Conferences on the Virtues
By Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, OCD
Number 15
To my great surprise, I
learned that the word “chastity” (castitas) is derived from the Latin for “to
castigate” (castigare): to punish,
reprove, correct. In a general sense,
therefore a “chaste” person is one who has punished, reproved and corrected the
natural concupiscenses to bring them into perfect accord with reason. The concupiscenses are compared to a young
child who needs to be “castigated” until all is [fallen-] natural, unruly
tendencies have been rooted out, so that it behaves perfectly at all times and
under all circumstances. Just as a
child that is permitted, to indulge all its unruly tendencies goes from bad to
worse, so also the disordinate appetites, if not duly restrained and subordinated
to the law of the mind perfected by Faith.
In the strict sense, a “chaste” person is one who has mastered
and subjugated the most difficult of all the concupiscenses to control: that of the flesh. Therefore, my textbook defines Chastity as the
virtue which governs the sexual appetite and brings it into line with right
reason, or, the virtue which holds in check inordinate desires fro and
experience of sexual pleasure by observing the measure therein that is good and
proper (in accord with God’s will and purposes) according to one’s state in
life.
As we stated earlier in
the conference, each of the virtues is a good habit that helps to render a
human being “perfect,” such that each one confers a special, characteristic
beauty or charm upon it most attractive “charm.” We arrive at that conclusion by remembering that “corruptio
optima pessima” (the corruption of what is best is the worst of all). Beauty and charm are inseparably associated
with order and orderliness.
Since sexual pleasure is inseparably connected with the instinct
God placed in all His human creatures for the purpose of guaranteeing the
preservation of the human species, that instinct helps to generate an
“appetite” for venereal pleasure that can be so intense and demanding that it
easily overcomes right reason and the will to adhere to it. When that appetite is allowed to become
thorough, “disordered,” it renders the soul most repulsively ugly. By contrast, therefore Chastity confers a
most captivating, lovely attractiveness upon the soul, one which the Most Holy
Trinity finds irresistible.
Besides the general and
strict meaning of chastity, there is also a metaphorical: the habit of governing one’s enjoyment of
delights of every kind, in so far as the physical and spiritual appetites of
the soul take delight in anything or in any experience or conduct that right
reason allows. In this sense it is the
habit of abstaining from any delight one ought not to enjoy, that is,
anything that cannot somehow be related to God. Thus understood, this
kind of “chastity” keeps one from engaging in anything “illicit.” It accompanies and resides chiefly in
charity and the other theological virtues, by means of which the faculties of
the soul are directly and immediately united to god. Its opposite, spiritual fornication, is the habit of
turning from God for the sake of delight found in mere creatures, or better,
delights found in experience or conduct that cannot be related to God’s
permissive Will.
Contrary to what one
might expect, actual experience of sexual intercourse, and the activity
preceding and associated therewith, is the remote matter for chastity,
whereas interior movements of the sexual appetite, or desires for
venereal pleasure, constitute the proximate matter for Chastity. What that implies is: if the proximate matter is duly
governed and restrained, the necessity of restraining the remote matter
is less likely to occur.
Various degrees of
Chastity are distinguished in our Catholic Moral Theology, depending upon one’s
state in life. In some states,
enjoyment of venereal pleasure is to be “moderated:” in others, it is to be
“excluded.” Thus we have that form of
chastity which is called (1) juvenile (really of the young
unmarried), which excludes ALL sexual pleasure, i.e. from whatever
conduct it might derive, (2) conjugal (or married), which excludes
only that venereal pleasure that is derived from illicit sexual
activity, even within marriage itself.
And (3) of the widowed, which, practically speaking, is the same
as juvenile.
In a logical sense, ALL
chastity is PERFECT chastity, but technically speaking, we traditionally call
only that chastity “perfect” which excludes forever all deliberate intention actually
to experience LICIT venereal pleasure.
By “imperfect” chastity, one intends to exclude the actual experience of
ONLY THAT which is ILLICIT.
On Virginity…
Mention
of “perfect” chastity” logically leads into the subject of virginity,
and it is interesting to review what St. Thomas Aquinas has to say about the
subject. He states his teaching in
response to five questions:
1)
Does virginity consist in integrity
of the flesh? The answer is “yes”;
that is, per accidens (not essentially) it consists in integrity of the
flesh: materially in immunity
from actual experience of the delight associated with sexual intercourse; formally
and essentially it consists in the firm determination of the will to
abstain forever from all venereal pleasure.
That
is so, he tells us because the right reason which determines the morality of
conduct, and preservation of bodily integrity is only by accident
(incidentally) required for virginity.
