An honest person
should now be able to see clearly that “the devil has power” over
all those who only come together in the marital act for the sake of
fleshly lust. St. Raphael the Archangel, one of the seven archangels
that stand before God’s throne, reveals what God’s will is for
spouses in the use of the marital act:
“Then
the angel Raphael said to him [Tobias]: Hear me, and I will show thee
who they are, over whom the devil can prevail. For they who in such
manner receive matrimony, as to shut out God from themselves, and
from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse
and mule, which have not understanding, over them the devil hath
power. … And when the third night is past, thou shalt take the
virgin with the fear of the Lord, moved rather for love of children
than for lust, that in the seed of Abraham thou mayest obtain a
blessing in children… [Tobias said] And now, Lord, thou knowest,
that not for fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but only for
the love of posterity, in which thy name may be blessed for ever and
ever.” (Tobias 6:16-17, 22; 8:9)
According to
God’s holy will, spouses are to engage in the marital act for the
“love of posterity” (children), not for lust. No, contrary to
what most people today say, the Holy Bible is clear that spouses are
to come together “only
for the love of posterity” if they want to please Our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Holy Word of God in the Bible is indeed true when it says
that “the devil has power” over all spouses who selfishly only
come together for the purpose of gratifying their fleshly pleasures,
giving “themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which have
not understanding” instead of being “moved rather for love of
children than for lust” when they perform the marital act that
Our Lord commands.
Many Christian
writers have written about the depth of love existing between those
blessed and holy spouses who renounce marital intercourse, in order
to try to help and inspire married people to seek the higher
spiritual things. Stories about loving spouses in sexless or
spiritual marriages appears from the beginning of the Church. In one
story the bones of a spouse who had lived in a spiritual marriage
moved over to make room for her husband’s recently deceased body
and in another story a wife’s corpse was embraced by her departed
husband’s arm when she was placed in the tomb. In truth, such
couples perceived their lives of sexual abstinence as an anticipation
of Heaven. Denying their sensual and fallen nature, they embraced a
state of spiritual holiness and loved each other in a perfect and
true love, rather than in an impure and selfish love that, sad to
say, almost all of humanity now does. Ida of Boulogne (1040–1113)
endured rather than enjoyed marital relations and Waletrude “abhorred
sexual relations, though she loved her husband in a spiritual way”.
In
answering the question, “Whether carnal intercourse is an integral
part of this sacrament [of Matrimony]?” St. Thomas Aquinas replied:
“A sacrament by its very name denotes a sanctification. But
matrimony is holier without carnal intercourse… Therefore carnal
intercourse is not necessary for the sacrament.” (St. Thomas
Aquinas, Summa
Theologica,
Supplement, Q. 42, Art. 4)
Gratian,
Medivial Marrriage Law
32.1.11: “Hence Augustine writes, in Against
Julian, I: ‘True
marriage does not consist in mere intercourse between a male and a
female. Contrary to your raving, true marriage does not consist
merely of intercourse between a male and a female, although, without
that, marriages could not procreate children. Other elements are
essential to marriage, and these distinguish marriage from adultery.
For example, fidelity to the conjugal yoke, actions directed to the
procreation of children, and (here is the greatest difference) the
good use of something evil, that is, the good use of carnal desire,
something which the adulterer misuses.’ Gratian: ‘The goods he
commends here must be distinguished from their misuse.’”
The goal of every
true Catholic is to be a Saint. That means they must strive to be
perfect and holy as God is perfect and holy. “Be you therefore
perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew
5:48) “It is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
(1 Peter 1:16)
In this path to
perfection, the lustful aspect, the love of the momentary pleasure of
the flesh is fought against, conquered, and thus utterly despised.
“Flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the
world.” (2 Peter 1:4) To say that this cannot be
achieved is to deny the power of God and His grace. “Being
confident of this very thing: that he who hath begun a good work in
you will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians
1:6) The weapons of the Catholic faith: grace, persevering prayer,
sacrifice, mortification, and penance are more than sufficient to
conquer any sin, sinful inclination, or fault and reach perfection in
a short time.
Not many people,
however, seek after perfection or even the beginning stages of
perfection, and this is the tragic reason for that the greater number
of Catholics will be eternally condemned. Sad to say, but most people
give to their flesh whatever it wants, whenever it desires it, all
day long. Food, media, music, sensual pleasure or what have you, and
these are just some of the many reasons why they cannot control their
lust. If they would start praying the Holy Rosary and doing penances
like fasting and other works of abstinence and piety and cease with
all deeds of sin and vanity, their fleshly lust would in many cases
be smothered or decreased. But penances and mortifications are
utterly despised by the natural man, and so, only a few elect souls
ever reach the point where they can experience that their fleshly
lusts and desires are decreased or smothered.
All sins,
including sexual sins that men and women commit are controllable as
long as one choose to cut of all deliberate sin and occasions of sin,
like the media, food or friends etc. But since most people do not
avoid all their sinful and worldly activities totally, and especially
the direct occasions of their sin—that is, the things which are the
cause for their falls into sin—they do not experience an
alleviation in their temptations. Many people who are living in
sexual sins or fleshly desires indeed tries in some ways to end their
sins, but since they do not cut off the occasions of their sins
completely, they fail sooner or later. The consequence of their
failure in attempting to stop sinning (and that they do not
experience a decrease of their fleshly lusts and desires) is that
many people fall into the abominable sin of accusing God for their
sins, perversely claiming that they cannot stop sinning and extricate
themselves from a life of sin. Others inspired by their father the
devil tries to excuse the severity of their crimes, claiming that God
is merciful to this passion. Indeed, “Our relentless enemy [the
devil], the teacher of fornication, whispers that God is lenient and
particularly merciful to this passion, since it is so very natural.
