The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 305: The Call to Chastity (2024)

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

We are all called to the virtue of chastity, which integrates our sexuality within the fullness of our person. Chastity trains us in freedom, teaching us how to direct and guide our desires. Fr. Mike explains that this virtue requires sustained effort and leads to self-mastery and peace. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2337-2345. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down to the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together to our heavenly home. This is day 305, we're reading paragraphs 2337 to 2345. As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a Foundations

of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism and Year Reading Plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. As we start today, day three or five, I just want to thank you so much. Thank you. All of you who have been praying again, day three or five means there's 60 days left.

And I'm not trying to count down the days. I'm not like one of those people who thinks like, oh my goodness, um, we're almost done, but I'm kind of like, this is amazing. You, I'm so proud of you guys. This is amazing. And thank you so much for your prayers, for praying for each other. Again, as we go through all of these teachings, as we hit these commandments,

oftentimes it's the invitation and it's the challenge. It is the reality that none of us are called here to simply have the information transfer. We're not just called to learn more, we're called to be transformed by the Lord, by His grace, by his teaching. And so, I'm so proud of you and so grateful for you. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your financial support because we couldn't do this without you. Today, we're

going to continue talking about the vocation to chastity. So yesterday we had the introduction of the sixth commandment. Kind of funny, sixth commandment, because that's one way to think of it. One way to think of this, I'm not sure if this is a throwaway thing. I always think of, did I mention this before? The fifth command fifth commandment someone once told me and I was probably in my Teenage years and so it just stuck with me and I thought it was kind of funny They said you can remember the fifth commandment thou shalt not kill because it takes five fingers to strangle someone Okay, I'm so sorry about that. But that's what I remembered And if you want to remember the fifth commandment there it is that image if you want and the sixth

Commandment about sexuality is kind of like the sixth commandment I don't know if that helps anybody but if it helps you that is wonderful And if it doesn't please forget that I said anything about this that would be awesome Anyways moving on yesterday. We started talking about the sixth commandment, right? You shall not commit adultery. And there was this massive, I think a pretty big statement. It says the tradition of the church, this is paragraph 2336, the last paragraph we had yesterday. The tradition of the church has understood the sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality. And so it's not just about thou shall not commit adultery, but it informs the way in which what is the purpose of sex? What is the

meaning of being made male and female? That there is a meaning there and that there's a purpose there. In fact, the purpose is oriented towards a vocation. And so we're going to talk about, we're going to begin talking about that today. And the primary vocation it says here, the vocation to chastity. Now, sometimes people think, oh wait, chastity like what priests and nuns have, like they don't have, you know, they don't enter the sexual embrace. No that's celibacy. Chastity is different.

In fact, chastity is given a definition right away in paragraph 2337. It says this, chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. So that's just, does that make sense? Okay, so chastity is the successful integration of sexuality within the person, and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. So basically, it's that harmony, right? Order. We talked about this before, that when things are properly ordered,

when we have our intellect that guides and governs our passions, have a will that our intellect that informs our will right that guides and governs our passions To have that all balanced and in the proper way when we see other people in the way that we're called to see them Right people are not objects. They're not things to be used They are persons to be loved and yet how often we have a distorted vision of other people where we treat people as things to be used and objects as things that we love and Chastity is the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in this bodily and spiritual being so we're That we're gonna talk about that today

So we're gonna talk about integrity the integrity of the person and so chastity is going to involve a couple things one is an apprentice the integrity of the person. And so chastity is gonna involve a couple things. One is an apprenticeship in self mastery. It means I'm gonna learn over the course of my life more and more, okay, how do I govern my passions? How do I govern myself? How do I not be a slave? And so when it comes to not being a slave,

we're gonna be in this apprenticeship, meaning we're gonna start wherever we are. We're gonna start wherever we are, and we're going to, we're going to start wherever we are. We're going to start wherever we are and we're going to grow and grow from there. That's what we're talking about today. So again, let this be a message of hope today. This, you might say, ah, man, I have experienced only brokenness in my sexuality. I've experienced only brokenness in my sexual desires. And so either I've given into those repeatedly or I've run away from them.

