The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Nothing is more opposed to our sanctification than impurity and for this reason St. Paul in the epistle of this day warns us against that vice and gives us the reasons why we must shun it.

This is the will of God your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication. This admonition deserves our most serious consideration. There was hardly ever a time in the history of Christianity when the vice of impurity was so prevalent as it is at present. All are corrupted with this vice, young and old, rich and poor, in town and country. Many no longer regard this abominable vice as sinful; they excuse it as a human frailty, nay, they endeavor to represent it as a natural necessity, which can be as little forbidden as eating and drinking. Since everyone by nature inclines to impurity, and frequently is sorely tempted, how easy is it for one in the midst of a blind and corrupt world to be infected. Though we be tempted interiorly and exteriorly, let us think of God in whose eyes every kind of impurity is an abomination and say within ourselves with Joseph of Egypt: "How then can I do this wicked thing, and sin against my God?" Genesis 39:9.

It is the will of God that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust. The vessel of which the apostle here speaks is our body; and if the soul is like a jewel in a casket, our body is sacred, for like the soul, it is created by God, redeemed by Christ, and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and is destined to rise again glorious and immortal, and, united with the soul, to enjoy everlasting felicity in heaven. Not only our soul but also our body is a temple of God as the apostle says, "Know you not that you (both body and soul) are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?" I. Cor. 3:16. What an abominable sin is impurity by which the body this temple of God is desecrated! "But if anyone violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are." The apostle goes still further and says "know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" The bodies of Christians are not something separated from Christ. They are most intimately united with Him by baptism, but more particularly by Holy Communion; they are, as it were, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. Can we with anything but horror read what the apostle writes: "shall I then, take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid."

The Lord is the avenger of all these these things, as we have told you before, and have testified. God punishes the unchaste even here below. In the days of Noe, the deluge came upon the earth and drowned the whole human race, with the exception of eight persons. God did this because of the vice of impurity, for we read: "all flesh corrupted its way upon the earth." It was on account of impurity that God rained fire and brimstone upon the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah so that all perished, excepting Lot and his family. In Ecclus. we read: "He that joined himself to harlots will be wicked. Rottenness and worms shall inherit him, and he shall be lifted up for a greater example; and his soul should be taken away out of the number." St. Chrysostom says. "The adulterer, though he be accused by no one never ceases in interiorly to accuse himself. The lust lasts but a short time, but the pain of remorse remains, with fear and trembling, suspicion and anguish. He lives like Cain, trembling and moaning upon earth; and though no one sees it, he carries fire in his heart.

And in the other world eternal damnation awaits the unchaste, unless they do true penance. "Do not err; neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers nor the effeminate... shall possess the kingdom of God." I. Cor. 6:9, 10. "Whoremongers... shall have their portion in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Apoc. 21:8.

These are motives why we should avoid impurity. Consider them well, and shun every shadow of sin against the holy virtue of purity as you would persons infected with a plague. Take advice, young Catholic people. You are greatly exposed to the dangers of impurity, you live in a world that is full of snares; the vivacity of your age, your want of experience and prudence, render it easy to the tempters to poison your heart to rob you of your innocence. Walk, therefore, cautiously on the slippery ways of this life; have God before your eyes and pray that you may not lose a treasure which an ocean of tears will not enable you to recover. And you, Catholic parents, if you have the temporal and spiritual welfare of your children at heart and wish to be able to stand before the judgment seat of God, watch over them and do all you can to protect them from ruin. Let us all strive for purity and sanctity; never forget our Lord's words: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." Matt. 5: 8.

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