Purity

PURITY AND MODESTY

Fr. Jordi Rivero

Something is pure when it has no contamination. Example: Pure gold is 100% gold. We are pure persons when we are 100% as God created us to be. God created our bodies to be an integral part of our person, to share and reflect the holiness of our souls.

Though we have sinned and thus we are impure, with Mary's help we can allow the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, to purify us. We can recognize and overcome our tendency to sin (concupiscence), the ways in which we go along the current of the world and embrace practices and forms of dress that are not conductive to a pure heart. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to renew our minds and hearts so that our thoughts, acts, speech, dress, gestures and demeanor reflect His beauty, love and truth. The saints are witnesses of this.

We need to avoid three wrong views of the body and the resulting effects on the way we dress:
1- The view of the body as dirty or evil. Holders of this view would cover their bodies as much as possible. Showing an elbow or a knee would be considered sinful.
2- The view of the body as an end in itself without regard for the soul. Holders of the view would wear provocative dress and fall into vanity. The body becomes an obsession.
3-The view of the body as meaningless. This would lead to abuse of the body and carelessness in dress.

To be pure is to be like Mary. She and Christ are of one heart. That is why we call her "Immaculate", that is without stain. The Holy Spirit works in her without resistance. Her entire being proclaims the greatness of the Lord. How beautiful she is, crowned with all the virtues!

Here is how to be pure:
1-Desire to be like Mary, completely given to the Holy Spirit, of one heart with Christ. Dress not according to the world but as you believe that will please Jesus and Mary. Be honest. Are you pleasing Jesus and Mary? Allow the Spirit to guide you.
2-Believe that you can be pure and be transformed by grace by the renewal of your mind. The devil will tempt you to give up, to make purity of heart seem impossible.
3-Use the means that God provides to be pure:
   a- Frequent and devout reception of the sacraments
   b- Meditation of the Word
   c- Devotion to Mary and the saints.
   d- Fellowship with others who are faithful to the Lord.
   e- Engage the mind in what pleases the Lord and avoid what is impure.
   f- Avoid the occasion of sin. Beware of TV, Internet, certain places. Be honest as you discern before God.

Attractive, yes; vain, no

The relentless indoctrination by the world has led most people to a distortion in judgment. So we must discern: How do I know what is pure and modest? Which is my point of reference? We cannot rely on what is the fashion or what others wear to Holy Mass.

Christian lay women should not dress as nuns. Nuns should not dress as lay women. It is proper for lay women to dress attractively and to wear make up. To be able to do so while avoiding vanity and immodesty is a virtue that needs to be fostered.

A dress is immodest when it is provocative, when it incites to lust. This is so, even if it is in fashion. As we grow in the Lord we seek to please Him and He will show us what is virtuous and what is not. But we need to be humbly and willing to hear.

The Lord's warning

Jesus said: "Anyone who so much as looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matt. 5:28) Therefore women who provoke men are also committing sin.

Our Lady said at Fatima: "Certain styles and fashions are being introduced which gravely offend My Divine Son" That was in 1917. Now we are living immersed in those fashions and the immorality that goes with them.

The following words of St. John Chrysostom, Father of the Church, apply not only to dress but to all forms of communication:

"You carry your snare everywhere and spread your nets in all places. You allege that you never invited others to sin. You did not, indeed, by your words, but you have done so by your dress and your deportment, and much more effectively than you could by your voice. When you have made another sin in his heart, how can you be innocent? Tell me, whom does this world condemn? Whom do judges in court punish? Those who drink poison or those who prepare it and administer the fatal potion? You have prepared the abominable cup, you have given the death-dealing drink, and you are more criminal than are those who poison the body; you murder not the body, but the soul. And it is not to enemies that you do this, nor are you urged on by any imaginary necessity, nor provoked by injury, but out of foolish vanity and pride." --St. John Chrysostom (d. 407A.D.)

To be pure we must love the Lord Jesus and Mary so much that we be willing to enter into battle daily, mortify ourselves and suffer ridicule and persecution for His love.

St. Maria Goretti
(1890-1902), Feast, July 6

Martyr of purity

St. Maria couldn’t wait to make her First Communion. She wanted to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist so that she could become more beautiful and pure like Him; she wanted Him to live close to her heart. After she received Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament for the first time, she stayed in Church for a long time after Mass to talk to Him.

Maria’s family lived with and worked for a farmer. His son Alessandro kept trying to make Maria sin against purity. One day, when everyone else was working, Alessandro grabbed Maria and tried to make her sin. Maria kept crying out for him to stop, and each time she did he stabbed her. Courageously, Maria resisted him and was stabbed fourteen times. Before dying the next day, St. Maria forgave Alessandro. He later converted through her intercession.

Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for Purity

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Virgin Most Pure, mindful of the terrible moral dangers threatening on all sides, and aware of my own human weakness, I place myself, body and soul, this day and always, under thy loving maternal care and protection. I consecrate to thee my body asking thee to help me never to use it as an occasion of sin.

Help me to remember that my body is the "Temple of the Holy Spirit" and to use it according to God's Holy Will for my own personal salvation, and the salvation of others.

I consecrate to thee my soul, asking thee to watch over it, and to bring it home safe to thee and to Jesus in Heaven for all eternity.

O Mary, my Mother, all that I am, all that I have is thine. Keep me and guard me under thy mantle of mercy, as thy personal property and possession. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I love Thee; save souls! O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.