And so that's not just neither of those is chastity. Simply giving into the desires or even running away from the desires. Neither of those is the successful integration of sexuality. One is the unsuccessful giving into it whatever whims I might have and the other is running away from whatever whims or desires I have. Successful integration is chastity. Does that make sense? Okay, well, if it doesn't, we're going to talk about it today. So in order to talk about this more fully and with great purity of heart, just allowing the Lord to guide our conversation, we call upon His name. We pray, Father in heaven, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we ask you to send your Holy Spirit into our hearts,

into our minds. Give us clarity of thought and give us purity of love. Help us to see others the way you see them. Help us to love others the way you love us and the way you love them. Remind us that other people are not objects to be used. They are persons to be loved. Help us to see in every person, in every person, someone made in your image, someone you died for, someone you rose from the dead for. Help us to see in every person around us your gift of life and your gift of love. Help us to see you in them. And help us also to see you in ourselves. In ourselves to see someone that you died for. When we look at ourselves to see someone that you conquered death for. In ourselves to see someone that you love. Help us to see like you. Help us to be chased. In Jesus name

we pray, Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. It is day 305. We're reading paragraphs 23 37 to 23 45 The vocation to chastity Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being sexuality in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman. The virtue of chastity, therefore, involves the integrity of the person and the integrality

of the gift. The Integrity of the Person The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person. It is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech. Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery, which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear. Either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by

them and becomes unhappy. Man's dignity, therefore, requires him to act out of conscious and free choice as moved and drawn in a personal way from within and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and by his diligence and skill effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end. Whoever wants to remain faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want

to adopt the means for doing so – self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral virtues, and fidelity to prayer. Indeed, it is through chastity that we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into multiplicity. The virtue of chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason. Self-mastery is a long and exacting work.

One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It presupposes renewed efforts at all stages of life. The effort required can be more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality is being formed during childhood and adolescence. Jastity has laws of growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. Man, day by day, builds himself up through his many free decisions, and so he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth. Chastity represents an eminently personal task. It also involves a cultural effort,

for there is an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society. Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of the person, in particular, the right to receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life. Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ."

All right, there we have it, paragraphs 2337 to 2345. So much in here and so much, we again, the definition of chastity. So once again, it is, celibacy is one thing. Celibacy is when someone makes a promise or vow of some sort that they are going to abstain from sexual action, sexual activity. So priests, religious sisters, religious brothers, consecrated virgins, the people who forsake sexual activity for the sake of the kingdom, or forsake marriage for the sake of the kingdom. We are all called to chastity.

Whether someone is single, or they're married, or they're religious, consecrated, it doesn't matter. Every one of us is called to chastity. Why? Because chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being.

And so this recognition that we need this integrity, that's why I love this last sentence of paragraph 2337. The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift. Now we're going to talk about the integrality of the gift itself tomorrow. What is the meaning of that gift and what is it to make a gift of oneself? But the integrity of the person is so important because I think everyone desires to have integrity.

I don't know too many people who desire to be disintegrated. And so let's start here. Paragraph 2338 continues and says, the chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. Goes on, integrity ensures the unity of the person. Again, this is this, that sense of, I love how it says, it tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech. I sometimes am captivated by this notion.

The notion of being made on purpose is to be given a mission, right? Vocation is a call, right? So I have a vocation means I have a purpose. The Lord is calling me to a mission. And so to live that mission is amazing. To live that mission with your whole life is to have integrity.

At times though, every one of us, I would say every one of us is tempted towards what you might call a shadow mission. Remember hearing that term years and years ago and I thought it just resonated because it's just, oh my gosh, this is the human condition. This is all of us, especially you and me who find ourselves, those of us here who find ourselves,

no, this is my vocation, whether your vocation is consecrated single person religious sister or brother priest a bishop a deacon a married man or married woman Your vocation is there your mission is there in the temptation sometimes is to live a shadow mission And that's what this is saying the integrity to truly have integrity Tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech. So, and I love how it says this, double life is okay, here's actions that are not in conformity with that integrity. Like, here's actions that are not in conformity with the person that you are. And not only actions,

but also duplicity in speech. That is so important for us because sometimes it's like, well, I didn't do anything. Okay, but did I say something? You know well, I didn't do anything. Okay, but dad did I say something? You know, I maybe I didn't say anything but did I in my mind that I entertained something I'm ever hearing it was a sermon and it was about faithfulness and marriage and They were trying to sum up like what is it that every person and this is whether if someone is married or consecrated single? Solubit for the sake of the kingdom, what is it that is a violation of one's marriage vows, a violation of one's vows?

What is it that could be defined as a shadow mission? And they used this criteria. They said this, they said, your spouse is the only legitimate source of romance in your life. So I guess this would actually only be applied to married people, the consecrated singles, priests, bishops, the whole thing, there'd be no, they would have to say this.

