Sunday, January 27, 2013

The Illusion of "Private Life"

Thomas Aquinas receives the cincture of perpetual chastity after overcoming temptation.  He has just been using a burning brand to chase away a prostitute sent by his family to seduce him from his Dominican vocation.

What we do in the privacy of our own bedrooms really can't be separated out from the rest of our lives.  Our private actions do impact other areas of our lives, and do have public consequences, even when nobody sees what we do behind closed doors.  There are the obvious consequences to children conceived in unsanctified unions; but even when no children are conceived, there are repercussions.  The sin of lust lies at the bottom of most, if not all, disordered lives.  Show me somebody who can't stay out of trouble with the law, and I'll show you somebody who is a stranger to purity.  

And here is why, as explained by a solid young priest of the FSSP, citing extensively to Aquinas' Summa Theologica.  You can read the passages he's referring to, from the Second Part of the Second Part, here (Question 153) and here (Question 154).

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