Question:
Estimated Theologian: my question is the following, when is it a sin to look at a woman? Is it a sin to simply look at a woman in the gym or at the beach? Is it a sin to think how beautiful she is? Etc…
Answer:
Impurity’ is the generic name for both internal and external sins of unconsummated lust. Primarily it signifies external sins, such as awkward views, obscene words, touching, kissing, embracing, lewd gestures, and the like (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 2-2. q. 154. Art. 1. ad. 5).
Is the mutual sight of men and women a sin? That looking at a woman whether she is ugly or beautiful when it is done out of civility or out of necessity is licit, because if civil intercourse between persons of both sexes is licit, so must be the looking at each other between man and woman, for without these views civil society between them cannot be maintained. Nor is there any fault in looking with more pleasure at a beautiful woman than at an ugly one; for beauty was created by God, and from its nature it naturally delights more, as is indubitable, than ugliness; for the former is an object more proportionate to the power than the latter. If anyone should ask whether the sensual movement excited by the sight of a woman is a sin? We will answer that this depends on various circumstances; for if the look is innocent, and the movement is not wanted in any way, and there is due resistance, there will be no guilt, but rather there will be merit. For although some say that every carnal temptation is at least a venial sin, we consider the contrary to be more true. It is one thing that, because of the corruption of our vitiated nature, this happens regularly, and another that it is always so. Having, therefore, due resistance, carnal temptation is not sin, as St. Thomas says (1-2. q. 8. Art. 3. Ad. 3).
Notwithstanding what has been said, the sight of a beautiful or well-composed woman, if it is with great attention, can be a grave fault by reason of the danger, as it was in King David and has been in others, who, assailed by death through the windows of the soul, which are the eyes, fell miserably into sin. And even if the sight is fleeting, if one looks at a woman with lascivious intent, there will be grave guilt, as Jesus Christ says in the Gospel, chapter 5, of St. Matthew: ‘whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart’.
Is it a mortal sin to look at the sexual organs of both men and women? It must be said that being deliberate, it is so, not only in the man with respect to the woman, but also in the latter with respect to the former; because the object being so clumsy, it gravely excites lasciviousness. If the gaze is casual or undeliberate, or for the purpose of healing, it may be free from sin. It is also a grave fault to look purposely at the concubitus (sexual intercourse) of the male with the female; for it is undoubtedly an object capable of exciting, with the greatest vehemence, lasciviousness. The lover of purity must flee far from the dangers of tarnishing his candor, knowing his weakness born of a corrupt nature and to any vice more inclined than that of lasciviousness.
(I have summarized the above from the ‘Compendio Moral Salmaticense’, by Marcos de Santa Teresa, a classic author on Morals who synthesizes the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas and the tradition of the Church).
Fr. Miguel A. Fuentes, IVE
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