Chastity August 1
A life together in love liberates persons, since love is itself a force of freedom (Const. 5.2).
The Constitutions see the vow of chastity always in terms of relationship. It’s prophetic. The world looks at chastity as a restriction on love: the consecrated person gives himself or herself to God alone. For the rest, the vow is considered as a brake, even a ban, on human relationships. This is a serious error. Because if chastity puts one in relationship with God, it puts one in relationship with the One is who Love. All that flows from God and returns to God is love. All will be transformed one day into love in God. It is not possible to love God without implicating oneself in God’s universal love. So chastity is love of God inevitably becoming relationship with everyone God loves. Chastity is no reason for alienation from God’s creatures. It is relationship. That is why the Constitutions speak of chastity as a way of living in relationship with the confreres. The vow facilitates fraternal life, directing the concern of one to the other through mutual generosity. Chastity opens one to all the children of God in the world by a solidarity that seeks to satisfy their needs. The consecrated person and community, embraced by God and united among themselves, put their arms around the whole world. Contrary to secular ideas, chastity liberates for love and creates the motivation and occasion to establish human relationships for the love of God.
What God ties, no one unties. (Bamileke)
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