Team Nike cries out just “do it.” The world wants to force even little girls into womanhood before they reach puberty. Sexuality sings its siren song to entice the unwary pilgrim. The result is an age of impurity. Don Bosco would be horrified by the things that boys and girls and adults are doing. The end result of impurity is the sin of abortion claiming the lives of millions of innocent children. What can we do to stop all this insanity? Three things must be done in our lives to turn the world around.
First, individually we must examine our consciences and purify our minds, our thoughts, our bodies. Each must take the example of a professed orthodox Jew, Ben Shapiro, who kept himself virginal until the marriage day. His testimony impacts thousands of serious young people around this nation. Our decision to increase our love of the most needed virtue will have an impact as well. To grow in purity of life we must pray to our Lord, our Lady and St. Joseph to increase our understanding of this virtue and the power it grants to those who live in its splendor.
Second, reflect upon the power this virtue has in our families. Our Lord’s promise is the act of giving power to the ones who put this virtue into act: fidelity in marriage. Fidelity brings peace within the family. Mother knows that her husband protected her purity and so he will be faithful to her. There will be no cheating from either because they have shown “sacrificial love” for one another by self control in their physical relationship prior to marriage. Now if mom and dad practiced this virtue then they will naturally want to protect their children from the danger of impurity. They will install a love of this virtue by teaching the little ones the importance of physical purity. Teaching this virtue develops a mature child who respects himself/herself and the others in their relationship.
Third, this virtue gives Vision to those who treasure it. “Blessed are the pure of heart, they shall see God.” This beatitude is crucial for the kingdom of God to invade the soul before the death of the body. You and I have to come to a point in our spiritual development in which we live in the presence of God. With all the work that St. John Bosco undertook the devil’s advocate in the canonization process asked “When did this good father pray?” His daily schedule was so filled with activity that how could he develop spiritually? The answer came from the Salesians who knew his secret, they challenged and asked: “When didn’t he pray?” Don Bosco was a priest in the prisons; he was a priest in the pubs; he was a priest in the confessional; he was a priest in the playground; everywhere he was a priest offering the sacrifice of life to our Lord.
Finally, let us turn to the example of Mary, our Mother. She gives us the seven steps to purity and hence to the kingdom of God. When we come to serve the Lord as she did, we must prepare ourselves to suffer as she did. Anticipation of difficulties in purity help us prepare ourselves for the attack of Satan. This anticipation does not allow us to become anxious but prepared. Anticipation leads to an attitude of exile. We are not constructed to remain here in this world. Our true home is heaven and only the pure of heart enter the kingdom.
With the attitude of an exile we turn then to the moment of purification called “abandonment”. In this stage of purity the heart longs to see God but He seems to abandon us as He abandoned His Son on the Cross. “Eloi, Eloi lama sabacthani = My God, my God why has Thou abandoned me.” He abandons us to cause the heart to yearn more and more for our Lover Whom we seemed to have lost while He remains hidden in a Cloud of Unknowing.
Our next step up in this purification process is the sacrifice of obedience to our Spiritual Father. He may be our confessor or spiritual director or a special saint that guides us by his/her life and writings. This obedience takes us one step at a time up the mount of Calvary where the ultimate obedience expressed itself. Upon the Cross of Obedience to the Father our Lord places Mary as our spiritual mother when He said “Woman,behold thy son. Son behold thy mother.” From that hour on the disciple takes her (purity) into his heart and home. This is the crucial moment for the growth of a pure life. We will never desire to hurt our Mother and from her our purity is blessed and increased. In the mutual self-giving of Son to Mother and Mother to Son, the scourges of the world and the devil do not destroy but rather cleanse the heart down to its very depth. In the depths of suffering the gold of the personality begins to shine forth. The dross has been purged and the soul now desires to die to this world completely. In fact, heaven becomes the only thought that matters. With St. Paul the soul says “For me to die is gain.” In death we come to see our Lord face to face and we realize that He was in me all along but I just didn’t realize it.
Purification is the process of eternalizing our soul in the image of the God Who created and loves us. Let us challenge this world with the power and presence of Purity unleashed.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt
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