Healing the Gaze: John Paul II on Pornography, Lust, and the Freedom to Love

Pope St. John Paul II

When I first started reading Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, I didn’t expect his teaching on pornography to strike me so personally. But he doesn’t approach the topic as a mere moral prohibition. He situates it within Christ’s most challenging — and liberating — words:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27–28)

For John Paul II, this passage from the Sermon on the Mount is the key to understanding why pornography is not just “bad pictures” but a distortion of our entire vision of the human person.

Christ Goes to the Heart ❤️

John Paul II explains that Christ isn’t simply adding stricter rules to the Law. He is uncovering what adultery — and by extension pornography — really does:

“Adultery ‘in the heart’ is committed not only because of what a man does with his body, but also because of what he does with his interior look” (TOB 43:3).

That “interior look” is what pornography trains. It conditions me to look at others not as persons to be loved, but as objects to be consumed. Jesus’ words cut through that illusion. He’s not just forbidding lustful acts; He’s calling me to purity of heart.

Pornography as the Cultivation of Lust

John Paul II is blunt:

“Pornography and eroticism are a falsification of the conjugal act... turning it into a public domain, when by its nature it is always private” (TOB 61:3).

Pornography doesn’t just display bodies — it creates a way of seeing. It cultivates what Jesus warned against: a look that severs the body from the person, reducing the mystery of love to mechanics.

And here’s the irony: the body, meant to be the “sacrament of the person,” becomes depersonalized. What was created to reveal love is twisted into a commodity.

From Use to Gift

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn’t shame desire itself. Instead, He redeems it. John Paul II explains that eros — the longing inscribed in our humanity — is meant to be purified so it becomes the power to love authentically.

“The heart is called to discover a new measure of the holiness of the body, flowing from the dignity of the person” (TOB 45:3).

Pornography says, “The body is for my use.” Christ says, “The body is for the gift of self.” One enslaves, the other frees.

The Freedom of the Redeemed Gaze

What amazes me most in John Paul II’s reading is that he never leaves us stuck in guilt. He insists that Christ’s words are not a condemnation but an invitation.

“Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount express the reality of the redemption of the heart... They indicate the possibility of living in purity of heart” (TOB 46:6).

That means my eyes can be healed. My desires can be purified. My heart can learn to love as Christ loves.

My Takeaway 🌿

When I connect John Paul II’s vision with Jesus’ words in Matthew 5, I see pornography in a new light. It is not just a private sin or a cultural problem — it is a counterfeit gaze that trains the heart in the opposite of love.

But Christ’s challenge, “whoever looks… lustfully,” is not meant to crush me. It’s meant to free me. He offers a way of seeing others not with lust, but with reverence. Not with consumption, but with communion.

And maybe that’s the hope we need most today: that even in a culture saturated with images, our eyes can be renewed. We can learn to see again — truly see — the person before us as a gift, not an object.

Concluding Prayer 🙏

Lord Jesus, You said, "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” Heal my eyes and my heart. Teach me to see others not with lust, but with love; not as objects, but as persons created in Your image. Purify my desires, so that my body and soul may speak the truth of love You designed from the beginning. Grant me the freedom to love as You love— faithful, self-giving, and pure.

Amen.