Slave to Sin
One of the worst plagues in our world today is pornography. Someone once did a survey of a great number of protestant pastors. The question was what percentage of the parish members had a problem with pornography? Most of the protestant pastors responded they thought about ten percent. The same question was put to Catholic priests. Their response was about everyone. The difference, Catholic priests hear confessions.
Pornography is a slow, downward spiral of sin. It separates us from family and friends. We become self-centered and withdrawn. I am reminded of a famous person who came out about their addiction to pornography. His name Chris Rock. He is an actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Looking back at his addiction he said it got so bad he could no longer look anyone in the eye. He had been enslaved by the sin.
Lust is a sin whereby we degrade other human beings. Rather than looking at another human being as a beautiful creature made by God, we see them as an object to be used by us and then tossed away. The more we give in to this sin the darker and more demeaning do we become. Most sin is based on an emotion. To overcome these emotions, we need to focus on the virtues. God made us to be attracted to the opposite sex, but not for the purposes of sin, but for procreation. Instead of giving into lust we need to be focused on what is good and pure of the other person. We need to be thinking of acts of charity for each other that build us up not tear us down. Emotions usually only last about fifteen minutes. We can spend our day serving others with acts of kindness. Not only do we build up others but we find we also benefit from our actions of charity.
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen