Changing the World with Pure (or Impure) Thoughts

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 17, 2025

Sometimes our thoughts are holy and fruitful. Other times they are shameful and destructive. We change the world when our thoughts take flesh: one thought, word, and deed at a time.

St. Francis of Assisi famously threw himself into a thorn bush to resist the affliction of impure thoughts. Most of us understand the intensity of the temptation. In the 1980s, a famous young pop star said on TV that she left the Catholic Church as a teenager when she learned that an impure thought, committed with full knowledge and consent, is a mortal sin.

How can an impure thought without repentance change our eternal destiny? Let’s examine how one impure thought changes a life and a nation.

An impure thought usually begins with an occasion of sin and a deliberate impure glance. Perhaps the Devil is poking one’s imagination with an obscene pitchfork. Without resistance, an impure fantasy and the whole array of external sins of impurity follow. Impurity affects the way we think, the way we behave, the way we dress, and the way we view others.

Christian formation is an arduous task. Many parents neglect the religious education of their children with a convenient excuse. They nobly refuse to impose their religious views. But anti-religious education is easy. Our patterns of thoughts abhor a vacuum, and an impure culture usually fills the void.

The mass media helped institutionalize unrepented impurity in the last century. The sexual revolution of the 1960s gained traction because the vast majority of Americans failed to repent of impure thoughts. The 1968 Broadway musical Hair crooned “Masturbation can be fun” and celebrated every form of sexual debauchery. Today a massive Internet pornography industry thrives.

An impure thought is not a harmless “victimless” sin. Since the 1980s, our Hollywood pop star who left the Church as a teenager went through several marriages, underwent several abortions, and has become an angry old lady. With the porn distraction, many young men are no longer interested in healthy dating. Scientists know that pornography unleashes the body’s dopamine chemistry. The release is more addictive than the dopamine released by crack cocaine. Many of our kids have become lonely, angry, and isolated.

Acts of violence in movies often immediately follow impure scenes. Social scientists observe that impure imagery prepares some viewers to fulfill impure thoughts with acts of violence. However, the same social scientists fail to promote discretion in movie-making. (Remember when writers masterfully nuanced those illicit sex scenes without obscenity?) Old-fashioned institutional censorship helped before censorship became a dirty word and porn became an unalienable human right.

In a famous interview with Dr. James Dobson, the serial murderer Ted Bundy explained that his pornography addiction fueled his murderous frenzy. We’ll never know if Ted Bundy’s testimony was that of a manipulative psychotic. But a sincere Confession after an impure thought may have saved Ted Bundy and his victims.

Impure thoughts disfigure human relationships and entire societies just as Jesus said: “Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Jesus uses the metaphor of dismemberment to stress the gravity of an impure thought. “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” (Mt. 5:28-30) The entire LGBTQ+ ideological agenda is rooted in impure thoughts.

St. Paul reinforces the teachings of Jesus (cf. Phil. 3:17-21). The enemies of the Cross are devoid of uncomfortable self-control: “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame.” He quickly promises our transfiguration in Jesus: “But our [citizenship] is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body.”

The account of the Transfiguration gives Peter, James, and John a foretaste of heavenly glory and strengthens them for the turmoil of the Passion. But the Transfiguration isn’t individualistic. The three Apostles accompany Jesus. Moses and Elijah—representing the Law and the Prophets—are in communion with Jesus. The entire history of Israel, and the world, is transfigured in Jesus.

The Mass re-presents the Transfiguration. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass fulfills and transfigures the worship of the synagogue and the sacrifice of the Temple. The New and Everlasting Covenant fulfills and replaces the Old Covenant. Every imperfection is purified. All that is worldly and disfigured is transfigured in Jesus.

The thoughts and words of the Mass ever-so-gradually become our thoughts and words. Jesus teaches us His way during the Liturgy of the Word. We are at the foot of the Cross with Jesus during the Consecration. Through Holy Communion, Jesus transfigures us with His resurrected glorified body. Our encounter is individual and communal. The Mass unites us with the history of mankind transfigured in His love. (Expect your priests to remain dutifully faithful to the words and gestures of the Mass.)

Our transfiguration begins with our thoughts and continues with our words and deeds. Prayerful thoughts of our transfiguration in Jesus—with words and deeds rooted in our worship—take flesh within our hearts, families, communities, and nations.

O God, who have commanded us to listen to your beloved Son, be pleased, we pray, to nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory. [Collect, 2nd Sunday of Lent]

Our thoughts—transfigured by the grace of Jesus at Mass and the Sacraments—change the world. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16)