Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus,
The month of August is dedicated to devotion to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary. Let us ask our good Lord and St. Joseph for the grace
to know and understand the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart
of Mary and to place our trust in our Blessed Mother’s loving intercession!
This Sunday I share with you a meditation on the importance of Purity
and Chastity. I encourage you to reflect over this message a few times
this week:
“True Purity - Cleanness of soul: St. Mark, who wrote his Gospel
primarily for converts from paganism, in various passages explains
for his readers’ benefit the meaning of certain Jewish customs, the
value of coins and so forth, so that they would be better able to understand
Our Lord’s teachings. In the Gospel of today’s Holy Mass
(Mark 7:1-8) he tells us that the Jews, and especially the Pharisees, do
not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the
elders; and when they come from the market place, they do not eat
unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions
which the observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of
bronze.
These purifications were not done simply for hygienic reasons or out
of politeness; they had in fact a religious significance, symbolizing the
moral purity needed in order to approach God. In Psalm 24, which
was part of the liturgical rite of entry to the Jerusalem sanctuary, it
says: Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in
His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. (cf. Ps.
24:3-4) Purity of heart appears as a condition for approaching God,
for taking part in His worship and being able to behold His face. But
the Pharisees hadn’t got beyond the purely external level and even
added to the intricacy of the rites while neglecting their fundamental
aspect, namely, cleanness of heart, of which all the rest was merely a
sign and a symbol. (cf. St. John Paul II, General Audience, 10 December 1980)
On this occasion the Scribes and Pharisees who had come to Jerusalem
were surprised that some of Jesus’ disciples ate with hands defiled,
that is, unwashed, and they asked Our Lord: Why do Your disciples
not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with
hands defiled? Our Lord reacted strongly to this empty and formalistic
attitude. You hypocrites, He said, you leave the commandments of
God, and hold fast to the traditions of men. True purity - the clean
hands of Psalm 24 (innocens manibus in Latin) is more meaningful
than washed hands - has to begin with the heart, because from within,
out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder,
adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander,
pride, foolishness. All man’s acts originate in his heart; and if this is
unclean, then the entire person is unclean.
Sensuality, that is, the capital sin of lust, leaves a profound scar on the
soul. However, this is not the only manifestation of impurity: also
included is the inordinate desire for material goods, the attitude that
leads a person to exploit others, to scheming, envy, or animosity; and
also the tendency to think only about oneself to the exclusion of others;
and interior sloth, the origin of daydreams and fantasies which
undermine the presence of God and application at work. Our external
behavior is colored by our internal dispositions. Many external faults
against charity can be traced to feelings of touchiness or irritability
that should have been firmly rejected as soon as they first appeared.
What Jesus rejects is the mentality behind all those prescriptions; by
then they had completely lost their original purpose. Instead, He
teaches us to love that purity of heart whereby we are enabled to see
God in our daily lives. He has told us so very often that He wants to
reign in our feelings, to be with us at all times, to give a new meaning
to everything we do. Let us ask Him to always keep our heart clean of
these disordered tendencies.
Purity in everyday life: The purity of soul that Our Lord asks of
His followers is far from being simply a matter of appearances. We
are not expected to ‘wash’ our hands and plates and leave our heart
unclean. Purity of soul (chastity, in the area of sensuality, and rectitude
in our other feelings and inclinations) has to be really appreciated
and joyfully sought after, basing our effort always on the Grace of
God. This interior cleanness (a necessary element of all love) is the
consequence of a life-long, cheerful and unremitting struggle. The
soul, if it is not to consent to attitudes and thoughts which separate it
from God and from others, needs the help of a daily examination of
conscience; it also needs to have a great love for frequent and worthy
reception of the Sacrament of Penance, whereby God purifies and fills
it with His Grace and the heart is ‘washed’ clean.
Interior purity brings with it a strengthening and growth of love, along
with man’s elevation to the dignity to which he has been called. His
ever greater awareness of this dignity (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae, 1) is
in contrast to the great frequency with which he often appears to
abandon it. The human heart continues feeling today those same impulses
that Jesus denounced as the cause and root of impurity: selfishness
in all its forms, malicious intentions, the base motives that so
often inspire man’s conduct. But it seems as if at this moment in history
we are witnessing something (the degradation of human love and
a universal wave of impurity and sensuality) which, because of its
gravity and extension, has not been experienced hitherto. This debasement
of man affects the central core of his being, the very essence
of his personality and, given its world-wide dissemination, has
to be considered an unprecedented historical phenomenon. (J. Orlandis,
The Eight Beatitudes, pp. 114-115)
With the help of Grace, which we can always count on if we don’t
hinder God’s action in our souls, it is our Christian duty to show, with
the example of our lives and with our word, that chastity is essential
for everybody, men and women, adults and adolescents, and that everyone
has to live it according to the conditions of the state to which
God has called them; it is a requirement of love, a dimension of its
interior Truth in man’s heart (St. John Paul II, General Audience, 3
December 1980), and it would not be possible to love God or our
fellow man without it.
