What is Chastity? “Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being.” [1] Chastity is a virtue under the moral virtue of temperance. Chastity enables us to control our desires and to use rightly the things that please our sexual senses. When chastity is not practiced, the good and pleasurable things God created are misused and thus, perverted. When chastity is not practiced, sexual acts are misused, people are used as objects and the beauty of sex is perverted. This is precisely why we call people perverts, because sexual misuse perverts the goodness God created. Section 2352 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us the outline on how to practice the virtue of chastity to a heroic degree. Section 2352 says, “The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason outside of marriage is contrary to its purpose [2]
Jason Evert lays out what chastity is and how the world sees chastity.
Who needs to practice chastity? Everyone must practice chastity no matter his or her state in life. If we are single, we practice chastity for our future spouse. When we are married, it is the years of practicing chastity that helps us continue to engage in chastity even in marriage. Married people still must practice chastity because husband and wife should not look upon their spouse as a sexual object to be used whenever they want. For those who join the religious life, they will take a vow of chastity in order to direct their thoughts and energy to something greater than sex. To the one who created it in the first place, God. Chastity is not the same thing as virginity, abstinence, or celibacy.
What is virginity? There is both physical and moral virginity. Physical virginity is a person who has not had sexual intercourse. Moral virginity is the absence of any willful consent to venereal (genital) pleasure. It is important to stress both the physical virginity (sexual intercourse) and moral virginity (any stimulation of the genitals) If we just stress physical, then we are avoiding only sexual intercourse. When we stress physical and moral, the words from the Catechism “the deliberate use of the sexual faculty” makes much more sense.
What is abstinence? The word abstinence comes from the Latin abstinere,” to refrain from, to keep away”. We can abstain or refrain from many things, such as meat on Fridays. Sexual abstinence is the same, we refrain from sexual activity.
What is celibacy? Celibacy is “the state of being unmarried and, in Church usage, of one who has never been married. Catholicism distinguishes between lay and ecclesiastical celibacy, and in both cases, a person freely chooses for religious reasons to remain celibate.” [3]
There needs to be clarity between the definitions of chastity, celibacy, virginity, and abstinence. Celibacy is based on a person’s state in life. A person cannot practice celibacy unless they are in consecrated life or holy orders, then they have chosen to live a celibate life. They have chosen not to marry and thus have also chosen a life of abstinence. A single person, who is unsure about whether they will marry, is not living a celibate life, by definition, even though they are practicing abstinence.
Virginity is based on past sexual actions. By definition we cannot regain physical virginity. We can however regain moral virginity. We can regain our sexual purity, which enables us to live out the virtue of chastity and celibacy and abstinence according to our state in life.
The consecrated and ordained person lives a life of celibacy and abstinence.
The married do not live a celibate live and practice abstinence only during certain periods of time
Chastity however is common to all.
In the video, Fr. Pio CFR gives a short explanation of chastity within the context of the religious life. As he states, chastity is never about what we “give up”, but in fact what we gain. We gain a better mastery of self through God because we channel our desires and love back to The Source, God.
Why is Chastity so important? In the Church, chastity is stressed in a positive way. But sometimes it can be seen in the world’s view only as a negative thing. This is in fact the complete opposite. To practice chastity is a positive thing because to practice chastity is to practice love. It is to practice the commandments, Love of God and love of neighbor. [4] “The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.” [5] Without chastity we can easily fall to any number of temptations and sins placed in front of us. We would become slaves to our sexual desires instead of glorifying God for our gift of sexuality.
What is Temperance? Temperance, one of the four cardinal virtues, enables us to control our desires and to use rightly the things that please our senses. Temperance teaches us the proper use of the good and pleasurable objects that God has created. When temperance is not practiced, the good and pleasurable things God created are misused and thus, perverted.
What am I suppose to do with my sexual drive? Sexual desire is from God, it’s not bad. Chastity is a virtue under the moral virtue of temperance. Temperance, one of the four cardinal virtues, enables us to control our desires and to use rightly the things that please our senses. Temperance teaches us the proper use of the good and pleasurable objects that God has created. When temperance is not practiced, the good and pleasurable things God created are misused and thus, perverted. Chastity enables us to control our desires and to use rightly the things that please our sexual senses. When chastity is not practiced, the good and pleasurable things God created are misused and thus, perverted.
We can think of a fire. A fire in a fire pit or fireplace is useful, it warms us, gives light, and can be used for cooking. If the fire is out of the pit or fireplace it becomes dangerous and destructive. Chastity helps keep love burning in a fireplace instead of a roaring uncontrollable bonfire.
Listen to the wisdom of Proverbs. “Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely hind, a graceful doe. Let her affection fill you at all times with delight, be infatuated always with her love. Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman and embrace the bosom of an adventuress? For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he watches all his paths. The inequities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is caught in the toils of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is lost.” [6] Letting our springs overflow is similar to letting fire out of the fireplace.
[1] CCC 2337
[2] This sentence, which is the outline of the Chastity 2352 booklet, is taken from a declaration of the Doctrine of Faith entitled Persona Humana. Pope Paul VI approved this Declaration "On certain questions concerning sexual ethics," confirmed it, and ordered its publication at an audience on November 7, 1975.
[3] Fr. John A. Hardon; Modern Catholic Dictionary
[4] cf. Mt. 22:37-39
[5] CCC 2338
[6] Proverbs 5:15-23