Hence, if integrity of the flesh is violently taken away (without the
consent of the victim), and the determination to be a virgin remains firm,
virginity is only accidentally violated. In so far as the sensible delight associated with sexual
intercourse involves both body and psyche, if it is experienced during sleep or
results from imposed violence, to which the mind does not consent, virginity is
only materially violated, it is not taken away.
2. Is
virginity illicit? The answer is, it
not only not illicitly, it is even praiseworthy.
And
the reason why, he tells us, is that virginity enables the soul more freely to
give itself to divine contemplation, according to what the Apostle says in I
Cor. 7, 34: An unmarried woman and a
virgin concern themselves with the things of God so that they may be holy in
body and spirit. Divine contemplation is the greatest good for a
person in this life, to which all other goods are rightly ordered.
It
is to be noted: In regard to precept of
the Natural Law which is found in Genesis 1, 28: Increase and multiply and fill the earth, it must be
remembered that this command does not apply to human beings individually, as
does the command to take food and other similar things which are required to
preserve the life of the individual, but only to conserve the multitude
of human beings. Mankind needs not only
to increase in number, but also to advance spiritually. The increase in the human race is
sufficiently seen to if some human beings assume responsibility for
human procreation. Those who abstain
therefrom and give themselves to divine contemplation, contribute to the beauty
and welfare of the entire human race.
Not all those things that are enjoined upon mankind collectively can be
fulfilled by one human being alone.
3. Is
Virginity a virtue? The answer is: “Yes, it is a special virtue.”
The
reason, he explains, is because virginity has a special goodness bout it,
namely, freedom from the experience of venereal pleasure; therein lies its
special excellence. Virginity differs
from chastity, of which it is proper to preserve from inordinate
venereal pleasure. It is to be
noted: Whoever commits a sin that
violates virginity does not by repentance recover material virginity,
but does recover formal (essential) virginity.
4) Is
virginity more excellent than marriage?
The answer is, “Yes, both because a divine good is greater than a human
good, and because the goods of the soul are preferred to the goods of the
body. And in addition, the good of a
contemplative life is higher than the good of an active life. Virginity is ordered to the good of the soul
according to the contemplative life, which is to think about (cogitare)
those things which are of God; marriage is ordered to a corporal good,
which is the physical increase of the human race, and it pertains to the active
life, because men and women living in the married state must necessarily think
about those things which pertain to the world, as is evident through the
Apostle (I Cor. 7). Thus without a
doubt virginity is to be ranked ahead of conjugal chastity.
To be noted: 1.
Although virginity is better than conjugal chastity, it can happen that
a married person is better than a virgin, both because a married person might
be more firmly determined to abstain from all venereal pleasure should the need
arise than one who has embraced the state of virginity (celibacy), and because
one who is not a virgin could possess some excellent virtues.
2.
To the objection that the common good is to be ranked ahead of a private
good, it is to be remembered that that is so only if both public and private
good are the same kind (ejusdem generis).
But a private good of one kind (genus) can be better than a common good
of another kind. For that reason virginity
dedicated to God is to be preferred to carnal fruitfulness.
5. Is
virginity the greatest of virtues? The
answer is “No. That is to say, (a)
within its own genus (kind) [it belongs to the ‘genus’ of chastity] it is the
most excellent; but (b) simply speaking, it is not.”
The
reason for (a) being that virginity transcends both married chastity and that
of widows because, although a special beauty is conferred upon the soul by
chastity, an even greater beauty is bestowed by virginity.
The
reason for (b) is that the end always surpasses in value the means to the
end. And the more efficaciously a means
achieves the end, the better it is. The
end which makes virginity so praiseworthy is its better disposing one to be
concerned with divine things. Hence,
the theological virtues and even the virtue of religion, whose acts are
the very occupation with divine things, rank ahead of virginity. The former are more forcefully at work in
the martyrs, enabling them to adhere to God with such tenacity that they prefer
divine things to their very own lives.
The same is true for those living in monasteries, who rank the things of
God ahead of their own will and any goods of their own, whereas the virgin
[unless she is also a martyr and a religious] merely ranks divine things ahead
of venereal pleasure. And so, simply
speaking, virginity is not the greatest of virtues.
On Modesty…
There is the Latin word modestia which means
“moderation,” and the Latin word pudicitia, which is what we
would translate as “modesty.” Let me
rephrase what my textbook has to say about “puditia”:
Puditia
has to do with shame (pudor), which as person experiences in relation to things
that are not under the control of reason and cause embarrassment. It has to do with causes the greatest
embarrassment, namely, venereal or sexual matters and movements, when they
occur or are experienced in the sight of others. It is the virtue which enables one to avoid any kind of
appearance or conduct in public that is usually associated with sex,
particularly those which ordinarily lead up to sexual intercourse. It is therefore a “companion” to chastity as
well as a “component” of chastity. It
too confers a special beauty and charm upon the soul.
Next
in order is a treatment of Lust.
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