A sense of loyalty to our commitment to Christ, the virtue of fortitude,
simple common sense, should all lead us to act intelligently and
to avoid occasions that are injurious to the health of the soul and the
integrity of the spiritual life. We have to safeguard our senses at all
times. If necessary, we should avoid tuning in to certain TV or radio
programs. If the occasion arises, we should refuse to take part in
smutty conversations, or better still, try to raise the tone. In the way
we dress, in personal hygiene, when playing games, we cannot be
careless about decorum and modesty. We cannot be seen in a place
that is unbecoming for a good Christian, even though it is the fashion
or most of our friends go there. At times we may be called upon to
object strongly to indecent behavior, and not have any complexes
about doing so. It is no harm recalling that the word ‘obscene’ comes
from ancient Greek and Roman theatre, and referred to those things
which, because of their very intimate nature, ought not to be performed
on stage, out of respect for the spectators. Even that pagan
civilization, which was otherwise very permissive in its moral standards,
understood that there are some things which are not done in public.
Perhaps at times it will not be easy to live in surroundings that have
lost their Christian outlook. But then, Our Lord never promised us an
easy way, but rather, the Graces necessary to overcome difficulties.
To let oneself be dragged along by what people think, or by fear of
appearing unnatural, and so conforming to a ‘pagan naturalness’,
would be a sign of mediocrity and a lack of personality, and above
all, would show little love for the Master.
Keeping our heart unsullied. The role of frequent Confession:
From the depths of the human heart the Holy Spirit wishes to draw
the source of that new life which little by little transforms our entire
personality. One of the necessary elements in this activity (and at the
same time one of the fruits of the interior life) is the virtue of purity,
and chastity in particular (cf. S. Pinckaers, In Search of Happiness,
pp. 141-142): purity, in English and in other languages, has come to
mean the same things as chastity, although in itself it has a wider
meaning. (cf. St. John Paul II, General Audience, 10 December 1980)
This Christian purity, chastity, has always been one of the Church’s
glories and one of the clearest signs of her holiness. Today too, like
in the time of the early Christians, there are many men and women
who live a life of celibacy or virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of
Heaven (Matt. 19:12) in the middle of the world, though without being
worldly; and there is a great multitude of Christian married couples,
fathers and mothers of families, who live chaste and holy lives
in the married state. Both the one and the other are witnesses to the
same Christian love which matches itself to each one’s vocation, because,
as the Church teaches, marriage and virginity or celibacy are
two ways of expressing and living the one mystery of the covenant of
God with His people. (St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 16)
All of us, each in the state in which we have been called (single, married, widowed, priest), ask God today to grant us a heart that is noble and clean, full of kindness towards
all mankind and able to draw them all to God; capable of a
limitless goodness for those who come, perhaps bleeding on the inside,
looking for and at times imploring our support to help them stay
afloat. An aspiration that perhaps can help us now, and on many occasions,
is the prayer the Liturgy makes to the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday:
Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness pour Your
dew; Wash the stains of guilt away. Bend the stubborn heart and
will; Melt the frozen, warm the chill; Guide the steps that go astray.
(cf. Roman Missal, Pentecost Sunday, Sequence)
And together with the petition, an effective resolution to do whatever
is necessary to ensure that our heart is never disfigured, not only by
impure thoughts and desires, but also by not being able to forgive
readily. Let us resolve not to harbor any resentment or grievances
against anybody for any reason; let us try with all our strength to
avoid jealousy and envy, and all those things that stain the soul and
leave it sad and lonely. Let us love the Sacrament of Penance, wherein
our heart is purified ever more and more and is enlarged for doing good.
Whenever we find the going difficult, we can count on the help of our
Mother, the Virgin Mary, who was full of Grace from the first moment
of her [Immaculate] Conception, to teach us how to be strong
and keep our heart clean and full of love for her Son.” (From: In
Conversation with God by Francis Fernandez)
Through the intercession of the Flame of Love of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, St. Joseph, St. Michael and St. Paul, may God grant us
the grace of being Pure and Chaste disciples of our good Lord!
In Christ through Mary,
Fr. Kasel
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