The Ethical and Anthropological Content of the Commandment: “You Shall Not Commit Adultery”by Pope John Paul II from his general audience on 23 April 1980. Read text via EWTN.With these words our Holy Father Pope John Paul II brings to a conclusion his 25th catechesis Man and Woman He Created Them. We are using the edition translated by professor Michael Waldstein to whom we are so indebted. This 25th catechesis of Pope John Paul II focuses our attention in great part on the Sermon on the Mount. We find the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel, in the New Testament of the Holy Scripture especially Matthew 5: 27-28. Those are the passages Pope John Paul II is focusing on right now in this 25th catechesis on Man and Woman He Created Them a Theology of the Body. It goes like this: You shall not commit adultery but I say to you whoever looks at a woman to desire her – and the Pope adds in a reductive way (or Waldstein does) – has already committed with her in his heart. This reduction by desire is not a wholesome desire. Husbands and wives should a desire for each other. “Be fruitful and multiply”, that is a part of our marching orders from the Garden, from the beginning. But there is a possessive desire which is demeaning which, in the Holy Father’s words (or Waldstein’s) is reductive; makes less than actual. Remember Schmiegel or Golum, I always get those personalities confused from the Lord of the Rings, “My precious. My precious!.” And so we see the materialism and the bad sort of possession, the desire that character had for the ring. When our Lord gives His Sermon on the Mount, three chapters from Matthew really, the Pope just focusing on two verses here, it is like a stump speech. It is His taking the 10 Commandments, the Decalogue, to the next level. If you remember the cook, the chef, Emeril Lagassi he throws those spices and says ,”Bam!” He takes it up a notch. Well our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ takes the Decalogue up a notch and not only makes it more demanding but gives us the grace we need to fulfill it; to be those blessed people who are pure of heart. So now it is not only not to do a sinful act, not to commit adultery, but now, not even to have such a desire in your heart.“He has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” How? Through the eyes, through the senses. So Pope John Paul II focuses on that one of our senses. So often first we will covet our neighbors wife and then we commit the adultery. Now just because the Scripture or the tradition of the Church or the Pope are saying not to covet your neighbors wife or not to commit adultery doesn’t mean the contra-wise is less true. Thou shall not covet thy neighbors husband. The Spanish has a beautiful expression for the 9th Commandment: Not to covet thy neighbors wife. Not to have impure desires. And for the 6th commandment: Not to commit impure acts. So the Spanish is better, I think, in that regard because when I would teach kids in the school the clever ones would say ,”Well Father I am not married and she is not married, so hey, we can do whatever we want.” “Well no that is fornication.”The Holy Father does not address fornication in this passage. He is focusing on adultery and he spells it out. He says just what adultery is in his understanding. Adultery is the violation of the unity in which a man and woman can unite as spouses so closely that they are one flesh. And he refers us to Genesis