One of my wisecracks is, “I used to be chaste, but she caught me.”
Sorry. Bad joke.
Another one liner on the subject that has changed my life is Pope St John Paul’s observation, “Chastity is the work of a lifetime.”
Think of it like this: chastity is the work of a lifetime because it is a beautiful, mature and profound virtue. Chastity is like a great work of art–a masterpiece that is only completed after years of trial and error, years of training and discipline, years of failure and continued attempts.
So think of a pianist who comes out on stage to play the Rachmaninov third piano concerto. That performance is the result of years of tuition, self sacrifice, practice, failure, wrong notes and sheer hard work and sweat. Same thing for the Olympic gold medal winner, the scaler of Everest or any great human achievement.
Our problem in the United States is that we are suckers for the quick sell, the quick fix, instant success and the silly egalitarian idea that “everybody wins the prize”
We want our chastity to be instant as well, and when we stumble and fall into sexual sin we get too easily discouraged.
The challenge of chastity is a lifetime project because beneath the challenge of chastity is the challenge to learn the difficult lessons of love.
See it’s like this: Continue Reading
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