On Chastity

One hears so much about chastity these days. Groups of teenagers are taking vows "to remain chaste until marriage". They call their movement "True Love Waits", and we read about them in the papers. Yet what does chastity really mean?

We often hear that to "be chaste" means to "abstain from sex". To "remain pure", as they say. And they add:"until marriage". Let us examine the logics behind these statements: If to be chaste is good, then to be unchaste, is bad, and, therefore, sinful. Then, also, if to be chaste means to "abstain from sex", then to "have sex" is unchaste, and, therefore again, sinful. If one says to be chaste until marriage is to be pure until marriage, then one must also conclude, that chastity and purity stop with marriage. By now you will be asking "so, where does that leave us?", and you may be confused, and rightly so: The ultimate logical conclusion of the statement "to be chaste is to be pure, which is to abstain from sex" and "we should remain chaste until marriage" is, that marriage, where chastity stops, is sinful, or at least bad and inferior. We must stop right here. The view expressed above, which is, sad to say, the common view, is contrary to the teaching of the Church and therefore heresy. So, now, either our view of marriage is wrong, or our view of chastity is wrong. Let us examine the Scriptures:

God Himself instituted marriage when he created us "man and woman, in His likeness" and blessed us, yet in paradise, saying: "increase and multiply...". Jesus Christ confirmed the created order by blessing the marriage at Cana of Galilee with His presence. Since God does not by any stretch of the mind create or bless evil, or anything impure or unchaste, or inferior, then marriage, and everything that goes with it, being created, instituted and blessed by God, cannot be impure, or unchaste, or inferior. So where does that leave chastity?

St. Basil the Great teaches us that Holy Scripture is valid in its entirety either for all christians or for nobody, and as christians, we believe Holy Scripture to be valid for all. This means, that also chastity, proclaimed as a virtue in the Scriptures, is valid for all. Married or unmarried. One must be chaste "according to one's state in life". What we have to do is clean up with the myth that "to be chaste" exclusively means "not to have sex". What chastity does mean is to be faithful to one's vocation, to one's state in life, and, ultimately, to God, and to be faithful is to be pure, clean, and, therefore, chaste. It is a "lifestyle", if you wish. Naturally, it means for the unmarried to be abstinent. Otherwise, they would not be being true and faithful to their vocation, or to God, and therefore, they would be unchaste. As far as the married are concerned, being faithful to each other in every aspect of marriage is being faithful to one's vocation, thereby fulfilling the will of God: this is chastity, or purity. Somebody who has "abstained from sex" all his life, can still be unchaste and impure, for chastity is a state of the soul, not of the body. The body only expresses what is in the soul, and chastity does and cannot stop with marriage.