410 FORNICATION

YOUCAT Lesson 410

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

410  What is meant by “fornication”?

Fornication (from Greek porneia) originally meant pagan sexual practice, for instance, temple prostitution.  Later the term was applied to all forms of sexual activity outside of marriage.  Today in English it generally refers to consensual sexual relations between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman.  [2353]

Paolo and Francesca whom Dante’s Inferno described as as damned for fornication (by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 1819). ….. 410

Fornication is often based on seduction, lies, violence, dependency, and abuse.  Fornication is therefore a serious offense against charity; it harms the dignity of the person and fails to recognize the meaning of human sexuality.  Civil authorities have the duty to protect minors especially from fornication.

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

You shall not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18.)¹¹³

  

You have heard that it was said, "You shall not commit adultery." But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28.)¹¹⁴

 Offenses against chastity

 [2353]

 2353 Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.

409 MASTURBATION

YOUCAT Lesson 409, July 2, 2015

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

409  Is masturbation an offense against love?

Masturbation is an offense against love, because it makes the excitement of sexual pleasure an end in itself and uncouples it from the holistic unfolding of love between a man and a woman.  That is why “sex with yourself” is a contradiction in terms.  [2352]

Sunset on Cook Inlet, Anchorage, AK, 1950, photo by Don L. Bragg. ….. 409

The Church does not demonize masturbation, but she warns against trivializing it.  In fact many young people and adults are in danger of becoming isolated in the consumption of lewd pictures, films, and Internet services instead of finding love in a personal relationship.  Loneliness can lead to a blind alley in which masturbation becomes an addiction.  Living by the motto “for sex I do not need anyone; I will have it by myself, however and whenever I need it” makes nobody happy.

Masturbation (etymologically probably from the Latin prefix mas- =masculine and turbare =to move vehemently, to disturb).  By masturbation is meant the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure.

To form an equitable judgment about the subject’s moral responsibility (with regard to masturbation) and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the effective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.  CCC 2352

[2352]

Offenses against chastity

2352 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action." (Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona humana 9.)¹³⁸ "The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose." For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved." (Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona humana 9)¹³⁹ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

To form an equitable judgment about the subjects' moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability. –CCC

408 GOD LOVES US AT EVERY MOMENT

YOUCAT Lesson 408

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

408  How can you live as a young Christian if you are living in a premarital relationship or have already had premarital relations?

God loves us at every moment, in every “complicated” situation, even in a state of sin.  God helps us to seek the whole truth about love and to find ways to live it more and more unambiguously and decisively.

Beloved Mary Magdalene by Giovanni_Bellini.  ….. 408

The Pardon of the Sinful Woman. 

    A Pharisee invited him to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.  Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.  Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.  When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”  Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said.  “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages^*and the other owed fifty.  Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?”  Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.”  Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment.  So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”  He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”  The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”  But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”-- Luke 7:36-50

In a conversation with a priest or a reliable, experienced Christian, young people can look for a way to live out their love with increasing integrity.  They will learn that every life is a process and that, whatever has happened, they can make a new beginning with God’ help.

407 PREMARITAL SEXUAL RELATIONS

YOUCAT Lesson 407

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

407  Why is the church against premarital sexual relations?

Because she would like to protect love.  A person can give someone else no greater gift than himself.  “I love you” means for both: “I want only you, I want all that you are, and I want to give myself to you forever!”  Because that is so, we cannot, even with our bodies, really say “I love you” temporarily or on a trial basis.  [2350, 2391]

Saint Therese of Lisieux, The Little Flower, (1873-1897), canonized May 17, 1925 by Pope Pius the Eleventh. ….. 407

(Inset at lower left) St. Zeilie Martin, mother of Theresa, November 21, 1875 comment: "I hear the baby calling me Mama! as she goes down the stairs. On every step, she calls out Mama! and if I don't respond every time, she remains there without going either forward or back."

(Inset at lower right) St. Louis Martin, father of Thérèse.  Although Louis intended to become a monk, wishing to enter the Augustinian Great St. Bernard Monastery, he was rejected because he did not succeed at learning Latin. Later he decided to become a watchmaker and studied his craft in Rennes and in Strasbourg. …“To his daughters he gave touching and naïve pet names: Marie was his diamond, Pauline his noble pearl, Céline the bold one. But Thérèse was his petite reine, little queen, to whom all treasures belonged."

Many people take their premarital relationships seriously.  And yet there are two reservations involved that are incompatible with love: the “exit option” and the fear of a child.  Because love is so great, so sacred, and so unique, the Church teaches young people the obligation to wait until they are married before they start to have sexual relations.  425

“To give your body to another person symbolizes the total gift of yourself to that person.”  Pope St. John Paul II (1920-2005), meeting with young people in Kampala, Uganda, February 6, 1993

“Young people want great things…Christ did not promise an easy life.  Those who desire comforts have dialed the wrong number.  Rather, he shows us the way to great things, the good, toward an authentic human life.”  Pope Benedict XVI, April 25, 2005

“Experience, too, shows that premarital sexual relations make the choice of the right lifelong partner more difficult rather than easier.  Part of preparation for a good marriage is training and consolidating your character.  You should also cultivate those forms of love and tenderness which are appropriate to the provisional nature of your friendly relationship.  Being able to wait and do without now will make it easier for you later to show loving consideration for your future spouse.”  Pope St. John Paul II, September 8, 1985 in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, to young people.