They would have to say that the mission is, no, I've forsaken romantic relationships. So there is no legitimate source of romance in one's, and if someone who's made a vow of celibacy, there is no legitimate source of romance in their life. For someone who's made a vow of celibacy, there is no legitimate source of romance in their life. For someone who's married, your spouse is the only legitimate source of romance. And so I like that criterion because where, why?

Because this last sentence, remember in paragraph 2338, it says, it tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech. And so it encompasses everything. So, well, can I just watch rom-coms and just kind of get my romantic fix there? No, your spouse is the only legitimate source of romance in your life. What about reading some of those books that have a lot of romance novels?

No, your spouse is the only legitimate source of romance in your life. What about texting and just kind of getting that charge by sharing those words back and forth between that person that's... I'm not acting out. No, your spouse is the only legitimate source of romance in your life. So it encompasses everything and it just is so good because again, for those who are celibate, those who have made a promise to be chased

for the sake of the kingdom, right, forsaking romance for the sake of the kingdom, then we get to, that's me, I get to say no, there is no legitimate source. There's no way I can legitimate any source of romance in my life. If you're a husband or a wife, your spouse is the only legitimate source of romance in your life. To live other than that in this area is to live a double mission or a shadow mission,

a double life. Does that make sense? I just, I don't want to over emphasize this, but it's, if chastity is about integrity, then this is part of what integrity is. It means I don't like press pause and this is the this is the key thing To be a person of integrity means I don't press pause in any area of my life and in this area Chapters or commandment number six when it comes to the area of sexuality I don't press pause here it when it comes to the area of chastity. I don't press pause. It encompasses my whole life. Now, this is going to be a challenge, right? That's why paragraph 2339 says, this includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery, which is a training in human

freedom. This is beautiful. It's so powerful because the church doesn't see chastity as, okay, here's what you can't do. Here's what you can't do. Can't do this, this or the other thing. The church says, no, chastity, this gift of integrity is an apprenticeship in self mastery, which means it is a learning process. It also is a training in human freedom. That the goal is not straight jacket. We talked about this one of the virtues, right?

The virtues are not straight jackets, the virtues are strengths. Chastity as one of those gifts, those one of those virtues is a training in human freedom. And here's the thing, it's not arbitrary. It's not as if, okay, if you really wanna go for the gold, you know, go for the brass ring, like shoot for the stars, then try to be chased.

If not, you'll just be like normal like the rest of us. No, it's actually this, it's either. I love this, in paragraph 2339 says, the alternative is clear. Either man governs his passions and finds peace, right, freedom, joy, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy. This is, oh man, look at the story of the world.

Let's look at the story of maybe your life. You can look and say, okay, when I just gave in, when I just gave into my passions, was I freer? Was I more joyful? Or did I find myself becoming dominated by those passions and becoming unhappy? In fact, St. Augustine has this quote. It's not in the Catechism today, but it says this. It says, St. Augustine, who knew something about giving into his passions and also knew something about freedom, about integrity, about chastity, he said, because part of his story is lust, part of his story is a brokenness of his own chastity, he didn't have it. He said, lust indulged became a habit, and habit unresisted became necessity. He

found himself a slave to his passions. So once again, here's the quote, lust indulged became a habit, and habit unresisted became a necessity.'" And this is what the church is saying. The church is saying, God doesn't want that for you. God doesn't want you to be a slave. He doesn't want you to be dominated by your passions. He doesn't want you to be unhappy. He wants you to govern your passions

and find peace and be free, be powerful. And so what happens? It goes on to say, "'Man gains such dignity when ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by doing what? By freely choosing what is good and by his diligence and skill effectively secures for himself the means to this suited end. And so this comes from within. This is so important. And that's right in the middle of paragraph 2339. It says, man's dignity requires him to act out of conscious and free choice as

moved by or drawn in a personal way from within and not by the blind impulses and not by external constraint. Okay, so what does that mean? This is one of the coolest things. John Paul the second. Okay, let me hear the sentence again, right? It's middle of 2339. Man's dignity, your dignity, requires you and me to act out of conscious and free choice as moved and drawn in a personal way from within So John Paul the second when he gave us the theology of the body. He talked about a thing called the ethos ETH OS so ethos ethos Alexi ethos it sounds more pretentious but anyways, the ethos is that in a world of a person that Draws us to certain things and repels us from other things.

Right? So that it's that, that, that sometimes you don't need someone to tell you, Oh, turn away from this or turn towards this. You just want to, right? So there's some things in your life that you automatically are repelled by. There's some things in your life you're automatically drawn towards. And so St. John Paul the second, he talked about this ethos, that inner world that draws, or draws us to certain things and repels us from other things. And when we find ourselves being drawn to things that are sinful, we don't just need an external constraint.

What we need is a change of our ethos, a change of heart. When I find myself repelled by the good, again, it's not like I need someone to force me to choose the good. What I need is I need a transformation of my heart. I need a transformation of my heart. I need a transformation of my ethos and that can be done. That's what this apprenticeship and self-mastery is all about. So now going on, paragraph 2340 highlights this and says, whoever wants to remain faithful to

his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so. So again, this is not just, you know, white knuckle this. And if you really grip the steering wheel really hard, you can, you can make it through. This is no, there's, there's a process, there's apprenticeship and self mastery, this changing the ethos, the means for doing that are this. Here are a few self-knowledge. So knowing yourself, how many of us run from knowledge of ourselves, man, we're just so afraid of what we might find if we dig deep into our hearts. So self-knowledge is one. Number two, the practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him. So ascesis, asceticism, right?

So there are certain things, if I find myself being broken in a particular area, let's, I don't know, let's think of a certain thing. Like, okay, well, we're gonna talk about pornography at some point. So maybe it's pornography. Maybe the pornography is related to one's telephone, right? One has a smartphone. So we have a lot of students here. One of the practices of a CSIS, when it comes to their phone, and that doesn't even have to be related to pornography.

It could be related to just overuse of their phone. They will put it to gray scale. Gray scale is when you can actually take away the color, and it's just basically black and white, black and white fancy phone. And there's something about it that is less attractive, like something about it that's the less grabby of your eyes. And so a lot of our students will do this.

They'll have this practice of asceticism that's adapted to their situations. They might find themselves, ah man, I'm just addicted to my phone. Well, you know what I'm gonna do? I wanna make it less pleasurable by taking away the color. Or someone who says, I'm addicted to looking at

impure images on my phone. Okay, I'm gonna take away that, the color and make it less attractive to myself. It's that asceticism that's adapted to their situations that confront them. So number one, self-knowledge. Number two, asceticism. Number three, obedience to God's commandments.

And sometimes it's just so simple as that. It's just, okay, I'm gonna begin striving to follow God's commandments. Number four, the exercise of the moral virtues. I'm gonna become more just. I'm gonna become more prudent and temperate. We'll talk about that in a second. Fidelity to prayer is so important.

And I'll say this again, but I remember hearing a very holy person once say, when you find yourself battling serious sin, choose serious prayer, especially when that serious sin seems so daunting and seems like it's winning. Like I can't, there's no way I can break away from this serious sin. He said this, he said, serious sin and serious prayer cannot coexist. One will kill the other. And that's so true, I believe. Serious sin and serious prayer cannot coexist. You might find yourself like, I can't break away from the sin. It's like what St. Augustine said, right? That lust and dole became a habit and the habit unresisting became

a necessity. I don't know if I can break free of this. Serious sin and serious prayer cannot coexist. One will kill the other. And it's through chastity, here's another St. Augustine quote at the end of paragraph 2340, it is through chastity that we're gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into a multiplicity. So again, we don't wanna be divided.

You're not called to be divided. I'm not called to be divided. We're not called to live a shadow mission. We're called to have an ethos that is drawn to the good and repelled by the bad Now keep in mind that self-mastery is a long and exacting work 2342 one's never done from this this and so if you're discouraged by that it's like I was taken so long. It's okay It's gonna take a long time. It also has laws of growth Which is important. It says this chastity has laws of growth which progress through stages. It says this, chastity has laws of growth,

which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. If you find yourself saying, man, but in this whole process I keep falling, in this process I keep failing. Well, yeah, here's the church saying, okay, well here's the deal. Chastity, growing in this integrity,

has laws of growth which progress how? Through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. If that's your story, if that's part of your story, and you are discouraged by that, the church is saying, this is how it goes. This is just how it goes. In order to get stronger, you're gonna sometimes work to failure,

but then you'll get stronger. It's laws of growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. So don't give up. This is not to be discouraging. This is growth. Last thing is chastity is a moral virtue. It's also a gift from God. It is a grace. It is a grace, a fruit of the spiritual effort. You're not on your own. You're not on your own in this. The Holy Spirit enables you, you who the water of baptism has regenerated

to imitate the purity of Christ. So as we continue talking about this, the call, the invitation, the challenge is not to be discouraged, but to recognize, okay, this is my call, but it's gonna be an apprenticeship and self-mastery. It's going to involve discipline. It's going to apprenticeship and self mastery. It's going to involve discipline. It's going to involve stages of growth.

It's going to involve failure, but it also will involve God's grace and God's help. So we pray. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.