Caput XVIII. De castitate
An Angelic Way of Life
Chastity is an angelic life that welcomes the Holy Spirit, while impurity drives Him away and invites the devil.
Chastity is an angelic way of life. Chastity joined with humility will earn a home for the Holy Spirit — the Spirit that the filth of lustful desire drives away, as Scripture says: The Holy Spirit will flee a body made subject to sin (Wis. 1, 5). Our bodies ought to be dedicated to God, not given over to sexual immorality. Let a person set against the desire of their own flesh the eternal flames of torment. Let a young person grow accustomed to chastity, so that they may be worthy of God's wisdom. Where there is bodily impurity, there is a home for a diabolical spirit — one that especially delights in the defilement of our flesh. All forms of impurity are displeasing to God, and especially those that are not natural.
Scripture's Warnings Against Desire
The author draws on Sirach and Proverbs to warn that yielding to fleshly desire brings ruin and death.
Holy Scripture warns us, therefore, saying: Do not go after your desires, and turn away from your own will.✦ If you give your soul over to its desires, it will make you a joy to your enemies (Eccli. 18, 30, 31). Solomon, the wisest of all, also spoke sayings of this kind about avoiding the uncleanness of the flesh, saying: A prostitute's lips drip honey, and her throat is smoother than oil.✦ But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.✦ Her feet go down to death, and her steps reach the world below.✦ Her steps do not walk the path of life; they wander, and cannot be traced.✦ So now, my son, listen to me, and do not stray from the words of my mouth.✦
Guarding the Heart and Body
The warnings of Proverbs are applied broadly to every fleshly craving, calling the mind to restrain the body's impulses.
Keep your ways far from her, and do not go near the door of her house (Prov.✦ V, 3-8). This was said not only about the uncleanness of prostitutes, but also about every desire of the flesh that tempts the soul to give in to its cravings. But the reasoning mind ought to hold back the impulses of the flesh and rein in its wrongful pleasures. Likewise, the one quoted above, warning young men against living with women, says: Can a man hide fire in his lap without his clothes being burned up?✦ Or walk on burning coals without his feet being scorched?✦ In the same way, whoever goes in to his neighbor's wife will not be clean once he has touched her (Prov.✦ VI, 27-29).
The Beauty and Fruit of Chastity
Paul's counsel and the author's exhortation lift up chastity as beautiful, heavenly, and formative for the young, while honoring lawful marriage.
In the same way, blessed Paul the apostle also warns us, saying, "It is good for a man not to touch a woman" (1 Cor.✦ 7:1), as though the danger would be immediate in the very touch. The chaste modesty of young men is beautiful, pleasing to God, and useful for every good thing. Whoever has spiritual or carnal sons, let him raise them in chastity for God, not in fornication for the devil. What good does it do a man to have a son, to raise him, to love him, if he will feed him to eternal torments? Those who live in chastity have an angelic way of life on earth. Chastity joins a person to heaven and makes them a fellow citizen with the angels. Whoever has a lawful wife should use her lawfully at fitting times, so that he may merit to receive the blessing of children from God.
God's Faithful Help in Temptation
No one can claim chastity is impossible, for God faithfully provides a way through temptation, especially for His ministers.
No one should say they cannot keep themselves from sexual sin. The blessed Apostle says that God is faithful: he does not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear, but with the temptation he will also provide a way out (1 Cor.✦ 10, 13). Each person is given a temptation of a certain kind: whether in desire of the flesh, or in worldly ambition, or even in whatever form of troubling temptation they can either overcome with honor or yield to in disgrace. Chastity is always necessary for everyone, but especially for the ministers of Christ's altar, whose lives ought to be an instruction to others and a constant proclamation of salvation. For it is fitting that the Lord should have ministers who are not corrupted by any fleshly contagion, but who instead shine through the self-restraint of chastity and blaze with complete integrity before the people by their example.
Read the original Latin
Castitas angelica est vita. Castitas cum humilitate, Spiritus sancti merebitur habitationem, quem expellit immunditia libidinum, dicente Scriptura: Corpus peccatis subditum Spiritus sanctus effugiet (Sap. I, 5). Membra nostra Deo debent esse dicata, non fornicationi. Opponat homo desiderio carnis suae aeternorum flammas tormentorum. Assuescat juvenis castitati, ut sit dignus sapientia Dei. Ubi immunditia est corporis, ibi habitatio diabolici spiritus; qui maxime gaudet in inquinatione carnis nostrae. Omnes immunditiae Deo displicent, et maxime quae non sunt naturales.
