Chastity has been relegated to a bad word. It evokes images of a repressive and sexually frustrated fundamentalist who confuses Jesus for a Pharisee.
Unfortunately, as many things in our society, chastity has been heavily sexualized. Sure, we can practice chastity with our sexuality, but this is only a minor piece of what this virtue is about.
As we shall explore, chastity, when viewed holistically, becomes a beautiful and essential virtue.
The Virtue of Chastity
The virtue of chastity can be divided in three ways.
First, chastity is purity. Sexual purity is still an important aspect of the virtue of chastity, and while it should not be defined solely on sexual terms, we still can't ignore this important aspect. Sexual purity demands discretion of our sexual conduct according to our state of life. This looks different for all of us.
As a married man, for example, my sexual conduct should be different from that of a single man. It is no longer OK for me to seek the attention of another woman in a romantic way. We can see, then, that sexual chastity is for all of us, not just for the celibate.
One also practices purity from avoiding or limiting substances that are toxic to our bodies, and by maintaining cleanliness and basic hygiene.
Purity can also be achieved morally, by resisting temptation and corruption.
There are other, non-sexual ways to seek purity of course, as we shall see next.
Second, chastity is knowledge. Ignorance is dangerous. As it is obvious to many of us, ignorance creates countless suffering in our world. Knowledge, when undertaken with other virtues, but most importantly, with chastity, can be a way to create purity of thought.
Knowledge without chastity, however, (without any sort of discretion or humility) will create snobbery, another type of ignorance. Snobbery is a delusion of the mind.
Third, chastity is honesty. The practice of chastity demands that we are honest with ourselves and others. By keeping our relationships pure, that is, without any hidden motives, we are creating honest relationships. The practice of honesty, then, it's inseparable from chastity.
Chastity is a mature form of the virtue of Temperance, because Temperance merely intents the controlling and the putting of boundaries. Chastity seeks much more than restrain. Chastity actively seeks the good and respect of others as well.
Chastity & The Holy Spirit
Chastity is connected to Love, the supreme fruit of the Holy Spirit listed in Galatians 5.
As Pope Benedict XVI said, the opposite of Love is not hate, but lust. Love, by its nature, seeks to give to the other. Love is the consistent attitude and action that seeks what is best for the other.
Lust, on the other hand, seeks to take away from the other. Lust diminishes individuals to the mere realm of utilities. Lust seeks to fulfill itself. Love seeks to fulfill the other.
This is why Chastity and Love must be connected. Chastity and Love are the perfect antidotes for the merciless greed of lust.
We are fooling ourselves if we think we can practice Love without practicing Chastity.
The Virtue of Chastity for a Postmodern World
We live in an oversexualized society. We live in a world where deep knowledge and reflection is reduced to bite-sized, googleable answers and catchphrases. We live in a world of hidden motives and shameless advertisements that makes us suspicious of each other.
We can practice Chastity by taking notice in all the ways we overly sexualize others and ourselves. Our sexuality is something to be relished and celebrated. But when our sexuality is used to take away from others and ourselves, when it seeks to only satisfy a desire at the the expense of the other, then we have reached the limits of Chastity and descended into the realm of lust.
We can also practice Chastity by avoiding quick answers and devoting time to deep knowledge and reflection.
It is easy to pretend we know stuff, what with all the easy answers available at the tip of our fingers and with a click of a mouse. It is common now to like and share articles on social media without even reading them and reflecting on them.
This creates the illusion of knowledge, without the toils and hard work of true knowledge. It reduces knowledge to information. It reduces thought to entertainment.
Deep thought and reflection requires time and meticulous work. It requires exploring the issue from multiple angles. Purity of thought is not something we establish by superficial gathering of bits of information and one minute videos.
Finally, we can practice Chastity by being straightforward about our intents and motives. No one can claim purity of motives, and that's OK. But the worst we can do is to pretend purity of motives, and hide ourselves under a cloud of piety.
Let's be honest about our imperfections and our biases, as this will create clearer expectations and create the base for purer motives.
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