Fantasy QUESTION from Diane December 12, 1999 I am not even close to getting married, and I have an imagination. According to the Catholic Church is it wrong to fantasize about my wedding night (if I even have one)?
God Bless, Di
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius on December 19, 1999 Dear Miss Diane:
While it is natural to some degree to have fantasies about one's wedding night, it is not healthy spiritually. Sexual fantasy in this manner relates to lust. The Catechism states:
1866 Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished, following St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great. They are called capital because they engender other sins, other vices. 138 They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia. In this next paragraph of the Catechism we see that lusting after another person is related to the sin of adultery:
2336 Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins. In the Sermon on the Mount, he interprets God's plan strictly: You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 122 What God has joined together, let not man put asunder. 123 The tradition of the Church has understood the sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality.
And finally, the Catechism describes the reason that lust is wrong:
2351 Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes. I would advise that you try to curb the sexual fantasies. Lust as a capital sin leads to others. If we exploit our ability to fantasize about sex, we are dangerously close to committed a physical sexual act.
ALL sin begins in the imagination. That is why we are admonished in the Bible to guard our senses.
St. Paul gives good advice....
PHIL 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Present yourself to your future husband pure in mind and body and God will richly bless you for it.
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