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We have discussed prudence, justice, fortitude, and patience, which
are all united to meekness. We must now consider what temperance
should be in us, especially under the form in which we most need to
practice it, namely, that of chastity, which corresponds to that of
the beatitude: "Blessed are the clean of heart." We shall first
consider this virtue in the most general manner, as it should be
practiced in every condition or type of life, including Christian
marriage. To proceed with order, we shall speak of the value of this
virtue, of the motive which ought to inspire it. We shall then see
its spiritual fruitfulness, especially when it is practiced under
its highest form, virginity.(1)
THE MOTIVE THAT SHOULD INSPIRE CHASTITY
Chastity, says St. Thomas, is not simply that laudable natural
disposition called modesty, a happy inclination, fearful by nature,
which, through its very fear of evil, protects the soul against the
disorders of concupiscence. Modesty, no matter how laudable, is not
a virtue; it is only a natural good disposition. Chastity is a
virtue and, as the name virtue indicates, it is a power. The
acquired virtue of chastity, as it appeared in the Vestals, causes
the light of right reason to descend into the occasionally disturbed
and troubled sensibility. Infused chastity, received at baptism,
causes the light of grace to descend into the sensible part of the
soul; it makes use of acquired chastity somewhat as the intellect
makes use of the imagination. They are exercised together; acquired
chastity is thus at the service of infused chastity.(2) Virginity is
a still higher virtue, for it offers to God for a whole lifetime the
integrity of body and heart which it consecrates to Him. It
resembles simple chastity, says St. Thomas, as munificence resembles
liberality, since it offers a splendid gift, absolute integrity.(3)
According to St. Cyprian and St. Ambrose, it gives the Church a
particular splendor (4) and contributes in giving it the luster of
the mark of sanctity, to distinguish it from the sects which have
renounced the evangelical counsels.
The value of chastity, whether that of virgins, widows, or married
people, appears first of all by contrast with the disorders which
spring from the concupiscence of the flesh, disorders which often
bring in their wake divorce, family dishonor, the unhappiness of
married couples and their children. We need only recall the divorce
of Henry VIII of England, which drew practically the entire country
into schism and then into heresy. To preserve us from similar
errors, Christ says to all: "If thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck
it out. . . . And if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off. . .
. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should
perish, rather than that thy whole body go into hell." (5)
Chastity is lost through the exterior senses, the thoughts, the
desires of the heart. It does not admit of any kind of forbidden
pleasure. It retrenches even pleasures that are useless though
permitted, and it leads man to live detached from them.
The motive that should inspire chastity is the love of God. Chastity
of heart and body is in reality the renunciation of every illicit
affection out of love of God. It prevents the life of the heart from
descending, so that it may rise toward God like a living flame ever
more pure and ardent. Chastity of the body is like bark around
chastity of the heart, which is the more precious.
To preserve this virtue we must keep always spiritually close to
Jesus crucified, as St. Francis de Sales says.(6) We cannot do this
without a twofold mortification: that of the body and senses,
especially as soon as danger arises, and that of the heart, by
forbidding ourselves every inordinate affection. Such an affection
would become not only useless, but harmful, and would start us down
a perilous slope. It is only too easy for us to descend, and to slip
much more rapidly than we foresee, and it is very difficult to
reascend. People sometimes forge chains for themselves which later
they lack the courage to break. They end by saying as worldings do:
"Human love, if sincere, has undeniable rights." To this we must
answer: "There can be no rights contrary to the love due to God, the
sovereign Good and Source of all truly generous love."
On inordinate affections, The Imitation declares: "Whenever a
man desireth anything inordinately, straightway he is disquieted
within himself. . . . It is by resisting the passions therefore, and
not by serving them, that true peace of heart is to be found. Peace,
therefore, is . . . in the fervent and spiritual man." (7) In the
same work we read that excessive familiarity with people causes the
soul to lose intimacy with our Lord. The author declares: "How
foolish and vain, if thou desire anything out of Jesus! Is not this
a greater loss to thee than if thou shouldst lose the whole world? .
. . Whoever findeth Jesus, findeth a good treasure, a good above
every good. . . . For His sake and in Him, let enemies as well as
friends be dear to thee; and for all these thou must pray to Him
that all may know and love Him." (8) The same sentiments are also
expressed in the hymn, Jesu, dulcis memoria:
Jesu, spes poenitentibus
Quam pius es petentibus!
Quam bonus te quaerentibus!
Sed quid invenientibus!
To reach this close union with Christ, we must be humble and pure of
heart; we must, as St. Francis de Sales says, always practice
humility and chastity and, if possible, never or very rarely mention
them.
THE SPIRITUAL FRUITFULNESS OF CHASTITY
Chastity practiced in its perfection makes man live in mortal flesh
a spiritual life which is like the prelude of eternal life. Since it
frees man from matter, it makes him in a manner like the angels. It
even has for its effect to make his body increasingly like the soul,
and the soul more and more like to God.
