In the allegorical journey through hell which takes place in Dante’s Inferno, the semi-autobiographical protagonist visits sinners of various stripes suffering eternal torment in descending order of offense. Besides the neutral men, women and angels, and those in limbo (which constitute a separate discussion), the first damned sinners he comes across in hell “proper” are those Dante labels as succumbing to the temptations of the flesh, the lustful.
It is important to note that theologians are living, breathing people, who are themselves the product of sexual acts, and realize the natural inclination to procreate and explore the physical delights of the body which God has providentially united with coital relationships. Thus, for Dante a distortion of these realities we share with the animal kingdom is among the less serious sins (as compared, for instance, with treachery, which is a perversion of the rationality that separates humankind from the rest of terrestrial creation). And yet, famous promiscuous lovers throughout history are punished with ferocity in the Divine Comedy, blown about by turbulent winds to replicate the uncontrollable passions which wreaked havoc on their lives while on earth.
Though we today live in a culture saturated with the over-sexualization of every age group, commercial product and unfulfilled desire, phrases such as the “world’s oldest profession” attest to the fact that we are not unique as a generation in corrupting, abusing or losing ourselves in the magnetism of sensuality. One of the most important Christian theologians of all time, Augustine of Hippo, 17 centuries ago fervently prayed, “Lord, make me chaste. But not yet.” His inner tensions, between flesh and spirit, between action and desire, between what we are and what we ought to be, continue to be echoed in every century and in every human heart.
In Scripture, the analogy of the lover desiring the beloved is commonly presented as the most apt parallel both of the soul’s unquenchable thirst for the divine, and of God’s unwavering fidelity to our adulterous hearts. The stories of Hosea, Susannah and Sirach, as well as the letter of St. James, are particularly clear on this point. The self-surrender that is an element in any sacred physical embrace represents a microcosmic expression of the enrapture we experience when in contact with our heart’s First True Love, God. Perverting this experience in an endless attempt at replicating this authentic relationship through lust is not excusable, but it is, to many minds at least, understandable.
Unlike other sins (such as envy), lust is plainly a misbegotten and misplaced love, a “good” gone awry when taken in quantities, or situations, or contexts which are inappropriate. What are the unspoken words at the heart of every extramarital affair or one night-stand? “Yes, I know that something here is wrong in theory, but in this particular case an exception can be made. I really desire/need/deserve what I here seek.” Yet, Christians assert that this search is ultimately misdirected and futile, “for those who seek, find.”
Not only revelation, but natural reason tells us that using another human person as merely a weigh-station in our own life’s journey or a pleasure-making machine is problematic. In discussing the duty of every human act of the will, rationalist philosopher Immanuel Kant once articulated his “categorical imperative,” one phrasing of which reads that we ought never to treat another person as a means to a greater end. Lust not only adopts this worldview, but dwells within it – that through another I can achieve physical pleasure, or social acceptance, or emotional support, or fleeting contentment, or the filling of the yawning crater of self-doubt within me, and that the other’s role in the process be damned. Such ego-centered, as opposed to other-centered, “love” disfigures the destiny for which the human heart is made, both with our fellow human beings and with the transcendent.
Michael M. Canaris is an administrator at Fairfield University’s Center for Faith and Public Life and is on the faculty for the Department of Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies at Sacred Heart University.
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