Lust & the Seven Deadly Sins
Lust is all the rage these days. At least that’s the way it seems with so many high profile figures giving way to it. Or maybe it’s always been this way. It certainly seems that lust is here to stay.
Lust has its place in the list of the Seven Deadly Sins, but it’s not high on the list. In fact, Lust is the least deadly. For you happy souls who have forgotten, or never knew, the Seven Deadly Sins, starting with the worst, are:
- Pride
- Envy
- Anger
- Sloth
- Greed
- Gluttony
- Lust
(And, for you ancients who still recall a little Latin – Superbia, Invidia, Ira, Desidia, Avaritia, Gula, and Luxuria. Reciting these sins in Latin gives them their proper gravitas.) Whether in English or Latin, Lust comes at the very bottom of the list, the least deadly of those sins. Keep in mind that being the “least deadly” sin doesn’t mean it’s a virtue.
Exactly what “least deadly” does mean was dramatized by Dante Alighieri in his great narrative poem, The Divine Comedy, around the year 1300. You recall — maybe you recall — that in the poem Dante himself makes a grand tour of Hell and Purgatory and Heaven. He reveals that Hell is composed like a colossal sports stadium. The largest circle is at the top and as you descend toward the bottom each circle is somewhat smaller, much like the circular rows in a conventional stadium. The very bottom of the stadium is the smallest circle, the deepest pit of hell, where the worst sinners end up. There Dante sees those sinners whose transgressions were the least concerned with sexual desire or weaknesses of the flesh and but were driven by cold, heartless intellectuality. Down there Hell is frozen over.
But way at the top, where Dante first entered, he sees those sinners who were blown away by sexual desire, by simple animal lust. It’s here that Dante meets and talks briefly with a famous pair of lovers, Francesca and Paulo, who in life were swept away by illicit desire and who, like all such sinners, are now forever blown about by an eternal wind that whirls them away like leaves – the punishment fitting the crime.
But let’s to get back to Lust, this engrossing subject. The reason that Lust is the least deadly of the Seven Deadly Sins is that you slip or fall into it with the least foresight or thought. Much worse are intellectual sins — such as treason or calculated lying to destroy somebody’s reputation — which are prepared, calculated and carried out with foresight. Like these theological distinctions, our secular laws recognize the difference between a criminal act done in a fleeting moment of weakness or passion on the one hand, and a long-planned crime which has been carried out with methodical precision and in cold blood, such as kidnapping, which can extend over days when it’s complete with ransom notes and the like. The old Catholic Catechism of Christian Doctrine, used to have questions about serious mortal sins and less serious venial sins.
Q. How many things are necessary to make a sin mortal?
A. To make a sin mortal three things are necessary: a grievous matter, sufficient reflection, and full consent of the will.
So, reader, you’re now prepared to examine the sins of the flesh committed by celebrities and politicians and decide for yourself who is guilty of what and to what degree.
By the way, the picture posted at the start of this article shows the lovers Francesca and Paolo being tormented by the ceaseless winds in Dante’s Inferno. It’s by Gustave Dore, the nineteenth century artist who illustrated a number of literary works with dramatically bold engravings which have become almost as famous as the works themselves.