Homily for Ordinary Time 2 - January 18, 2015

Homily for 2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

January 18, 2015

On Chastity

 

            One of my favorite saints is St. Dominic Savio, who died at the age of 15, but even at such a young age, he was living a life of heroic love for God and his neighbor. One day he was walking in his school when he noticed a group of boys huddled in a corner, talking and laughing. Dominic walked up to them and saw that they were looking at a magazine with dirty pictures. Immediately without a second thought, Dominic grabbed the magazine and tore it to shreds, right there.

            “Hey!” one of the other boys objected. “What do you think you’re doing?”

            Dominic responded, “Our eyes were given to us to behold God’s beautiful creation, and you’re using them to look at impure images!”

            One of the other boys responded, “Oh, come on! There’s nothing wrong with it!”

            To which Dominic replied, “If you see nothing wrong with it, that’s even worse! It means you’re used to seeing dirty things!”

            Needless to say, the boys were all ashamed, and quickly hastened to confession!

            Today’s second reading speaks about the virtue of purity. It’s not an easy virtue, but one that is necessary. As St. Padre Pio said, “Humility and purity are the wings that carry us to God and make us almost divine.” Purity is necessary for a Christian!

            What is purity? A simple definition is that purity is respecting God’s plan for our bodies and human sexuality. You see, we do not belong to ourselves. Our bodies are not our own – they belong to God, and we will have to give an account of what we do with them. Our bodies were given to us so that we can use them to give it away to others in love – not for our own selfish pleasure, and certainly not so we can use other people as objects.

            Self-giving, not selfish. That’s why the Church teaches that sexual sins are always serious sins – it takes this beautiful, life-giving gift of God and uses it for selfish pleasure instead.

            After all, our bodies are holy because they are the temples of the Holy Spirit. If you remain in the state of Grace – in other words, if you are in a deep personal friendship with Jesus and you haven’t broken that friendship through mortal sin – then the Holy Spirit dwells within your body. So we need to treat our bodies with respect and dignity, striving always for purity.

            So how, in our very impure culture, can we live a life of purity? Three suggestions.

            First, we need to practice custody of the eyes. That means that we make sure that what we see is not indecent. When St. Dominic Savio was around beautiful women, he made sure that he either looked her in the eye, or he looked away from her. He did not allow his eyes to wander to where they shouldn’t be. He later reported that he practiced such custody of his eyes that he would get headaches from trying to control his eyes. But it was that heroic virtue that allowed him to preserve his purity.

            So, do you keep your eyes pure? Or do your eyes wander to websites they shouldn’t visit, or do they look upon others who are not dressed modestly? This is a challenge for both men and women of all ages…trust me, I hear confessions. Strive for control of your eyes, and purity will be yours.

            The flipside of this, of course, is that we need to always dress modestly. I gotta be honest, it’s hard to go to a beach or swimming pool…or even the mall…these days because of immodest clothing. It’s important to not wear immodest clothing because our bodies are holy, and holy things should be veiled. The tabernacle has a veil because it is sacred – not everyone can look in there. It’s a holy place. Same with our bodies. We are sacred, so we shouldn’t display everything for everyone. Some parts of us should be reserved only for our spouse and God alone.

            Second, we need a life of prayer. The only thing that can overcome lust is love. We must love Jesus more than we love our sins of impurity. I know that sins of impurity often cause real addiction, such as an addiction to pornography. Only God’s grace can help us overcome these addictions to impurity. Pray often, particularly the Rosary. I remember a friend of mine struggling with an addiction to sexual sin, and he felt like just giving up the struggle because it seemed like he wasn’t making much progress. Finally, in desperation he cried out, “O God, how long will it be until I am free from my addiction?” He felt Jesus respond to him, “When you have prayed one Rosary for every time you have committed your sin, you will be free.” Prayer works!

            Third, we need frequent confession to preserve purity. Be completely honest in confession – we do ourselves a lot of harm if we hide our sins from the healing mercy of God. God desires your freedom, and your purity. He will help you achieve it if you desire it!

            My friends, St. Paul tells us to shun impurity. What a gift purity is! Even if we’ve lost it through sins, we can regain it by God’s grace. As Jesus Himself said, “Blessed are the pure of heart…for they shall see God!” If we want to see God, we need purity of mind, body, and soul!