Yet if we watch the wiles of the demons we will observe that after we
have actually sinned they will affirm that God is a just and
inexorable judge. They say one thing to lead us into sin, another
thing to overwhelm us in despair.” (St. John Climacus, Ladder of
Divine Ascent, Step Fifteen, On Chastity)
Contrary to those
wretches who try to excuse or blame God for their sins and failures,
the Holy Bible and the Teaching of the Church, however, teaches us
that all sin is a direct product of man’s perverted will, and at
the moment of death such blasphemers who question God’s goodness,
or who tries to excuse their vile and unnatural sexual crimes, shall
be forever damned and banished by God’s justice to the boiling
kettle that is Hell.
James
1:13-15 “Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by
God. For God is not a tempter of evils, and he tempteth no man. But
every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and
allured. Then when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth
sin. But sin, when it is completed, begetteth death.”
Our Lord is
perfectly able to help us to conquer our temptations as long as we
are doing our part and perform acts of virtue. The only thing that
stands in the way of our salvation is not a lack of grace from God,
but rather our own sloth in prayer, spiritual reading and cutting of
all the occasions of sin. For “The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly from temptation, but to reserve the unjust unto the day of
judgment to be tormented. And especially them who walk after the
flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government, audacious,
self willed, they fear not to bring in sects, blaspheming.” (2
Peter 2:9)
The reasons of
why spouses as well as all others fall into sin of various kinds are
almost innumerable today, and the reason for this is since debauchery
and sensuality almost rule the whole earth as though it was built in
the very law and fabric of society. In general, however, one can say
that a human deed becomes more dangerous and potent to damn a person
the more pleasure one seeks to derive from it. St. Gregory Nazianzen,
Doctor of the Church, in his admirably written “Orations
of St. Gregory Nazianzen,” gives us a thorough and almost
perfect description of the causes that strengthen the power of sin in
our members and mind and that weaken our resolve against our enemy,
the Devil.
“Let
us not adorn our porches, nor arrange dances, nor decorate the
streets; let us not feast the eye, nor enchant the ear with music,
nor enervate the nostrils with perfume, nor prostitute the taste, nor
indulge the touch, those roads that are so prone to evil and
entrances for sin; let us not be effeminate in clothing soft and
flowing, whose beauty consists in its uselessness, nor with the
glittering of gems or the sheen of gold [Rom. 13:13] or the tricks of
color, belying the beauty of nature, and invented to do despite unto
the image of God. Not in rioting and drunkenness, with which are
mingled, I know well, chambering and sexual excess, since the lessons
which evil teachers give are evil; or rather the harvests of
worthless seeds are worthless. Let us not set up high beds of leaves,
making tabernacles for the belly of what belongs to debauchery. Let
us not appraise the bouquet of wines, the kickshaws of cooks, the
great expense of unguents. Let not sea and land bring us as a gift
their precious dung, for it is thus that I have learned to estimate
luxury; and let us not strive to outdo each other in intemperance
(for to my mind every superfluity is intemperance, and all which is
beyond absolute need), and this while others are hungry and in want,
who are made of the same clay and in the same manner.” (Orations
of St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration XXXVIII, Section 5)
St.
Caesarius of Arles in his sermons
also
admonishes and warns us not to get controlled by our desires, and
teaches us of the strong effects they have in influencing our lives
for the worse, but that we are able to control and become master over
it, and that it is how we live our life that determines whether we
are able to gain the victory and control over them.
“Now,
someone says: I am young; I can in no way control myself. Perhaps you
do not control yourself because you eat more than is necessary, and
drink more wine than you should. Perhaps you even occupy your mind
with shameful thoughts, neither fearing nor blushing to willingly and
frequently utter dissolute words or to hear them from others. With
God’s help begin to restrain your gluttonous desires, and to occupy
your mind and your tongue with chaste thoughts and upright words. You
will see that, if God assists you, you will be able to observe
chastity. If no bodily infirmity hinders you, do not mind fasting
rather often or rising a little earlier for church, so that you may
guard your soul against the stains of lust. If in spite of your
faithful obedience you see yourself exhausted by assaults of the
flesh, and if several times you are persuaded [by the devil] to know
your wife without any desire for children [that is, if you perform
the normal, natural and procreative marital act but without
performing it for the motive of procreation which is required in
order for the act to be lawful and excused from being a sin], give
alms every day according to your means, for we read: ‘As water
quencheth a fire, so alms destroyeth sins.’ [Eccli. 3:33] Moreover,
grant full pardon to all who may have offended you, for this is a
great and salutary remedy against all sins. Thus, what was defiled by
incontinence may be cleansed by fasting and almsgiving, but most of
all by the forgiveness of enemies.” (Sermons of St.
Caesarius of Arles,
Sermon 44, Section 4)
For those who want to read and learn a lot more on sexual ethics, I can recommend the following interesting and informative article that is absolutely packed with quotes from the popes, saints and fathers of the Church:
Sexual Pleasure, the Various Sexual Acts, and Procreation
No comments:
Post a Comment