HISTORICAL MAN

    The entrance of shame indicates a radical change in their experience of embodiment. It indicates the loss of grace and holiness. "Original man" gives way to "historical man" who must now contend with lust in his heart.

Lust is erotic desire void of God's love. Hence, if we even look lustfully at others, we've already committed adultery in our hearts (see Mt 5:28). Christ's words are severe in this regard. John Paul poses the question: "Are we to fear the severity of these words, or rather have confidence in their salvific content, in their power?" (Oct 8, 1980).

Their power lies in the fact that the man who utters them is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29). Christ didn't die and rise from the dead merely to give us coping mechanisms for sin. His death and resurrection are efficacious. They effectively "liberate our liberty from the domination of concupiscence," as John Paul expresses it.

On this side of heaven, we will always be able to recognize a battle in our hearts between love and lust. Even so, John Paul insists that "the redemption of the body" (see Ro 8:23) is already at work in men and women of history. This means if we open our bodies once again to the "breath" of the Holy Spirit, we can experience a "real and deep victory" over lust. We can progressively rediscover in what is erotic that original nuptial meaning of the body and live it. This liberation from lust and the freedom it affords is, in fact, "the condition of all life together in truth" (Oct 8, 1980).