Why does confessing lust to a priest help beat it?

Confession works in a multitude of ways, but the most impactful is that honesty with our spiritual father eradicates the secretness of the sin. I remember a funny story: a young man told me his priest said, any time you look at anything immodest, call me afterwards and tell me. He said, I was so embarrassed to have to call that I became absolutely diligent in not looking at anything, because of the shame of having to tell another person.

This is why accountability buddies don't work: people won't reveal everything to their friends. But when they have to go to the priest, who is a father figure in a spiritual sense, they are telling on themselves. Lust is like mold. It grows in the darkness, in the secret corners of our life, and when we keep it hidden, it thrives and becomes more powerful and malicious.

But when we bring it before the light of Christ in holy confession, the light shines into the darkness of our soul, and the light of Christ destroys the mold. In both the physical and the spiritual world, the most powerful antiseptic is light, and Christ is light. Cling to these three pillars: prayer, fasting, and confession. They require constant vigilance and participation.

The devil will not hang up a closed for business sign and stop tempting you. But with these tools, instead of saying, I am struggling, meaning constantly defeated, you can say, I am battling. And once someone is doing battle, they can find victory through the power of Jesus Christ, tacking on months, years, even decades of purity, so their soul is purified and prepared to meet our Lord Jesus Christ.