Chastity? Why bother?

In the 21'st century, you don't have to look far to realize our culture is far from living in chastity. With so many people living in a hook-up culture, its possible to wonder if there is any point even trying to live in chastity. Why should we even bother with chastity? And what does the Catholic Church have to say about it?

First of all, what is chastity? The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "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.

The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift." ~From the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

In other words, chastity is living according to a person's state or vocation in life. In marriage, it is giving all of oneself, including sexuality, to one's spouse for the rest of their lives. Only in this context is sex a good and holy thing.

And if someone is not married? Sex is a promise to another person; it is saying that "I will remain with you forever." Therefore, if a promise hasn't been made in marriage, sex is a lie to both God and the people. So living chastely basically means living according to a person's current vocation. If someone is single, they should refrain from sexual activity until they are married, and even in marriage there is a call to chastity (e.g., remaining faithful.) 

There are many practical reasons for remaining chaste, and these are a few. First of all, there is a 100% guarantee that pregnancy won't occur in a chaste lifestyle. Secondly, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD's) are also out the window. There are many good reasons for waiting for marriage, and you can find more by visiting this website. This is a site for Jason Evert, a national chastity speaker who advocates a chaste lifestyle and gives very good reasons for living one. 

Also, please check out this page to see the full text of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on living chastely. 

Finally, if someone has not lived chastely, it is not too late to make a commitment to wait for marriage. Imagine how proud a future spouse would be to learn that someone stopped living an unchaste lifestyle and decided to wait for them in marriage.