I think men and women will look at this differently. Men and women are different, they, in general, have different temptations, on a generic level.
While, of course, it is very necessary and important to view each human being as an icon of God, and not as an object, I do not think the bishops who turned away from seeing Pelagia\'s naked and provocative displays can or should be blamed for turning away, or that, in turning away, they were objectifying her.
As was mentioned earlier in the Polls section on women wearing bikinis, each person is at a different stage in purification. Others are illumined or deified, but these are like Blessed Nonnus, because he was able to see the image of God in Pelagia. It didn\'t matter to him that she was naked. But, such displays matter to a lot of people, the great majority. And these should not be blamed. Because, if a man or woman has self-knowledge and is working on the purification of the soul, that is very good, and to be encouraged. It is the point at which the VAST marjority of us are at--men and women. We all have our impurities which need purging away.
While some would look on eagerly with lust in their hearts, others, knowing their own sins and seeking not to give occasion for bad thoughts, turn away. It\'s not that they HAVE bad thoughts already. Not everyone who averts his eyes is lustful. Many are just modest. Many even have pure hearts and want to guard their purity, much like modest women of old times would avoid the company of men--not in fear of rape, although that was around then, too, but in order to preserve their inner purity, the purity of their souls.
So prayer, the aversion of eyes--these things are used as good methods by people at many different levels of purification--some who are already pure, and others who are just beginning to repent.
Now, probably the key for dealing with these kinds of temptation is regular confession. Because temptations will always come from somewhere, so one might as well try to work on one\'s reaction to them.
It all depends on where one is. Perhaps one has a problem with actually looking for temptations to fall into. Working on this problem should help one face the pop-up surprise attack temptations in life.
As for those nasty surprises, confession is another aid here. And regular prayer.
Things like this will often act on the soul like a violent attack. Other times, you just brush them off. A good spiritual father and confessor would be able to go into this more specifically with you, personally, Nikola. But, as we are talking generally on this forum, I would say that that\'s all I know for the moment.
Algeria,
I want to tell you that I did not mean to \"go after\" you for anything. I just wanted to give a little clarification. Forgive me.
Be the first person to like this.