You Shall Not Commit Adultery (Catechism Series Part 36) - Auspice Maria Ep. 66

Follow the Maine Catholic Podcast:

SpotifyApple PodcastsYouTube

Transcript:

Welcome back to the Auspice Maria podcast. I'm Bishop James Ruggieri of the Diocese of Portland in Maine. As we continue our series on the Catechism, this week we'll be talking about the Sixth Commandment. And before delving into that, I would like to again invoke the Holy Spirit to inspire us, open our hearts and minds, so our desire to know and do God's will may increase, and through our knowledge of these very important commandments, again, we may seek this beautiful path of holiness more intently that we are called to.

So come, Holy Spirit, open our hearts, fill us with your wisdom, grant us that necessary knowledge, or that beautiful use of the gift of knowledge that we need. Help us to always be courageous as we proclaim your truth with love. We ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So in this episode, we continue our journey through Part Three of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Life in Christ. We're still in Section Two, The Ten Commandments, and Chapter Two, "You Shall Love Your Neighbor as Yourself." Having reflected on the fifth commandment, reverence for human life, we now turn to the sixth commandment, "You shall not commit adultery." And the scripture reference for this commandment is Exodus chapter 20, verse 14. I'm talking in this week's podcast about paragraphs 2331 to 2400.

Now, because this commandment, "You shall not commit adultery," concerns human sexuality, marriage, chastity, and sins against chastity, I just want to say at the beginning, if you're listening with maybe a child, that some of the material is indeed mature. I would encourage parents listening with children that maybe you use this episode as an opportunity for more careful, age-appropriate teaching on some of these topics that I will kind of just move through rather quickly. But I think it's important that we all keep in mind that Catholic teaching does not treat sexuality as something dirty or shameful. It treats sexuality, rightly so, as sacred, because the human person is sacred. The body matters, love matters, the call to holiness touches the whole human person.

And the Catechism begins this section not with a list of sins, but with the mystery of God and the dignity of the human person. God is love. And in creating man and woman in his image, he inscribed in them, and I quote, "the vocation and thus the capacity and responsibility of love and communion," close quote. And that quote that I shared with you is from Familiaris Consortio, an apostolic exhortation of St. John Paul II. It's from section 11.

That is the foundation. We are made for love. We are made for communion. We are called to holiness not as isolated souls, but as embodied persons, male and female, created in the image and likeness of God. Our sexual identity is part of this gift. The Catechism says sexuality affects all aspects of the human person, especially our capacity to love and to form bonds of communion. I'm referring now to paragraph number 2332. "Each person should acknowledge and accept his or her God-given sexual identity," and the physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity of man and woman are ordered toward marriage and family life, from paragraph 2333. "Man and woman possess equal dignity because both are created in the image and likeness of God," paragraph 2334.

So this means that the Christian vision of sexuality is neither contempt for the body nor worship of the body. It is reverence for the person. The body is not a costume worn by the soul. The body expresses the person. Therefore, what we do in the body matters.

And this brings us to chastity. This is important. Chastity is often misunderstood as repression, fear, or simply saying no. And the Catechism gives us a much richer definition. I quote here, "Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person." And there's more to this, but please refer to paragraph 2337.

So, in other words, chastity helps a person love with integrity. It orders desires rather than denying that desires exist. It protects love from selfishness, use, manipulation, and domination. Chastity belongs under the cardinal virtue of temperance, because it helps govern passions and desires according to reason, faith, and love. But chastity is not merely self-control. It is freedom for love. The Catechism says that either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets them dominate him and becomes unhappy. It's a reference to paragraph 2339.

That is deeply true. Unchaste living falsely promises freedom but often produces fragmentation, secrecy, shame, addiction, and loneliness. And every person is called to chastity. But chastity is lived according to one's state of life. Married couples live chastity through faithful, exclusive, fruitful love. Those who are unmarried live chastity through continence and integrity of heart. Priests, religious, and consecrated persons live chastity through celibacy for the kingdom. The virtue is the same, but its expression differs according to vocation.

Chastity also grows through friendship. The Catechism says chastity blossoms in friendship. It's a reference to paragraph 2347. This is very important pastorally, because we are not made for isolation. A chaste person is not a person who refuses love. A chaste person learns to love rightly. Chastity makes room for reverence, patience, tenderness, loyalty, and communion.

The Catechism then names sins against chastity. Lust is disordered desire for sexual pleasure, isolated from its true purpose. Masturbation is gravely disordered because it seeks sexual pleasure apart from the mutual self-giving of spouses. At the same time, the Catechism notes that affective immaturity, force of habit, anxiety, or other psychological or social factors can lessen or even reduce to a minimum moral culpability in particular cases. Very important that, again, the Catechism notes that affective immaturity can indeed reduce, or minimize, or lessen moral culpability in particular cases.

Fornication, sexual intimacy outside of marriage, is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality. Pornography gravely injures the dignity of those involved, and immerses sexuality in unreality, exploitation, and consumption. Prostitution reduces the person to an object of pleasure and is gravely sinful, while poverty, blackmail, or social pressure can lessen personal responsibility for those exploited by it. Rape is an act of violence and a grave violation of justice and charity.

