Chastity is an inner reality enabling us to express properly
the truth of our sexuality in our attitudes and actions.Good moral habits [moral virtues] are needed to lead the good life. And as Kierkegaard said, ‘the ethical is the very breath of the eternal,’[1] we have the obligation to value this ethical virtue to sexuality. And since virtuous acts are complex acts, which proceed from prudence and some moral virtue, consequently it implies that the intended goal is set by the moral virtue and the means to attain the goal is determined by prudence. Hence, to live morally as the sexual beings we are, we need to develop by positive acts the moral virtue of chastity. Its main purpose is to help us use our sexuality to grow as persons and to integrate ourselves as male or female in every area of our lives, not just in situations in which we express ourselves in a genital manner. Chastity is the moral virtue that enables us to live our sexuality in its fullness in keeping with out particular state in life. It concerns the whole personality with its capacity for love and warmth and human relationships; it facilitates the fullest realization of integration of one’s self as male or female and fosters the community.
Chastity is an inner reality enabling us to express properly the truth of our sexuality in our attitudes and actions. It grows and develops through our making the right moral choices we need to make as sexual beings. As such, chastity is not the denial, repression, or submersion of our sexuality outside of marriage. However, it is very positive and concerns our whole personality, as it is open to and conscious of reaching out as male or female to other embodied persons. It would not matter what our state of life - vowed or promised celibates, married or unmarried- chastity is the moral virtue that enables us to transform the power of our sexuality into a creative and integrative force in our lives. Development of this virtue is almost impossible unless we acknowledge and frankly integrate into our consciousness the sexual movement toward other persons that is in our bodily existence.
As males and females, we are attracted to one another and should delight in this receptivity and allurement. And still, it is impossible to be chaste in the absence of our joyfully embracing our sexuality, our masculinity or femininity in full consciousness. Other wise, chastity would demand clear and accurate knowledge of the basic facts and meaning of our sexuality, positive acceptance of our sexuality as fundamentally good, proper respect and reverence for our sexuality as a means for interpersonal communication, that is, as more than a biological, physical, genital, or emotional fact, being open to challenges and risks involved in living as the sexual beings we are, to know clearly that to be sexually sensitive and responsive requires self control, especially in moments that call for restraint and /or non expression as the most effective means of achieving creativity and integration , and to call on our religious faith, if we have one, for the needed strength and motivation to live chastity.
CONCLUSION.
Sex and sexuality they are realities, which are not less
for human concern. This is because human beings are sexual beings by essence.
It would do a lot of injustice to the human society if we talk of such relationships
such as in marriage, and ignore the aspects of sex and sexuality.
Biblically God
created two sexes [cf. Gen. 1:12ff], that is, man and woman and let them to be
one in union and to procreate and fill the world. How could this noble task be
fulfilled? It would bid reason to talk of any other means of procreation and
love expression and ignore the most natural mode of sex and sexuality.
However, what is
natural is not given that it has to be universally done. It would be an abuse
of sex and sexuality to engage in its practice without the proper motivation of
love and procreation as primal though other motives can be, like pleasure.
Sex and sexuality are not basically acts of man but human acts. In this sense, they are build on moral obligations and norms. Hence, they are realities subject to ethical and moral evaluation of which there can be good and bad sex and sexuality. The former would involve situations whereby the partners engage in sexual act with the right intentions [love & procreation] while the latter would involve where the partners engage in sexual activities with more or less utilitarian intentions [pleasure, satisfaction, money etc.]. Therefore, sex and sexuality, essential as it is, should be done appropriately and should primarily aim at the ultimate good of love.
By Mike Mutinda,imc.
[1] Dietrich
Von Hildebrand. Man And Woman: Love
And The Meaning Of Intimacy. [Manchester: Sophia Institute Press,
1992], p.g. 56.
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