We continue yesterday’s reflection on the virtue of chastity.
In an age marked by constant sensory overload, everyone must be extremely vigilant in order to protect the virtue of chastity—both externally and internally.
Scripture reminds us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit:
“Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor 6:20)
We glorify God in our bodies when we live in chastity and serve God in this way.
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.” (Rom 6:12–13)
By frequently contemplating and remembering the words of Holy Scripture, we become more deeply aware of the dignity of the body. The body must not become a temple of impurity through the abuse of sexuality.
The temptations that affect physical purity can vary in intensity. Some people are greatly troubled by them, others less so. We should be careful not to look down on those who are more severely affected, nor feel superior if we ourselves are less troubled. Instead, we should protect one another through prayer and good example.
The struggle for physical purity must be fought with determination, and the words of St. John Bosco must be taken to heart:
“With all my strength, I will fight against everything—every reading, every thought, every word and deed—that is incompatible with the virtue of chastity. On the contrary, I want to put into practice everything, no matter how small, that can contribute to preserving this virtue.”
Salacious talk, impure jokes, and insinuations of any kind are therefore to be avoided.
The battle to preserve purity will be all the more fruitful the more we understand that the call to chastity encompasses our whole life. The point is that all our thoughts and actions should be imbued with divine purity. Just as a modest person withdraws from an impure environment because he does not want to allow any violation of this sphere and thus protects his chastity, so too does spiritual chastity withdraw from any impurity of the spirit.
We must realize that the Holy Spirit dwells within us and is offended not only by lewd actions and speech related to the sexual sphere, but by all attitudes and actions that contradict love. These are impure at their core and contradict the divine order. The Holy Spirit is the Holy One in us unholy ones. He is the One who always reminds us of what is holy and makes us aware of what contradicts holiness.
Here we come to the deeper core of what constitutes chastity. We can call it the response to the pure love that is poured into us. The life we lead in chastity, as well as every conscious defense of chastity on all levels, is a loving yes to God, who created our soul. St. Gregory of Nazianzus describes this very beautifully:
“It is not heaven that was created in the image of God, nor the moon, nor the sun, nor the beauty of the stars, nor anything else that exists in creation. Only you, [human soul], have become the image of a nature that transcends all understanding, the image of imperishable beauty, the imprint of true divinity, a reservoir of blessed life, the image of true light—you become like Him when you look at Him, for through the radiance that shines back through your purity, you imitate the One who shines within you.”
Chastity thus becomes the guardian that preserves the beauty and integrity of the soul’s original purity and sincerity. It also becomes a witness to the One who shines through the Spirit within it—a witness to the glory of God.