When the body lives only for the soul, it tends in fact to resemble
it. The soul is a spiritual substance that can be seen immediately
only by the spiritual gaze of God and the angels. It is simple
because it has no extended parts; it is beautiful, especially when
it keeps a continually upright intention, beautiful with the beauty
of beautiful doctrines, of beautiful actions; it is calm, in the
sense that it is above every corporeal movement; it is incorruptible
or immortal because it is simple and immaterial, because it does not
depend intrinsically on a perishable body.
By purity the body becomes spiritual, so to speak; from time to time
it lets the soul shine through the gaze especially, like the look of
a saint in prayer. By this virtue the body becomes simple: in
proportion as the attitude of a worldly woman is complex, in the
same proportion that of a virgin is simple. As someone has said:
"There are two very simple beings: the child, who does not yet know
evil; and the saint, who has forgotten it by dint of conquering it."
By purity the body grows beautiful, for all that is pure is
beautiful:
for example, an unclouded sky, a diamond through which light passes
without any hindrance. Thus the bodies of the saints represented in
the frescoes of Fra Angelico have a supernatural beauty which is
that of a soul given entirely to God. By purity the body becomes
calm and, in a certain way, even incorruptible; whereas vice
withers, ravages, and kills the body prematurely, virginity
preserves it.
Neither the body of our Lord nor that of the Blessed Virgin
underwent the corruption of the tomb. Not infrequently the bodies of
the saints remain intact, and long after their death sometimes
exhale an exquisite odor, a sign of their perfect chastity. Their
body, which lived only for the soul, still keeps its imprint. The
Eucharist leaves, as it were, seeds of immortality in the body,
which is destined to rise again and to receive a reflection of the
glory of the soul. Christ tells us: "He that eateth My flesh and
drinketh My blood, hath everlasting life; and I will raise him up in
the last day." (9)
Since perfect chastity renders the body like to the soul, it is even
truer to say that it renders the soul like to God. The three
attributes of God appropriated respectively to each of the divine
Persons are power, wisdom, love. By perfect purity the soul becomes
increasingly strong, luminous, and loving. Here especially appears
the fruitfulness of this virtue.
By chastity the soul becomes strong. We have only to recall the
courage of the virgin martyrs: St. Cecilia, St. Agnes, St. Catherine
of Alexandria, St. Lucy of Syracuse, and many others. Their
executioners tired more quickly of torturing them than they did of
suffering. St. Lucy declared to her judges that a chaste and pious
soul is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Upon this answer, they
determined to profane her body by dragging her to a place of
debauchery, but she remained rooted to the ground like a pillar of
granite; the Holy Ghost kept her for Himself in spite of the efforts
of her persecutors. The Lord gave these virgins an invincible
strength which made them surmount every fear in the midst of the
most severe torments. Though not miraculous, what strength, what
moral authority perfect purity gives to religious in hospitals, in
prisons, where they often gain the respect of poor perverted
creatures who recognize in this virtue a superior power, that of the
strong woman whom nothing weakens! For this reason particularly, the
Virgin of virgins, the refuge of sinners and consoler of the
afflicted, is terrible to the demons. She also bears the name of
Mary Help of Christians or Our Lady of Perpetual Help. We may all
hope in her power, which is full of goodness.
Likewise by purity the soul becomes luminous: "Blessed are the clean
of heart: for they shall see God." The Eagle of the Evangelists was
a virgin, and so was St. Paul. St. Thomas, the greatest of
theologians, was delivered at the age of sixteen from every
temptation of the flesh that he might devote his entire life to the
contemplation of divine things which he was to teach to others.
Perfect purity also gives occasionally to Christian virgins, like
Catherine of Alexandria and Catherine of Siena, a supernatural
perception enabling them to see in a way even in this life the
beauty of God, the sublime harmony of the apparently most
contradictory divine perfections, such as God's infinite justice and
the tenderness of His mercy. These Christian virgins do not confound
the good pleasure of God with arbitrariness; they do not argue about
the mysteries of infallible Providence and of predestination, but if
they touch upon them, they use exact expressions full of the spirit
of faith. This clear vision of pure love has also enabled
contemplatives and Christian virgins devoid of theological learning
to write unforgettable pages on the spiritual beauty of Christ's
countenance, on the secret that unites in Him the most heroic
fortitude and the most tender compassion, superabundant sadness and
the loftiest serenity, the supreme demands of justice and the
inexhaustible treasures of mercy. Only great wisdom knows what can
be said and what remains inexpressible on this subject, a mystery
that calls for the silence of adoration.
Finally, perfect purity gives to the soul, together with
supernatural light, a spiritual love of God and of our neighbor,
which is truly the hundredfold and which compensates far in excess
of all the sacrifices we have made or still have to make.
In a truly purified heart, the love of God becomes increasingly
tender and strong. Far removed from all sentimentality, it rises
above the sensibility; in the higher part of the spiritual will, it
becomes that living flame of love spoken of by St. John of the
Cross. It is the perfect realization of what the supreme precept
demands:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy
whole soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind." (10)
Under certain touches of the Holy Ghost, the spiritual heart melts,
as it were, into that of the Savior to draw from Him greater
strength and ever new youth. In this love there is a savor of
eternal life.
When the soul consecrated to God is wholly faithful, it merits
the name of spouse of Christ. By the strength and tenderness of its
love, it is associated with His sorrows, His immortal joys, His
profound work in souls, His anticipated or definitive victories.
At the summit of this ascent, there is on earth between the
consecrated soul and its God a spiritual marriage, an indissoluble
union which transforms it into Him and enables it to say: "My
beloved to me, and I to Him." This spiritual marriage is a profound
intimacy, reaching at times even to the revelation of most secret
thoughts. There are a thousand things which the faithful spouse of
Christ divines and foresees. Between Christ and the soul there is
perfect communion of ideas, sentiment, will, sacrifice, and action
for the salvation of souls; and the reception of the Holy Eucharist
each day with greater fervor, a fervor of the will, if not of the
sensibility, is the daily testimony of this love.
This very pure and strong love of God and of souls in God is the
source of a lofty spiritual paternity or maternity. To convince
ourselves of this we need only recall the words of St. John the
Evangelist to his children. Our Lord said to His apostles: "Little
children, yet a little while I am with you." (11) St. John says to
his disciples: "My little children, these things I write to
you,"that you may not sin." (12) "Your sins are forgiven you for His
name's sake." (13) "And now, little children, abide in Him, that
when He shall appear we may. . . not be confounded by Him at His
coming." (14) "Let no man deceive you." (15) "Let us not love in
word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth." (16) "You are of God,
little children. . . . Greater is He that is in you, than he that is
in the world." (17)
St. Paul speaks with the same fatherly tenderness and strength when
he writes to the Galatians: "My little children, of whom I am in
labor again, until Christ be formed in you. . . . I am ashamed for
you." (18) To the Corinthians he writes: [Shall I remind you of] my
daily instance, the solicitude for all the churches. Who is weak,
and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?" (19)
Such is spiritual fatherhood in all its generosity, tenderness, and
strength. It compensates far and beyond for the temporal fatherhood
which the Apostle renounces. He does not found a definite and
limited home where a life that will last sixty or eighty years is
transmitted. He labors to form souls for our Lord, to communicate to
them a life that will last forever.
Also worthy of admiration is the spiritual maternity of true
religious, who, by increasing fidelity, deserve to be called spouses
of Jesus Christ. They exercise this maternity toward abandoned
children, the poor who have been forsaken by all, the sick who have
no resources, suffering souls who are drifting away, and the
agonizing. To such religious Christ will say: "I was thirsty, and
you gave Me to drink; . . . I was hungry; . . . naked, . . . sick. .
.in prison, and you came to Me. . . . Amen I say to you, as long as
you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me."
(20)
Perfect purity renders the soul increasingly like to God, strong,
luminous, loving, and makes man share in God's spiritual paternity,
in that of the Savior, who came to found not a restricted family,
but the great family of the Church which should extend to all
peoples and to all generations. All this shows the grandeur of the
evangelical counsel of chastity and of its effective practice.
The spirit of this counsel has on occasion also completely
transfigured temporal fatherhood or motherhood. One of the greatest
examples is that of St. Monica who, having given birth to Augustine,
brought him forth spiritually by her tears and prayers. Monica thus
obtained the conversion of her son; she became doubly his mother, of
body and soul. All who are indebted to St. Augustine for the
doctrine he taught should thank the mother to whom Ambrose said:
"The son of so many tears could not perish."
To sum up, the moral virtue of chastity, when truly understood and
practiced in a high degree, prepares the soul to receive the grace
of contemplation, which proceeds from living faith illumined by the
gifts. Then begins the realization of the promise: "Blessed are the
clean of heart: for they shall see God." The truly pure soul begins,
as it were, to see God in prayer, while uniting itself more
intimately to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to the Consecration,
and to Communion. It also begins to see divine Providence in the
circumstances of life, for "to them that love God [and who persevere
in this love], all things work together unto good." (21) Finally,
following this way, man begins to see God in the souls of those
about him; gradually he sometimes discovers, under a thick and
opaque envelope, a luminous soul that pleases God far more than he
had first thought. Thus to see God in souls is a grace that must be
merited. It requires a particular clear perception which is
gradually obtained by detachment from self and a more pure and
strong love of God, which makes us discover in Him those who love
Him and those who are called to love Him, those from whom we can
receive and those to whom we can and should give for love of Him.
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