The Church teaches that it is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action. Any use of the sexual faculty outside of marriage is contrary to its purpose as sexual pleasure is sought outside a marital relationship. How do we overcome this?

One of the great lessons in the Theology of the Body of St John Paul II is that the opposite of love is not so much to hate, but to use. In the pope’s philosophy of Personalism, human beings are persons only to be loved and never used. To use someone would mean to instrumentalise, manipulate, or utilise another (or his body) for one’s own advantage, gain, purpose or pleasure.

Is sexual desire good or bad? Eros, the powerful energy of attraction, was created to lead us to love, beauty, and ultimately, heaven. Yet, through sin, it became distorted into lust, turning love into use. Redemption through Christ restores eros to its original purpose, guiding us to seek what is true, good, and beautiful, and pointing us toward the divine union we were made for.