Now, these teachings about sins against chastity are meant to tell the truth about love, and also, very importantly, to open the way to healing. Many people carry wounds in this area of life, wounds from choices, addictions, abuse, betrayal, loneliness, or confusion. And of course, we know Christ welcomes the wounded. Christ heals. The Church calls us to conversion because she believes mercy is possible, and also chastity is possible.

A sensitive part of this teaching concerns persons who experience same-sex attraction. The Church distinguishes between persons, inclinations, and acts. Every person is created in the image of God and must be loved, respected, and accompanied. The Catechism says persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies, I quote here, "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity," close quote, and, "every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided," close quote. It's from paragraph 2358. Importantly, at the same time, the Church teaches that sexual acts between persons of the same sex are contrary to the natural law because they are not ordered to the complementarity of man and woman or to the gift of life. Persons who experience same-sex attraction are called, like all Christians, to chastity, friendship, prayer, sacramental grace, and holiness.

Now we turn to spousal love. Marriage is the proper home of sexual intimacy. The Catechism teaches that sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman, from paragraph 2360. Within marriage, the sexual union of spouses is not something shameful. It is part of the covenant by which husband and wife give themselves to one another, spouses joined in this beautiful sacrament of matrimony.

The Book of Tobit, an Old Testament book, gives a very moving example. On their wedding night, Tobiah and Sarah pray before coming together and consummating their union as husband and wife, and they pray, asking God for mercy and blessing. It's found in Tobit chapter 8, verses 4 to 8. Their union is placed within prayer, reverence, and covenant.

The marital act has two inseparable meanings, the unitive and the procreative. The Catechism says it has a twofold end, and I quote, "the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life," close quote, reference to paragraph 2363. Spouses are called to love one another and to be open to life. In this way, husband and wife share in the Creator's generosity and fatherhood.

This is why responsible parenthood matters. The Church does not teach that couples must have as many children as physically possible without discernment. Spouses may have serious reasons to space births. They may take account of physical, economic, psychological, and social conditions. But the means matter. Periodic continence and methods based on the natural rhythms of fertility respect the bodies of the spouses and the openness of the marital act to life, reference to paragraph 2370. Contraception, by contrast, deliberately renders the marital act infertile and separates what God has joined, the unitive and procreative meanings of the act. This teaching can be very challenging, but it is not arbitrary. It protects the truth that love is total, faithful, fruitful, and free. It also invites couples to discern together, pray together, and seek guidance when needed.

Another tender subject is infertility. Couples who suffer infertility carry a real cross and really deserve compassionate accompaniment. The desire for a child is natural and noble, but a child is not a product or possession. The Catechism says a child is not something owed to one, but a gift. Techniques that involve donors, surrogacy, or the dissociation of husband and wife are gravely immoral because they violate the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other in marriage. That's a reference to paragraph 2376. Even techniques involving only the spouses are morally unacceptable when they replace the marital act rather than assist it. The Church's concern here is a reverence for the dignity of the child, the spouses, and the marital act.

The Sixth Commandment also protects marriage from sins against fidelity, while the Church seeks to accompany those who carry wounds in marriage and family life. Adultery is a grave offense because it violates the covenant of marriage and wounds the spouse, the family, and society. Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love because marriage is an equal and exclusive gift of two persons. Free unions and trial marriages fail to give love the public, faithful, and permanent commitment that human dignity requires. In all of these situations, the Church's desire is not to condemn the wounded, but to uphold the truth of love and invite every person toward healing, conversion, and the mercy of Christ.

Divorce also introduces disorder into the family and society, and the Church speaks seriously about it because the marriage covenant is serious, referring to paragraphs 2384 to 2385. At the same time, the Catechism recognizes that civil divorce can be tolerated in certain cases, such as protecting legal rights, the care of children, or inheritance. It also recognizes that a spouse who has been unjustly abandoned may not be morally responsible for the breakup of the marriage. So we speak the truth about marriage, but we also do so with compassion for those who have suffered betrayal, abandonment, violence, or the painful collapse of family life. The Church's accompaniment of divorced persons should include welcome, careful listening, prayer, pastoral guidance, and help in discerning the next faithful step, including participation in the life of the Church, always in a way that remains faithful to the teaching of Christ and compassionate toward the real suffering of those involved.

All of this returns us now to holiness. The Sixth Commandment is not merely about avoiding sexual sin. It is about learning to love as whole persons. It teaches reverence for the body, respect for sexual difference, fidelity in marriage, openness to life, tenderness toward the wounded, and hope for conversion. In a culture often confused about the body, identity, sex, and love, the Church must speak with both clarity and mercy. Chastity is not the enemy of love. Chastity is love becoming truthful. It allows us to see others not as objects, not as needs to be satisfied, not as bodies to be consumed, but as persons, persons to be reverenced.

So let us ask the Lord for purity of heart, healing where there is shame, courage where there is temptation, mercy where there has been sin, and renewed reverence for the gift of the body. We are made in the image of God, we are made for communion, and in every vocation the call is the same: to love with a heart made holy by Christ.

Thank you for joining me again for this Auspice Maria podcast. And as always, I'd like to conclude with a Hail Mary, a prayer to Our Lady for her intercession. "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen."