REFLECTION:

This past Monday, I was invited by the 8th grade religion class to answer questions they had about lust, love, conscience, men and women, and God’s intention for us. One of the questions that stayed with me was simple but honest: How do we avoid lust?

To help them understand, I used the image of a meter. Love, I explained, is innate in us because we are created by a God who is love. Love itself is not the problem. But when love goes unchecked by the intellect and conscience, it becomes disordered. Too much love focused inward becomes lust. Too little love becomes selfishness and indifference. God’s desire for us is not suppression, but balance—a harmony between heart, mind, and conscience.

This same dynamic is at work in today’s reading from 2 Samuel 11.

David’s fall does not begin with adultery. It begins with unchecked desire. While his army is at war, David stays behind. From the rooftop, desire enters through his eyes. Lust is not yet action—but it is already direction. What David fails to do at that moment is what we try to teach our students: to pause, to check the meter, to listen to conscience.

Lust, when ignored, does not remain isolated. It moves forward. Desire becomes deception. Deception becomes abuse of power. Abuse of power leads to violence and death. This is the tragic progression: Lust → deception → abuse of power → murder. And here’s the important shift: lust is not only about sexuality.

We can be lustful for control, for recognition, for influence, for being right, for being admired, or for having the final word. In a school or parish setting, lust can look like:

• Wanting authority without responsibility
• Protecting reputation instead of seeking truth
• Using position to silence rather than to serve
• Manipulating situations instead of confronting them honestly

David uses his power not to protect life, but to protect himself. The king becomes more concerned with image than integrity. And in contrast, Uriah—who has no power—acts with honor, restraint, and fidelity.

This is why conscience matters.

Conscience is the brake on desire. It is what keeps love ordered. When conscience is ignored, desire doesn’t disappear—it mutates. What begins as hunger becomes domination.

For our students, our faculty, our parish leaders—and for ourselves—this reading is a mirror. The question it asks is not simply, “What do you desire?” but “Who is guiding your desire?”

God does not remove our capacity to love. He gives us conscience so that love leads to life, not destruction.

David’s story reminds us that even the most faithful can fall when desire goes unchecked—but it also prepares us for the mercy that comes when truth is finally faced.



And that is where God is always waiting—not at the rooftop of temptation, but at the door of repentance.