This means that the body should not be abused or denigrated. Any practice that denies the basic worth or goodness of the body is something that the Catholic perspective has explicitly rejected. An affective maturity means an awareness and mastery of certain bodily, mental, or spiritual urges for some other greater good. Maturity is not a denial of any of these. Seeking purely physical pleasure is, therefore, not an adequate way to think about human flourishing. Similarly, neither is seeking purely spiritual or mental pleasure. The body, and the good things associated with it and dependent upon it remain very important. Saint John Paul II in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor reminds us that 'the person, by the light of reason and the support of virtue, discovers in the body the anticipatory signs, the expression and the promise of the gift of the self, in conformity with the wise plan of the Creator' (John Paul II, 1993, para. 48).