Chapter LXIII: On Holy Purity

WE now come to a subject of the highest importance as respects the eternal salvation of the soul — that is, modesty, or holy purity. St. Alphonsus remarks that the greater number by far of the souls that are lost are damned in consequence of sins against holy purity; indeed, he says that all, probably, who come to their ruin do so, in some way, through this vice.

The greatest saints, the most holy men and women, have never felt themselves secure against it while life was in their bodies; but have trembled with fears lest they should fall at last; and have watched over themselves with untiring vigilance to guard against any such fall.

We are all of flesh and blood, all subject to temptation in this respect; and, therefore, it is most necessary for us all to be exceedingly watchful and full of prayer to God, lest we also fall.

Even St. Paul, the Apostle, after unheard-of labors, and burning zeal, and wonderful prayer says he had to chastise and mortify his body, lest he should lose the fruit of his labor and become reprobate. O dear, precious souls, who really strive to love God! bear this in mind; be full of lively dread and horror of even the least immodesty. Regard it as a horrible monster, ready to devour you if you expose yourself in the least to its power.

That was the way St. Aloysius considered it. When an immodest word was spoken at his father’s table by one of the guests he turned as pale as death and came near fainting. He was right; there was a danger to his immortal soul in that word greater than any other kind of danger. His soul trembled at it, as we would shrink and tremble at the roar of a lion were we alone in a dark forest.

Why must we regard it in this light? I will tell you. We are required by the law of God to be perfectly chaste and pure in thought, word, and deed. If we wilfully and deliberately consent to any impurity in these respects, we commit a grievous sin, and of course lose the grace of God. You see how strict the law of God is on one side.

Now, on the other it is needless to say that we carry about with us an inclination to this vice, and it will be impossible not to yield in the time of temptation, unless we constantly strive against it.

How easy, then, is it to commit such sins! Truly, this vice must be regarded as a monster, with jaws wide open to destroy us. It is the very pit of hell which yawns wide at our feet, ready to swallow up those who do not watch their steps with the utmost precaution.

Besides the danger of eternal ruin that attends this sin, it produces the most horrible destruction of all virtue and goodness in the soul. St. Thomas of Villanova describes this well. He says: “When this fire of lust possesses a man it leaves nothing unconsumed. Although he may in his youth have been adorned with the beauty of every virtue, and, like a paradise of God, shining with fragrant and blooming lilies, if once this fire penetrates within his heart, it burns, it consumes all, it reduces all to ashes, and changes him from an agreeable paradise to a horrid desert — from an angel to a beast.”

There are some poisons which creep on, when they have once infected the smallest portion of the body, until they leave not a single part of it untouched; they corrupt and destroy until every limb, every organ becomes a loathsome mass of rottenness, so that one would wish himself dead rather than be in such a state.

This is exactly what this horrid vice does to the soul. All goodness, all virtue, all love of God, all faith, hope, or charity, seem to be destroyed by it. As St. Gregory says: “From luxury are generated blindness of heart, inconsideration, inconstancy, heedlessness, love of one’s self, hatred of God, supreme attachment to the present world, horror and desperation of the future.”

Besides the loss of virtue there is a most fearful loss of peace and happiness. The peace and joy of the pure mind is beyond all description. It is a fountain of pure, living water, flowing from the heart and making everything around green and beautiful.

Take a pure-minded young person; why, the very sight of the innocent mind shining through that modest countenance fills every one who looks upon it with delight. It is like Heaven beaming forth on this earth. There are many such poor boys and poor girls from Ireland whom you love the moment you speak with them, for their innocence and purity of heart. But how this horrid vice destroys all happiness as soon as it has once got entrance into the heart! Where there was a paradise before, there is a hell now. All that peace of mind is gone, leaving distraction, confusion, and trouble to take its place.

Misfortune, sickness, pain, could not have made any such change, but immodesty can; it can destroy all peace and love of God and joy in the soul, and leave nothing but sin and despair.

It destroys oftentimes, also, one’s reputation or character, which is and ought to be dearer to us than any worldly goods. Who can live in this world with any pleasure when the finger of scorn is continually pointed at him? who reflects that his disgrace is just, that by his own misconduct he has lost the right to the respect which virtuous persons possess.

How often it has happened to happy, lighthearted young women, happy in the esteem and love of all around them, by yielding to the vice of impurity to lose all this and become a perfect byword and reproach, wretched and miserable, through the loss of that good name without which life is a burden!

Hold, then, this vice in entire abomination, and avoid it in every shape and every form. If you have unfortunately fallen into its power, rise up immediately from it and put it all away, even to the least remnant. In thought, word, and deed maintain entire purity. Apply every remedy to get yourself out of the power of this sin.