Chastity, PurityThese terms may seem so distorted and old-fashioned!.. Today people acclaim sexual liberation: I play with my body, with other people's body, whenever I want to, whenever I feel like, to satisfy myself, to live it up... Yes, you are free to do anything you want to, but not everything is good for you to do. Making love without love, even without friendship, without knowing what the other person is, who the other person is, without even taking the trouble to know his or her name... only to play with the other person's body and... good bye! This is just degrading for both parties and "boring to death"! If you go out like that with your boyfriend or girlfriend, your encounters will often be reduced to a mere "sex party" instead of being an opportunity that will help you both develop a better knowledge of each other's inner qualities. When you act like that, you are being contented with just the superficial and you are missing completely the beauty and richness of a true engagement of love. Don't you think that chastity before marriage is important? Yet, it is even necessary sometimes in the life of the married couple, by respect and tenderness. "Chastity is the voluntary renunciation by which you discipline your body - your eyes, your gestures, your desires and your thoughts - in order to develop your capacity to love the other and learn to see the other person as a whole, not just his or her body, which is only the exterior appearance of the real person that lies within". (Monique Larochelle psm.: Défi jeunesse (Youth Challenge))
This act of will, this restriction that you impose on yourself, will allow you to know one day the joy of "true love, which is perfect giving, pure respect for your own body and the other's". What about if you tried, from now on, to transform in this way your encounters with the person you love? You will discover a new dimension in your relationship and a continually renewed joy that will prepare you both to reach a plenitude of life, when God will have joined you together. |