I've spent the past few weeks thinking a lot about chastity. It has come up in conversations with my wife. It has also come up in the course of my job, in the planning process for a meeting on Theology of the Body for Teens for youth group. And then I saw this today:
Rock the Vote Asks Supporters to Withhold Sex to Pass Health Care Reform
This is wrong on so many different levels. On the most basic level, and one that, consequently, I have been thinking about a lot lately, it is an assault on chastity. We, as Catholics...well....actually....as HUMANS, are all called to live chaste lives.Our culture tells us otherwise. Our culture tells us it's O.K. to have sex anywhere, anytime, except, apparently, with someone who opposes the current health care legislation.
Since I've been thinking about chastity a lot lately, I've also been thinking about what it truly means to be chaste. Our culture tells us that chastity is sexual repression. Chastity is not sexual repression. Sexual repression is the unhealthy attempt to ignore or bury sexual desires. Chastity is embracing our sexual desires and using them as God intends.
What does that mean? Let me tell you a story to illustrate. When I was younger, around 13 or 14, my 2 brothers and I couldn't wait for Christmas to come. We were beyond the years of believing in Santa and we were impatient teenage boys. So, shortly after Thanksgiving we began our hunt. We scoured the house, from top to bottom, from the attic to the garage. We lacked self-control. After we discovered the first present, we couldn't resist and kept looking for more. The instant gratification we had in finding each of the presents was addicting. It didn't matter that we didn't know who the presents were for. It was all about the hunt. It was all about the finding. The three of us, over the course of a couple of weeks, had successfully discovered every single one of the Christmas presents my parents had purchased.
Christmas morning came and so did a tremendous amount of disappointment. I was disappointed that some of the presents I found and coveted for myself went to my brothers instead. I was disappointed because the mystery, the rush of anticipation, the excitement of Christmas' past wasn't there. It was the worst Christmas I have ever experienced. My search for instant gratification ruined my Christmas.
John Paul II said that "chastity is a difficult, long term matter. One must wait for it to bear fruit." Just as my search for all of my Christmas presents had no lasting satisfaction and ultimately led to disappointment, being sexually active (which involves much more than just having sex. We must be pure in our thoughts as well.) outside of God's intentions does the same. God has a wonderful, beautiful present for each one of us. For some of us, that present is a spouse. This present that God has for us is far better than anything we can find on our own. We must wait for this present. It will be a difficult wait. It will be radically counter-cultural (another subject my wife and I have been talking about lately) to wait. This waiting, this call to chastity, applies to all of us, whether married, single, or in celibate ministry. God will reward us for doing so. And it will be far more rewarding and will bear much more fruit than opening presents that first of all, aren't intended for us, and second of all, not ready to be given to us.
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