Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 405 – Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 405 - Part III. How can anyone live a chaste life? What can help?

(Youcat answer - repeated)  Someone lives chastely when he is free to be loving and is not the slave of his drives and emotions. Anything, therefore, that helps one to become a more mature, freer, and more loving person and to form better relationships helps that person to love chastely, also.      

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2343) Chastity has laws of growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. "Man… day by day builds himself up through his many free decisions; and so he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth" (FC 34). (CCC 2344) Chastity represents an eminently personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there is "an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society" (GS 25 § 1). Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of the person, in particular the right to receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life.     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) One becomes free to be loving through self-discipline, which one must acquire, practice, and maintain at every stage of life. It is helpful for me in this regard to obey God’s commandments in all situations, to avoid temptations and any form of double life or hypocrisy, and to ask God for protection against temptations and to strengthen me in love. Being able to live out a pure and undivided love is ultimately a grace and a wonderful gift of God.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2345) Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort  (Cf. Gal 5:22). The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ  (Cf. 1 Jn 3:3). 

 
(The next question is: Does everybody have to be chaste, even married people?)