Why Chastity?

1 Thessalonians 4:3 - For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity.

Our culture thinks that the Church speaks against unchastity because it thinks sex is dirty. But Pope John Paul II shows that this is wildly off the mark. The real reason the Church commends chastity is not that unchastity is dirty but that unchastity is dishonest.

For the sexual act is the highest incarnation of self-giving in human experience. By it, we say with our bodies, "I give you all of myself." To say that, apart from the sacrament of marriage is, bluntly, to lie. Unchastity is the lie of self-giving incarnated in the act of taking: taking the dignity and love of the other while exploiting them for the sake of a physical sensation.

As C.S. Lewis said, to say that an unchaste man "wants a woman" is false. He does not want a woman. He wants an experience for which the woman happens to be the necessary apparatus. And it matters not a whit if both parties are "consenting" to that mutual exploitation. Mutual lies do not make a truth. They merely complicate the betrayal.

Another betrayal must be mentioned. When two people are in love and the man and woman are committed to each other (but not married) what makes sex wrong?
Well, first and foremost, remember 1st Thessalonians! If a man and woman love each other it makes sense that they want the best for each other. . . above all, it makes sense to want to help each other to heaven. It is a betrayal to say you love someone and NOT want eternal life for that person.

In contrast to this culture of mutual betrayal and exploitation is the Church's sacrament of marriage, in which husband and wife participate in the awesome self-donation of Christ and his Bride to one another in mutual love.

This post is a kalaidascope of thought from Words of Encouragement, Mark Shea and Jeff Cavins with lots of input from me!