to these commitments will be fulfilling God’s will, as well as agreeing to overcome your selfishness with the power of Christ, to shape in yourself a beautiful character and to love with a pure heart.
Remember that the formative magazine of the MPH is Love One Another! Read this bimonthly regularly and use it for evangelisation in your circles of friends. Every day, our editorial team pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy for all members of the MPH and the readers of the magazine worldwide. I sincerely bless you in your daily effort to shape your character.
Fr Mieczysław Piotrowski with the
editorial team
Source: https://loamagazine.org/archive/2016/2016-35/what-happened-to-the-commandment-do-not-commit-adultery
The article was published with the permission from "Love One Another!" in September 2020.
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