"In the mystery of God's creation, sexual attraction is a call to communion. Lust is a lie. It keeps us from hearing the call to self-giving inscribed in the body itself. Men have always been attracted to the feminine form, and women to the masculine. This, in itself, is nor lust. … It is one thing for a man to be aware of the value of sexuality among the other riches of a woman. It is another to reduce all the riches of her femininity to a single value — sex.
"Lust obscures the significance of the body and the worth of the person. … Lust in the heart aims not to establish a communion of persons, but only to satisfy the sexual urges of the body.
"According to Jesus, this reduction of the person can be expressed in a single look. In the man's heart, the woman ceases to be valued as a whole person, as Eve was valued by Adam, and instead becomes an object of lust."
I think this bit clarifies things greatly, so I'd like to repeat what seem to me to be the most significant sentences. Men have always been attracted to the feminine form, and women to the masculine. This, in itself, is not lust. … Lust in the heart aims not to establish a communion of persons, but only to satisfy the sexual urges of the body.
Obviously, for us homosexuals, lust toward women isn't a big problem, but I think this is useful to think about with respect to our attractions toward men, whether we believe, as I do, that all sexual activity with the same sex is wrong, or we believe that homosexual activity is not necessarily always wrong.
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I'm pleased to be in complete agreement with you. I wish the use of the word 'lust' were confined to its relation to sex. In my opinion use in connection with power, wealth, etc. diminishes its meaning to just a strong desire or urge, not necessarily bad or sinful.
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