Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Parable and Conscience Meditation August 2

Chastity  August 2

Thus chastity is directed to generosity made real in sharing a life of Christian love and concern for all (Const. 11.2).

If vital sexual energy is at the root of personality, what happens to it in celibate life?  Such energy resists denial; it will pursue its life-generating objective.  It doesn’t let itself be blocked by renunciation; it will find its goal by other routes.  Look at behavior in the Crosier community.  Poverty:  when egotism changes into unselfish sharing, sexual energy becomes solidarity.  Chastity:  when eroticism is surpassed by self-forgetfulness, sexual energy manifests itself as service.  Obedience:  when personal autonomy is surpassed by dialogue, sexual energy is channeled into listening.  Prayer:  when private spiritualty integrates a community dimension, sexual energy expresses itself in the expansion of the self.  Fraternity:  when individualism yields to collaboration, sexual energy becomes charity.  Ministry:  when self-preoccupation is overcome by the search for everyone else’s well-being, sexual energy is transformed into efforts to create a new world.  Finally, when pessimism yields to optimism inspired by the Cross of Jesus, sexual energy carries the power of conquering hope.

The hunter without brothers leaves many animals to rot in their traps.  (Mongo)

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