Admonet itaque nos Scriptura sancta, dicens: Post concupiscentias tuas non eas, et a voluntate tua avertere. Si praestes animae tuae concupiscentias ejus, faciet te in gaudium inimicis tuis venire (Eccli. XVIII, 30, 31). Ejus quoque modi Salomon sapientissimus proferebat sententias de cavenda immunditia carnis, dicens: Favus distillans labia meretricis, et nitidius oleo guttur ejus. Novissima autem illius amara quasi absinthium, et acuta quasi gladius biceps. Pedes ejus descendunt ad mortem, et ad inferos gressus illius penetrant. Per semitam vitae non ambulant, vagi sunt gressus ejus, et investigabiles. Nunc ergo, fili mi, audi me, et ne recedas a verbis oris mei.
Longe fac ab ea vias tuas, et ne appropinques foribus domus ejus (Prov. V, 3-8). Hoc siquidem non solum de meretricum immunditia dixit, sed etiam de omni carnis concupiscentia, quae sollicitat animam suis consentire desideriis. Sed ratio mentis prohibere debet impetus carnis, et refrenare voluptates ejus iniquas. Item ille qui supra, prohibens cohabitationem feminarum, juvenibus dicit: Nunquid abscondere potest homo ignem in sinu suo, ut vestimenta illius non ardeant? Aut ambulare super prunas, ut non comburantur plantae ejus. Sic qui ingreditur ad mulierem proximi sui, non erit mundus, cum tetigerit eam (Prov. VI, 27-29).
Similiter et beatus Paulus admonet nos apostolus, inquiens: Bonum est mulierem non tangere (I Cor. VII, 1), quasi statim in tactu periculum esset. Pulchra est casta juvenum pudicitia, et Deo amabilis, et ad omne bonum utilis. Qui filios habet spirituales, vel carnales, nutriat illos in castitate Deo, non in fornicatione diabolo. Quid prodest homini filium habere, nutrire, amare, si aeternis eum nutriet tormentis? Qui in castitate vivunt, angelicam habent in terris conversationem. Castitas hominem coelo conjungit, angelis facit concivem. Qui mulierem habet legitimam, legitime utatur ea temporibus opportunis, ut benedictionem mereatur filiorum a Deo recipere.
Nemo dicat a fornicatione se custodire non posse. Fidelis est enim Deus, dicit beatus Apostolus, qui non permittit nos tentari supra id, quod portare non possumus: sed faciet etiam cum tentatione proventum (I Cor. X, 13). Talis unicuique homini tentatio datur, sive in carnis desiderio, sive in ambitione saeculi, vel etiam in quacunque tentationis molestia, qualem aut cum laude vincere, aut cum opprobrio succumbere poterit. Omnibus enim castitas semper necessaria est, sed maxime ministris Christi altaris, quorum vita aliorum debet esse eruditio, et assidua salutis praedicatio. Tales enim decet Dominum habere ministros, qui nulla carnis contagione corrumpantur; sed potius continentia castitatis splendeant et totius honestatis fulgeant in populo exemplis.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.3.17 — And to Adam he said, "Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
- ↩Prov.5.3 — For the lips of a foreign woman drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil.
- ↩Prov.5.4 — but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
- ↩Prov.5.5 — Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol.
- ↩Prov.5.6 — She does not consider the path of life; her tracks wander, and she does not know it." POETIC-DAILY: "She will not weigh the road of life; her paths drift and she does not even know." MESSAGE-DAILY: "She won’t stop to think about the road that leads to life. Her path keeps wandering, and she doesn’t even realize it.
- ↩Prov.5.7 — And now, sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
- ↩Prov.5.8 — Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house.
- ↩Prov.6.27 — Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?
- ↩Prov.6.28 — Or can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being burned?
- ↩Prov.6.29 — So it is with the one who goes in to his neighbor's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
- ↩1Cor.7.1 — Now concerning the things about which you wrote: it is good for a man not to touch a woman.
- ↩1Cor.10.13 — No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you may be able to endure it.
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