by Pedro A. Moreno, O.P. Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis
There can be no discipleship without chaste love
Jesus came down from heaven for each one of us and our salvation. An important element of that salvation process was to restore creation to the purity of its origins. Purity is essential if you want to get closer to God or serve Him.
Purity or cleanliness of heart is echoed throughout Scripture. Here is a sample from Psalm 24, 4-6: “The clean of hand and pure of heart, who has not given his soul to useless things, what is vain. He will receive blessings from the Lord, and justice from his saving God. Such is the generation that seeks Him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.”
Only those who are clean, of pure heart, can take part in the temple worship. Even at Mass the priest washes his hands before the consecration. Purity is not only important or desired, it is an essential requirement for love, service, communion and discipleship.
At the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.”
At the Last Supper, Jesus emphasized the importance of purity when he washed the feet of his disciples. In this one act Jesus left us a clear message of the intense unity between the Eucharist, loving service as disciples and purity. Purity is the fruit of keeping the Sixth Commandment.
The Sixth Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” was expanded by Christ to include much more than infidelity to the exclusiveness of marriage vows. In the Sermon on the Mount, he teaches us in a firm way: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
The Sixth Commandment is not limited to those who have married. This commandment demands of each one of us purity of heart. This commandment calls us to be free to love according to God’s plan and to live out our sexuality as God’s gift, which should not be tarnished. We are, and should see everyone around us, as the pure and chaste image of God.
Without purity or chastity all we have left is death, destruction, dishonor and division. The impure heart is incapable of true love because it is not free to love, it is enslaved. To be pure means to be free from anything that weakens, interferes, damages or tries to change who, or what, someone or something is in its’ fullest expression of being or purpose.
When we apply purity to our moral life we are speaking of the virtue of chastity, a virtue fully lived by Christ. A virtue we are all called to live as disciples. There is a universal call to chastity. We cease to be fully human without it and we cannot truly love without it. Chastity leads to true Christian love, humbleness and holiness. Jesus lived it and so must we. One who is chaste has properly ordered the many loves in his or her life and kept the love of God as No. 1.
The chaste person, like Jesus Christ, is truly free. A chaste person is a whole person, body and soul in the image and likeness of our loving God. The chaste person is in communion with the loving presence of God. The chaste person has not compartmentalized his or her own sexuality or created an artificial division between the body and soul. The affectivity, the capacity to love, of a chaste person is enhanced by channeling the capacity to love in and through Christ. To exist and love in this way is the call of the Sixth Commandment.
This purity of heart, this chastity, is much more than a list of “do not” statements: Do not engage in wrongful sexual activity; do not have lust in your heart; do not treat yourself or others as objects of pleasure which de humanizes, etc. This commandment calls us to be decent, honorable, straightforward, genuine in our God given sexuality and as we follow Christ. This commandment calls us to be as Christ is, mature and free of passions that tie you down and to possess loving hearts that are generous and willing to serve and sacrifice for others. This will lead us down the path in becoming better images of our loving God, this is what we are meant to be.
A pure and chaste person achieves the goal of integrating his or her communion with God with the powers of life and love that were generously gifted to him or her by God. A chaste disciple is loving, joyful, peaceful, mature and honest while growing in self-control.
I would like to end this with a quote from Saint John Paul II. He reminded us in Evangelium Vitae #97: “The trivialization of sexuality is among the principal factors that have led to contempt for new life. Only a true love is able to protect life. There can be no avoiding the duty to offer, especially to adolescents and young adults, an authentic education in sexuality and in love, an education that involves training in chastity as a virtue that fosters personal maturity and makes one capable of respecting the ‘spousal’ meaning of the body.”
Prayer, penances and the sacraments are essential parts of the training program toward purity and chastity. Our culture is trying hard to destroy this virtue, but God will send His Spirit to help us. We also have great teachers. Our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Joseph are helping us too. Above all we have the best example. Jesus, a model of chaste love for all to follow.
May we continue to pray for the victims of those who have not lived up to this calling and pray for the Church. Maybe even consider observing the first Friday of every month as a day of fasting and abstinence in reparation for sins of those who have disregarded God and His Sixth Commandment.