Will our war against lust come to an end?

The answer

St. Augustine says, “that perfection is not yet attained in which continence does not struggle with vice. But, now, as long as the ‘flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh’ (Gal. 5:17), it is sufficient for us not to consent to the evils which we feel within us. For, when that consent takes place, then there goes out from the mouth of the heart that which defiles a man. But when, through continence, the consent is not given, the evil of carnal concupiscence, against which a ‘concupiscence’ that is spiritual fights, is not allowed to do harm.”⁸¹³

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty