Is chastity important? Most of the youth of today’s scenario doesn’t live a chaste life, so why should we?

Right is right even if nobody does it. And wrong is wrong even if the majority does it. So, most of the youth living an unchaste life is no excuse to elude the challenge of living out the virtue of chastity.

Only a chaste man and chaste woman can truly love. If you are not chaste, it simply means that you are not loving as Jesus taught us to love. True Love by its nature is ‘making a gift of self to the other’. But when unchaste, one ends up using the other person for his/her own pleasure and objectifies the other. So, the virtue of chastity is extremely important because without this virtue we won’t be able to truly love the other, which is the very purpose of our existence.

God’s gift of sexuality has a purpose and it is fulfilled when this gift is used appropriately in our vocation, whether it be marriage or celibacy. Any deviation from the purpose God  assigned to sexuality is in itself a sin- an act against God. So, proper ordering of our disordered sexual desires by disciplining our appetites by being chaste is the will of God for us. This is the good God expects from his children rather than falling prey to the sinful ways of our own flesh. Chastity offers man great power and strength over himself and it frees him/her to love as God loves. 

Chastity has many fruits associated with it. It helps to achieve self mastery. It makes one capable of thinking clearly and cleanses his intellectual darkness. It fosters purity of heart. It helps to develop in an individual the fitting disposition to the dignity of the human person – love; and appreciate the God given dignity of the individual. It helps to overcome the human tendency to use other people. It helps one to discern his vocation with clarity and earnestly prepare for living the vocation to the fullest. The list of benefits are never ending!  How could we not strive for such a glorious virtue!

As a baptized person, it is our vocation to live chastely. We have pledged to live a chaste life on the day of our baptism and God always showers upon us all the grace required to live a life of chastity.