Commandment obliges faithful to be chaste, modest

Article 158 — Catechism of the Catholic Church Series

Paragraphs 2331-2336

 

My protestant grandmother used to say that “life is like probation.” By this, she meant that through life we undergo the test of whether or not we are worthy to be united with God for all eternity. The sin of our first parents assured this imbalance in our desires and tendency toward disobeying God in order to seek our own selfish passions. The most serious of these sins is lust (also defined as a deadly sin). God provides the Sixth Commandment to help us, which states: “You shall not commit adultery” (Ex 20:14; Dt 5:18). The Catechism explains: “The tradition of the Church has understood the Sixth Commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality” (ccc 2336).
 

The Catechism also teaches: “Creating the human race in his own image . . . God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion” (ccc 2331). Taking its cue from the words of Sacred Scripture: “God created man in his own image . . .    male and female he created them” (Gn 1:27), the Catechism teaches: “sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate” (ccc 2332).
 

It is no wonder then that most people are called to the marital state. It is most apparent, from the first pages of Sacred Scripture, that in God’s plan, most people are expected to pursue the vocation of marriage by the instruction: “be fruitful and multiply” (Gn 1:28).
 

Sexuality is so critical in our identity that the Catechism continues: “Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life” (ccc 2333).
 

As followers of Jesus Christ, we have a special obligation to remain chaste or pure in all our relationships, whether we are married, single, or consecrated for the Lord (as a priest or a religious Sister, Brother, monk, nun, friar, etc.). We also have a special obligation to guard against impurity because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and members of Christ’s Mystical Body. To be other than “chaste” is to distance ourselves from our likeness to God who is all pure.
 

It is no small matter that God also demonstrated his great love for the virtue of chastity by choosing the chaste Virgin Mary as the Mother of his Divine Son. Jesus was likewise chaste and showed how excellent virginity is by His own life of virginity. Since “God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity” (ccc 2334), both are called to live chaste lives. Why? Because chastity is that virtue which keeps the mind and body pure. Likewise, modesty is the precise care we take against impure words, thoughts, desires, actions, and even proper appearance or dress to safe-guard our purity. The Sixth Commandment, thereby, obliges us to be chaste and modest in all our deeds. It forbids impurity in words, looks, and actions, alone or with others.
 

The Catechism explains further that “each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way” (ccc 2335). Those called to live their lives through the Sacrament of Matrimony will discover that “the union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator’s generosity and fecundity” (ccc 2335). How fascinating it is to consider that those who share in the gift of marriage are somehow responsible for “all human generations [that] proceed from this union” (ccc 2335).
 

I often ask people to consider all the people over the centuries who share their DNA. (This of course applies to all of us and not just married people). How important it is to pray for each and every one who may be waiting for our prayers, since they may have no one else to pray for them! It is especially appropriate to do so as one who is related to all those people and, therefore, share their humanity in a very direct and distinct way. Married couples, especially those with several children, may consider praying for all the future generations not yet born who will share their DNA. All will one day be counted among those set on the path to eternal life in Heaven because of their generous gift of marital love in the present.
 

In his famous Sermon on the Mount, when referring to the vocation of marriage, Jesus clearly demonstrates his strict interpretation of God’s law when he says: “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” (Mt 5:27-28). Later, Jesus speaks positively about those who are joined by God in Holy Matrimony with the words, as quoted in paragraph 2336 of the Catechism: “What God has joined together, let no one put asunder” (Mt 19:6).
 

Appropriately, this section of the Catechism finishes with the observation that we need to understand all aspects of human sexuality within the context of the Sixth Commandment. Thus, the Sixth Commandment forbids us, not only against lusting after another person in our hearts, but also from using or communicating with obscene words, telling indecent stories, engaging  in impure conversations or singing filthy songs.
 

In our next article, we will discuss “the vocation of chastity” which involves the integrity of the person that all of us are called by God to be.
 

Father Hillier is Director of the diocesan Office of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Censor Librorum and oversees the Office for Persons with Disabilities