Day 325: Battling for Purity (2520-2533)

• It’s Day 325!!

• THE BATTLE FOR PURITY

• Also MCNUGGETS!!

• St. John Paul II talked about the ETHOS, which is the inner world of a person that draws us to some things and repels us from other things

• We are called to have this ETHOS that is like that of Jesus

• We are called to be drawn to the GOOD and to be repelled by the BAD

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we praise you and bless you. And we know that you want this for us. You want us to have purity of heart. And you are inviting us into this battle for purity, You are inviting us into this transformation of our ethos, this transformation and healing of our hearts. But Lord God, we approach you with wounded hearts. We approach you with hearts that have been twisted. And so we ask you to untwist what has been twisted in our hearts. We ask you to purify what has been distorted, and we ask you to please make us new so that we can love each other, so that we can love you in all things, and in all ways. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• PILLAR 4: HOW WE PRAY has a section called “A BATTLE FOR PRAYER”

• Now we have THE BATTLE FOR PURITY

• St. Augustine is a saint who had a broken past with broken sexuality

• St. Augustine prayed (paraphrasing), “Ok, God, please make me chaste. But not yet.”

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about this a lot…

• There is something about our sins that makes us hold onto them tightly

• They hold onto us tightly

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about St. Augustine’s book CONFESSIONS…

• We all have this powerlessness when it comes to the brokenness in our own hearts

• We hold our sins tightly to ourselves

• Our sins become so strong in our lives that they hold back on to us

• Do you know what St. Augustine did not have?

• A smartphone that can immediately call up any kind of pornography

• He did not have the internet

• All the things we have at our fingertips today

• If you find yourself struggling and failing  in this battle for purity, remember that you exist in a time and place that no other Christian has ever had to face in the same way

• That is meant to be a word of encouragement

• It’s also a word of caution

• All of these things are accessible

• They are all available

• They are all affordable

• They are all anonymous

• These things conspire together and make it very difficult for us in our battle for purity

• Paragraph 2520 says, “Baptism coffers on its recipient the grace of purification from all sins. But the baptized must continue to struggle against concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires. With God’s grace he will prevail -by the virtue and gift of chastity, for chastity lets us love with upright and undivided heart; -by purity of intention which consists in seeking the true end of man: with simplicity of vision, the baptized person seeks to find and to fulfill God’s will in everything; -by purity of vision, external and internal; by discipline of feelings and imagination; by refusing all complicity in impure thoughts that incline us to turn aside from the path of God’s commandments: ‘Appearance arouses yearning in fools’; -by prayer: I thought that continence arose from one’s own powers, which I did not recognize in myself. I was foolish enough not to know…that no one can be continent unless you grant it. For you would surely have granted it if my inner groaning had reached your ears and I with firm faith had cast my cares upon you.”

• We are not Christians some of the time or only in certain circumstances

• We are Christians in all things

• We want to do God’s will whether we are in public or in private

• There is a time when we feel the things we feel

• We need to order that feeling in the right way

• We need to starve certain feelings because those are not the feelings we want to have growing inside of us

• Or we need to discipline our imagination

• God desires freedom for all of us

• We get interior freedom by external and internal discipline

• Paragraph 2521 says, “Purity requires modesty, an integral part of temperance. Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity.”

• We live in a world that is replete with images of lust and violence

• We need to recognize that there are some things that we do not need to see

• After God made us in His image and likeness, after the first sin our human hearts have been broken

• If you find yourself wanting to see what should be veiled and wanting to pursue what should not be pursued, it just means you have the normal broken human heart

• It also means that we have to have that discipline and refuse to unveil what should remain hidden

• St. John Paul II maybe said, “The problem with pornography is not that it reveals too much of the person, but that it reveals too little.”

• Pornography reduces a person to their parts

• How do I look at a person and see the person?

• If you find yourself thinking how can you possibly do this, here is a great example that Fr. Mike is going to tell us about his friend Nick and his sister so let’s listen…

• God can transform our hearts and give us an interior freedom where we do not desire to use in any way, shape, or form another person that we recognize is beautiful

• Paragraph 2523 says, “There is a modesty of the feelings as well as of the body. It protests, for example, against the voyeuristic explorations of the human body in certain advertisements, or against the solicitations of certain media that go too far in the exhibition of intimate things. Modesty inspires a way of life which makes it possible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies.”

• This is not just a sometimes thing

• Modesty is an ever present reality in our lives

• It means I am guarding what I look at

• I am guarding the entertainment that I have

• I am guarding the media that I look at

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about our dear friend, Job…

• “I have made a covenant with my eyes not to gaze lustfully upon a maiden.”

• Sometimes we are called to look away

• Ultimately, that is not the goal

• The goal is wanting to be able to look at another person and see their goodness

• The goal is wanting to be able to look at another person and see their dignity while acknowledging their beauty

• That I don’t lose the person because of their parts

• I can’t just jump to that place

• I need to have a vision of modesty

• I have to have control of my thoughts

• It begins by beginning

• It starts when I start

• Let me start now whether I take that second glance or whether I take that mental snapshot of that person to use for later

• “Lord, let me just see the person.”

• “God, untwist in my heart whatever has been twisted by lust so that I can see in this person my sister, so I can see in this person my brother, and have no desire to use them, but simply a desire to love them as you do.”

• That is the call to let it not just govern our actions, but to allow God’s grace and this discipline and this modesty and this vision to free our hearts

• This is what God wants for you

• This discipline, with God’s grace, will lead us to freedom

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT…