What if she is not Catholic, but still a Christian?
I did not realize at first you were the original poster
Long post follows
It truly makes no difference. Christ established a Church of which He is head and which He guides with the light of the Holy Spirit. In the past, Christians professed their belief in “
unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam” (one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church) and the Gospels clearly say:
I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord ? For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread. …] And [Christ] is the head of the body, the church.
At later points in history, major communities separated themselves from full communion with the Church. Centuries of Sacred Tradition were distorted or denied, and the Sacred Scripture was deprived of some parts and re-interpreted. However, the Catholic Church has preserved the fullness of the divine revelation. What She teaches about lust is the most perfect teaching, rooted on life and love and holiness.
If she is a Christian who is not yet in full communion with the Church, she should - as all should - learn more about the sacred tradition in order to understand why Holy Church teaches what she teaches and why it is gravely erroneous to teach otherwise. We don’t follow the Church as blind slaves who ignore what the master wants, but as friends of Christ who know what the Father wants from us.
I have great love and respect for all my brothers in Christ, regardless of whether or not they are yet in full communion with the Church. I simply have learned and understood - as one who had walked away from the Church and has been lead back by the Good Shepherd - what the Church is and has been, and that without the Church there would be no Christianity.
Even from the scriptural standpoint - just to clarify things - the Lord says:
from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you.
St. Paul writes:
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: …] sexual immorality, impurity …] I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is …] and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin …] will not inherit the kingdom of God.
However, this, er, “literal” interpretation of the Scripture may suffice, but is definitely not what God asks of us - which is why He grants light to the Church. What I mean is that we did not need St. Paul to tell us this: God already said, first in the Law and then personally in Christ, that lust is condemned as adultery itself. The issue here is that we are not supposed to be under the law, but under grace. We are not supposed to be servants who are told not to dwell in illicit sexual pleasure because the master said so, we are supposed to be children of the light who are told that chastity reflects God’s majesty and offers due reverence to the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that to offend chastity and indulge in lust is opposed to life itself, offends God, and is an abuse over a body that is not our own (words of the Scriptures).
Such is the mystery of Holy Communion itself, that is, of the Eucharist and of the Tradition taught for over twenty centuries that the consecrated offerings become true body of our Lord. He who has ears, let him hear:
He broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: Take this, all of you, and eat it; this is my body which will be given up for you.
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery–but I am talking about Christ and the church.
Human sexuality is one of the most wondrous mysteries and something most sacred, thus it is the first and foremost target of Satan. The first thing that our forefathers did when they disobeyed God and lost sanctifying grace was to turn from self-giving love to selfish love, thus desiring with lust one another and, at once, being ashamed of being exposed to the lustful looks of one another, they covered themselves. This is the exact opposite of the love between spouses, who truly become one and have no shame before one another in the holiness of wedlock.
Satan aims to desecrate sexuality, employing our imperfect will towards unbalanced and disordered enjoyment of sexual pleasure. In doing this (and I am now not talking of this specific case, but, in general, to what the world experiences through time) he strikes at the core of the family, for it transforms men and women into objects, it renders Matrimony void of meaning (or at least redefines it on imperfect foundations), and it brings men and women closer to the animal realm rather than closer to the divine nature in which they are supposed to be partaking. He does this for a single purpose: to oppose unity and create division. God is perfect unity: the Trinity is perfect unity, God willed that the spouses became one, Christ unites the humanity with the divinity and the Church with God, willing that they become one as He and the Father are one, in the unity of the Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit who is Love itself.
