Chastity an endangered species

I’M AFRAID we need to launch a rescue operation for the virtue of chastity that now seems to be in the brink of extinction. Just look around and signs are aplenty pointing to this disturbing phenomenon.

Many people nowadays do not know anymore the true nature and meaning of our sexuality. That it is meant to be integrated to our person, subject to reason, faith and charity, and placed into the dynamics of our calling to love and to enter into communion with God and with others is hardly known, much less pursued and lived.

Instead, there’s rampant abuse of sexuality, treating it merely as a toy to play with, a purely personal property completely detached from the law of God who is its creator and our duties to others to whom it is oriented.

Cases of adultery, masturbation, fornication, pornography, prostitution, rape and homosexual acts are piling up. The environment is now so charged with eroticism that even talk shows on radio, TV, not to mention the Internet, copiously drip with sexual innuendoes. From time to time, of course, sexual crimes explode into public notice.

Even songs playing on radio have lyrics with naughty, risqué double meanings. Condoms are now such a common commodity that they are sometimes used as balloons. People’s language, of course, is deteriorating to vulgarities and profanities.

No one seems to talk about chastity nowadays, neither in public nor in private. It’s hardly taught in schools and many families find it awkward to talk about it. People, especially the young, are pretty much left on their own to grapple with their issues with sexuality.

For a variety of reasons, public authorities many times fail to create or even defend an atmosphere conducive to chastity in society. There’s incompetence, indifference and neglect, if not outright error that usually tends to actively spread out, not contented with keeping it private.

They often get confused with how to resolve the apparent conflict between freedom of expression and artistic freedom, on the one hand, and the requirements of chastity, modesty and public morals, on the other.

Complicating the whole issue is the presence of many public figures—stars, celebrities, media luminaries—who openly promote what may be termed as “alternative lifestyles.” They now happen to count on immense support from powerful institutions that promote safe sex, sex ed, so-called gay rights, same-sex marriage, etc.

Yes, while we need to have a high level of tolerance and avoid unnecessary discrimination in society, we should also realize more deeply that we have to be clear about what is right and wrong, moral and immoral. These distinctions are getting blurred.

Truth is we need to actively promote this virtue of chastity. This cannot be considered as a purely private and personal affair. This has to be openly talked about, and tackled also in intimate, personal consultations, because it involves something very basic in our personal lives and in society. It’s a human necessity.

Chastity is actually a very beautiful, positive and relevant virtue, contrary to what some people say that it is inhuman, restrictive and unnecessary. It affirms the true dignity of our sexuality. Chastity places our sexuality at the service of true love and freedom, extricating it from the deceptive clutches of selfishness.

Our problem is that often our sexuality is held captive in the biological and hormonal urges that start in our adolescent years. Many people fail to outgrow this stage, unable to see the whole picture into which our sexuality has to be viewed and lived.

We have to find ways to tackle this concrete issue that everyone of us faces. Our problem is that we are often held back to talk about this because of some natural sense of shame and modesty. This is where some pro-active approach should be made. We cannot wait until the young ones especially bring the topic up. They most likely will not bring it up.

We have to be clear and ready to give the means to develop chastity. First the supernatural means of asking for God’s grace in humility, praying, recourse to the sacraments, devotions to our Lady, etc., and then the human means of work, avoiding idleness, training in the self-mastery of one’s urges.

We have to see to it that the pursuit of chastity is done in the clear context of loving God and others. It cannot prosper outside of that context. And therefore, we need to look into people’s spiritual lives. Chastity is never solely a matter of techniques. It has to be a lifestyle, a stable culture.