Monday, August 17, 2015

Pope Pius XII on purity and virginity: Encyclical Letter "Sacra Virginitas"

"Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God."  ~ Matthew 5:8
"Holy Purity, the queen of virtues, the angelic virtue, is a jewel so precious that those who possess it become like the angels of God in heaven, even though clothed in mortal flesh." ~ St John Bosco 

 

Purity is one of the most important virtues in the life of a Christian, most dear to the Heavenly Mother (perhaps one of the distinctive features of Her most beloved children) and to Our Blessed Lord; it is like a sweet fragrance that rises up to the throne of the Most High, most pleasing to the Lord, and inducing His Majesty to be inclined to shower us with Heavenly graces - and during the calamitous times that we live in, admittedly one of the most difficult virtues to achieve, even occasionally arguably requiring a heroic effort to be kept. The theologians are agreed on this: the sin that causes most people to be led astray and fall away from right morals and reason is the sin of the concupiscence of the flesh. Pope Pius XII discerned a gradual erosion of this virtue even during his own pontificate, especially after World War II among the youth, the "new generation" that would in later years participate in the so called "sexual revolution" of the sixties. Consider these maternal (even prophetic) warnings of Our Lady of Fatima to Blessed Jacinta of Fatima about the dangers of the sins of the flesh and of a desire for introducing novelty and "fashions" into the Church:

"More souls go to hell for sins of the flesh than for any other reason."  What a terrible warning for the many millions of nominal catholics living in perpetual states of objective mortal sin: cohabitation, adultery, sodomy etc... Is it any coincidence that the Devil is doing his utmost to influence important members coordinating this year's synod into compromising the Church's doctrine on the indissolubility of marriage and other grave sins against chastity? Consider the kind of conferences that the head of Francis' "gang of nine" is attending lately (see here)!!!

"Certain fashions will be introduced which will offend Our Divine Lord very much. Those who serve God ought not to follow these fashions. The Church has no fashions. Our Lord is always the same." Who can deny that increasingly bold and immodest clothing has been introduced into the market since the '60s, now reaching such a state of scandal that even young girls are seen showing most of their body with no apparent feeling of shame or embarrassment - leading to even some in the secular world protesting that the trend has gone "too far"? Also notice Our Lady says, "The Church has no fashions, Our Lord is always the same." What a radically different statement from the post-conciliar obsession with introducing novelties, both in the liturgy of the Church and elsewhere, even reaching into the moral sphere, as evidenced by the recent (and upcoming) "Synod on the Family", which designation is at best a grotesque misnomer that hides the true intentions of those guiding said "synod"?

On August 15, 1954 in Rome, Cardinal Ciriaci issued a letter for Bishops throughout the world denouncing widespread offences against modesty in dress and similar evils in films, newspapers, magazines and other publications, and conveying the Pope's blessing upon clergy and laity who
would respond actively to the call of His Holiness for a reform of private and public morals.

The encyclical letter "Sacra Virginitas" (March 25, 1954; full text here) chiefly concerns on the lofty vocation of those who are called to perpetual virginity but also deals on more general matters of purity and chastity which are perfectly applicable to lay men, and begins thus:

"1. Holy virginity and that perfect chastity which is consecrated to the service of God is without doubt among the most precious treasures which the Founder of the Church has left in heritage to the society which He established.
2. This assuredly was the reason why the Fathers of the Church confidently asserted that perpetual virginity is a very noble gift which the Christian religion has bestowed on the world. They rightly noted that the pagans of antiquity imposed this way of life on the Vestals only for a certain time; and that, although in the Old Testament virginity is ordered to be kept and preserved, it is only a previous requisite for marriage; and furthermore, as Ambrose writes, "We read that also in the temple of Jerusalem there were virgins. But what does the Apostle say? 'Now all these things happened to them in figure', that this might be a foreshadowing of what was to come ]"
 
The passages of the encyclical which are applicable to all men striving for chastity and purity are summarized here:
 
"It is against common sense, which the Church always esteems, to consider the sexual instinct as the most important and the deepest of human tendencies, and to conclude from this that man cannot master it throughout his life without danger to his vital nervous system and consequently without damaging the harmony of his personality. As St. Thomas very rightly observes, the deepest natural instinct is the instinct of self-preservation. The sexual instinct comes second. Moreover, human reason the distinguishing privilege of our nature is intended to control these fundamental instincts, and by mastering them to ennoble them.

It is unfortunately true that the sin of Adam has caused a deep disturbance in our bodily faculties and our passions, so that they tend to control the life of the senses and even the soul, darkening our reason and weakening our will. But Christ's grace is given us, especially by the sacraments, to help us to keep our bodies in subjection and to live by the spirit.

The virtue of chastity does not mean that we are insensible to the urge of concupiscence, but that we subordinate it to reason and the law of grace by striving whole-heartedly after what is noblest in human and Christian life. To acquire this perfect mastery of the spirit over the senses it is not enough
to refrain from acts directly contrary to chastity. It is necessary also generously to renounce anything that may closely or remotely offend this virtue. By this will the soul be able to reign fully over the body and lead its spiritual life in peace and freedom.

Who, then, does not see, in the light of Catholic principles, that perfect chastity and virginity, far from harming the normal unfolding of the nature of man or woman, on the contrary endows it with the highest moral nobility?

Here are the helps commended to us by our Divine Redeemer by which we may effectively protect our virtue: constant vigilance, whereby we diligently do all that we can ourselves; constant prayer to God, asking for what we cannot do by ourselves because of human weakness. "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Vigilance which guards every moment and circumstance of our lives is absolutely essential for us: "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh."

If anyone gives way even a little to the allurements of the flesh he will quickly be pulled towards "those works of the flesh" which the Apostle speaks of, the basest and ugliest vices of men.

Hence we must watch particularly over the impulses of our passions and our senses, so controlling them by voluntary discipline in our lives and by bodily mortifications that we make them obedient to right reason and the law of God.

All holy men and women have most carefully guarded the impulses of their senses and their passions, and at times have taken severe measures to crush them, in keeping with the teaching of the Divine Master: "But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her hath already
committed adultery with her in his heart."

It is abundantly clear that with this warning our Saviour demands above all that we never consent to any sin, even in thought, and that we steadfastly remove from us anything that can even slightly tarnish the beautiful virtue of purity. In this matter, no diligence, no severity, can be considered excessive. If ill-health or other reasons do not allow one heavier bodily austerities, still they never free one from vigilance and interior self-control.

On this point it should be noted, as indeed the Fathers and Doctors of the Church teach, that we can more easily struggle against and repress the wiles of evil and the allurements of the passions if we do not directly struggle against them, but instead flee from them as best we may. Flight must be understood in the sense that not only do we diligently avoid occasions of sin but especially that in struggles of this kind we lift up our minds and hearts to God."

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