[2350, 2391]

The various forms of chastity

2350 Those who are engaged to marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will help each other grow in chastity.

2391 Some today claim a "right to a trial marriage" where there is an intention of getting married later. However firm the purpose of those who engage in premature sexual relations may be, "the fact is that such liaisons can scarcely ensure mutual sincerity and fidelity in a relationship between a man and a woman, nor, especially, can they protect it from inconstancy of desires or whim." (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona humana 7)¹⁸⁴ Carnal union is morally legitimate only when a definitive community of life between a man and woman has been established. Human love does not tolerate "trial marriages." It demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another. (Compare Familiaris Consortio 80.)¹⁸⁵

406 WE ARE CALLED TO A CHASE LOVE

YOUCAT Lesson 406

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

406  Does everybody have to be chaste, even married people?

Yes, every Christian should be loving and chaste, whether he is young or old, lives alone or is married.  [2348-2349, 2394]

“All human life find its meaning in love”: Me dancing with granddaughter Emma at Rose and my 40th wedding anniversary. ….. 406

Not everyone is called to marriage, but everyone is called to love.  We are destined to give our lives away; many do so in the form of marriage, others in the form of voluntary celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, others by living alone and yet being there for others.  All human life finds its meaning in love.  To be chaste means to love with an undivided heart.  The unchaste person is torn and not free.  Someone who loves authentically is free, strong, and good; he can devote himself in love.  Thus Christ, who gave himself up completely for us and at the same time devoted himself completely to his Father in heaven, is a model of chastity, because he is the original model of strong love.

“For this is the will  of God, your sanctification; that you abstain from immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathens who do not know God.”  1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

[2348-2349, 2394]

The various forms of chastity

2348 All the baptized are called to chastity. The Christian has "put on Christ," (Galatians 3:27.)¹³⁵ the model for all chastity. All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

2349 "People should cultivate [chastity] in the way that is suited to their state of life. Some profess virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner. Others live in the way prescribed for all by the moral law, whether they are married or single." (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona humana 11.)¹³⁶ Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others practice chastity in continence: --CCC

There are three forms of the virtue of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second that of widows, and the third that of virgins. We do not praise any one of them to the exclusion of the others. . . . This is what makes for the richness of the discipline of the Church. (St. Ambrose, De viduis 4,23:PL 16,255A.)¹³⁷ --CCC

IN BRIEF

2394 Christ is the model of chastity. Every baptized person is called to lead a chaste life, each according to his particular state of life.  --CCC

405 INTEGRITY OF THE PERSON

YOUCAT Lesson 405

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

405  How can anyone live a chaste life?  What can help?

Someone lives chastely when he is free to be loving and is not the slave of his drivers and emotions.  Anything, therefore, that helps one to become a more mature, freer, and more loving person and to form better relationships helps that person to love chastely, also.  [2338-2345]

Don C. Bragg splitting firewood from a paper birch for aging parents. ….. 405

One becomes free to be loving through self-discipline, which one must acquire, practice, and maintain at every state of life.  It is helpful for me in this regard to obey God’s commandments in all situations, to avoid temptations and any form of double life or hypocrisy, and to ask God for protection against temptations and to strengthen me in love.  Being able to live out a pure and undivided love is ultimately a grace and a wonderful  gift of God.

“I do not know yet whom I will marry.  But I do not want to betray my future wife today.”  A student, when asked why he had never been in  bed with a girlfriend.

“Mastery of the moment is mastery over life.”  Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

II. THE VOCATION TO CHASTITY

2337 Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift. --CCC

[2338-2345]

The integrity of the person

2338 The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech. (Compare Matthew 5:37.)¹²⁵ –CCC

2339 Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy. (Compare Sirach 1:22.)¹²⁶ "Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end." (Gaudium et Spes 17.)¹²⁷ –CCC

2340 Whoever wants to remain faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis (self-discipline) adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral virtues, and fidelity to prayer. "Indeed it is through chastity that we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into multiplicity." (St. Augustine, Conf. 10,29,40:PL 32,796.)¹²⁸ –CCC

2341 The virtue of chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason. –CCC

2342 Self-mastery is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It presupposes renewed effort at all stages of life. (Compare Titus 2:1-6.)¹²⁹ The effort required can be more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality is being formed during childhood and adolescence. –CCC

2343 Chastity has laws of growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. "Man . . . day by day builds himself up through his many free decisions; and so he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth." (Familiaris Consortio 34.)¹³⁰ –CCC

2344 Chastity represents an eminently personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there is "an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society." (Gaudium et Spes 25 § 1.)¹³¹ Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of the person, in particular the right to receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life. –CCC

2345 Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. (Compare Galatians 5:22.)¹³² The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ. (Compare 1 John 3:3.)¹³³ --CCC

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 10, 2017

Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law. –Romans 13:10  Photo above is my grandniece Stephanie getting her hair done by grateful native children while on a visit to Haiti for the charitable group Soles for Souls.

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 10, 2017
Lectionary: 127

Reading 1  EZekiel 33:7-9

Thus says the LORD:
You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me.  If I tell the wicked, "O wicked one, you shall surely die, " and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death.  But if you warn the wicked, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself.

Responsorial Psalm  PSalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9

R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Reading 2  ROMans 13:8-10

Brothers and sisters:  Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet, " and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.

Alleluia  2 CORinthians 5:19

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel  MaTthew 18:15-20

Jesus said to his disciples: "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.  If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.  If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that 'every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.'  If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.  If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.  Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."