"Therefore glorify God in your body."
(I Corinthians 6:20)

We are by nature sexual beings, endowed with specifically sexual desires or drives.  Some regulation of our sexual appetite is required by the nature of human life, both personal and social.  When we apprehend self-moderation and self-regulation as inherently right or good, they assume a moral character and become the natural virtue of chastity.  The life-giving virtue of chastity is, then, the virtue that moderates and regulates the sexual appetite or genital pleasure according to the principles of right reason and the law of God.

Chastity is aimed at attaining higher and more positive goals.  It is a virtue which concerns the whole personality the regard to both interior and exterior behavior.  The heart of chastity is respect.  If we acquire the general habit of respecting persons as individuals, then it is less likely that we will exploit them as sexual objects.  Chastity liberates the human person from the bondage of self-centered, aggressive, manipulative sexual activity.

For the Christian, chastity is concerned not only with moderation of sexual pleasure, it is intimately related to love and holiness:

"This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from immorality, that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion as do the Gentiles who do not know God." (1 Thessalonians 4: 3-5)

The life-giving virtue of chastity is governed by several basic beliefs.

The First of these is that sex is a good gift of God to men and women.  The recurrent heresy that sex is evil, the body shameful, pleasure wrong, must be rejected.

Second, sex is an important gift of God.  It is important for the individual person, for the family, and for society.  Because it is important, it should be taken seriously and treated with respect.

Third, God has built into human sexuality certain intrinsic meanings that cannot be erased or ignored.  Among the most important of these meanings is that the sexual union of husband and wife is honorable, a special expression of their married love which reflects God's love for his people and Christ's love for the Church.  The freedom and joy of sex celebrated in marriage is one of God's best gifts to his people.

Chastity is a demanding virtue because it is concerned with powerful, sometimes chaotic, forces in the human person.  This virtue calls for courage and fortitude in daily life.

-thoughts taken from Choosing Virtue in a Changing World: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins
                    by Daniel L. Lowery, C.SS.R

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