On these Blogger pages we explore TOPICS in our desire to respond to Jesus' call to walk with Him in our world as his missionary disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring to humanity the Good News of the Father's love manifested and given in Jesus, the Divine Mercy. G.S.
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Fighting
for Purity July 31, 2013 Sam
Guzman
St.
Josemaria Escriva
“There is
need for a crusade of manliness and purity to counteract and nullify the savage
work of those who think man is a beast. And that crusade is your work.”- St.
Josemaria Escriva The
number one, soul-destroying problem men face is attacks on sexual purity.
Immodesty is ubiquitous, pornography is easily accessible, and every form of
media, including advertising, is filled with sexualized images. I could cite
all kinds of shocking statistics showing the increasing rates of pornography
addiction, the number of sexualized images teen boys sees by the age of 18, and
much more. But I don’t think I need to do that. We all know it’s a problem that
men struggle with, now more than ever in our depraved culture. I want to
discuss this problem briefly, and then offer some rules for combating lust as a
Catholic man. First, the tough stuff.
Take it Seriously
“Lust
indulged became habit, and habit unresisted became necessity.” – St.
Augustine
St. Bernard threw himself into an
icy pond to preserve his purity.
Because
moral standards are so low these days, we become numb to just how
bad things have gotten. St. Therese of Lisieux, who lived in the late 1800s, said her father
would not let her or her sisters leave the house if the sleeves of their dress
were above the elbow. Now, young women regularly attend mass in mini-skirts
that leave nothing to the imagination. Just because standards of modesty are
lax now, though, does not mean we should take purity less seriously. Purity is
a matter of spiritual life and death. While the world will tell you lust is
harmless and natural, it is playing with soul-destroying fire—it is the
ultimate slippery slope, the ultimate powder keg waiting to explode.
Entertaining
and enjoying a brief thought or glance can very easily lead to doing an
internet search for pornography. One little indulgence in pornography can very
easily turn into an addiction. And before you know it, your life is spinning
out of control and you can never get enough. While it doesn’t happen to
everyone, there is a very real danger of becoming the next Ariel
Castro.
In
short, never just mess around with pornography or even lustful
thoughts. It can destroy your marriage, your family, your spiritual life, and
ultimately send you to hell.
Don’t Make Excuses
“Don’t
say, ‘That’s the way I am—its my character.’ It’s your lack of character. Esto
vir!—Be a man!” – St. Josemaria Escriva
Men, I
want to challenge you not to make excuses when it comes to lust. Yes, it is
undoubtedly a struggle to maintain purity in the modern world. Yes, the vast
majority of women wear next to nothing these days, especially in the summer.
Yes, pornography is easily accessible on your smart phone. Yes, almost every
movie has a sex scene. But guess what—those things aren’t valid excuses for
entertaining lust.
Today’s
men are constantly looking to pass the buck on their sexual struggles. The
Catholic Gentleman doesn’t make excuses, though. Take responsibility, man
up, and confess your sins to a priest when you fail.
The Good News
St.
Francis rolled in the snow to preserve his purity.
Now that
I’ve beat you over the head, so to speak, there is some good news. And that is
that there is a big difference between looking and lusting. While the ideal is
perfect custody of the eyes, this is something we have to learn over time. Until
we have mastered our eyes, however, we shouldn’t feel guilty about their being
drawn to skin. In other words, it is very difficult to keep your eyes from
being attracted to a flash of skin as a girl walks past in barely-there shorts.
That is our natural concupiscence at work, and it isn’t a sin.
What is a sin is that second, lustful glance—that willful choice to
entertain and enjoy sinful thoughts. Other than staring at the floor (maybe
that’s a good idea sometimes!), it can be almost impossible to never see any
immodesty. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up if you we look and see things we
wish we wouldn’t have. Don’t be overly scrupulous about seeing things you
can’t control.
A Few Helps
While we
all have our own spiritual walks and methods for combating temptation, here are
a few time tested methods from the saints.
1. Run
away – “In
temptations against chastity, the spiritual masters advise us, not so much to
contend with the bad thought, as to turn the mind to some spiritual, or, at
least, indifferent object. It is useful to combat other bad thoughts face to
face, but not thoughts of impurity.” – St. Alphonsus Liguori
2. Ask
for graces to be pure – “Holy Purity is granted by God when it is asked for
with humility.” – St. Josemaria Escriva
3. Be
humble – ”Humility
is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater
danger than not fearing the danger. For my part, when I find a man secure of
himself and without fear, I give him up for lost I am less alarmed for one who
is tempted and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not
tempted and is not careful to avoid occasions [of sin]. When a person puts
himself in an occasion, saying, I shall not fall, it is an almost infallible
sign that he will fall, and with great injury to his soul.” – Saint Philip
Neri
4.
Consecrate yourself to Mary – This is my own suggestion based on the lives of a
number of different saints and my own experience. Give your purity our Blessed
Lady. Ask her to safeguard it for you. On rising in the morning and before
going to bed, say one Hail Mary for purity in your thoughts and choices.
5. Be
radical – “And if
your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it from you; it is
better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into
the hell of fire.” – Jesus (An example from my life: I
chose to stop going to the beach due to the immodesty everywhere.)
Conclusion
Every man
struggles with purity, and it is harder than ever in our overly sexualized
culture. The last thing we should do is be lax about it—it is far too serious a
matter to take lightly. It’s literally a matter of spiritual life and death.
While we
shouldn’t drive ourselves to despair with scrupulosity, we should strive to
maintain our purity with everything we have. How do you combat lust? Do
you take it seriously in your own life?
AUTHOR Sam Guzman
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On these Blogger pages we explore TOPICS in our desire to respond to Jesus' call to walk with Him in our world as his missionary disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring to humanity the Good News of the Father's love manifested and given in Jesus, the Divine Mercy. G.S.
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