JESUS ANSWERED him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me." [Jn 14:23-24]
Artist: Victor Luciano Rebuffo
(1903-1983)
Buenos Aires, Argentina

CHOOSING THE GOOD [1]

PRIMORDIAL GIFT

1. Choosing freely is essential to the dignity of the human person beyond ways that are immediately observable. The human faculty of free will is a primordial gift from God, a unique prerogative conferred by God, the sovereign divinity infinitely superior to man's creaturely order of being.

2. It is important to understand free will within the context of human activity and aspirations. Free will is exclusively associated with human beings. It is universally prized as the creative faculty enabling man to see God's image and likeness [cf. Gen 1:26] in himself. Free will helps man to concretize many of the possibilities of his vast potential for good.

TINCTURED CHOICES

3. Not all possibilities, if effected, are creative and helpful however. Many propose to the human creature, in fact, a ruinous if not deadly outcome. Man unfortunately and frequently does make choices that bring grave harm to himself and others.

4. While the faculty of choosing is pre-moral and colorless so to speak, man's choices are inevitably flawed and therefore deserve to be judged. The fact that a person's choices can be judged and are judged by God and other human beings is significant. The human condition presently is in a fallen state, and human beings routinely and frequently commit embarrassing, degrading, immoral and even heinous acts.

GLOBAL CONTEXT

5. Notwithstanding his unique and particular abilities to reason and to adapt effectively to the demands of his environment, the human person lives in a crucible of conflicting realities.

6. The great cosmic conflict of good against evil encompasses the earth and its inhabitants. Human beings therefore are situated in a global moral context, a battleground, the magnitude of which far exceeds--but nevertheless does not diminish--the impact of any one decision or the sum of decisions he makes in a lifetime.[2]

7. The wisdom with which man exercises his freedom to choose is judged by the means he prefers and employs to achieve the end he desires. Each and every choice is ordered to either good or evil. Each and every choice is illumined by the good or enshrouded by the evil to which it is oriented.

PROPER END

8. Hence, choosing freely is an inherent faculty in service to the human intellect and will. Human activities, properly speaking, must be ordered to just aspirations. Means must correspond to ends. And the proper end of all human activity is God.[3]

9. Man discerns what he should do and where he needs to go. He chooses activities best suited to attaining his ends and implements them. While not necessarily achieving all his desired outcomes, man assuredly incurs the consequences of his choices. Ultimately, what we choose must transcend the human capacity to choose.

VOCABULARY OF GRIEF

10. While the locus sigilli (Lat. place for the seal) of free will, the faculty of choosing is not itself freedom.[4] Free will is misused when it becomes a self-referential power and an autonomous end in itself. True freedom is a consequence of one's choice for the good. Conversely, when one chooses for evil, its consequence is always a form of enslavement.

11. Human autonomy, rightly understood, is the condition necessary for moral freedom and the salutary experience of human living. In no aspect of human life is autonomy more starkly compromised than when human beings suffer addictions, fornication, adultery and sexual abuse. Universally, those who experience such trauma speak with a vocabulary of grief. They speak in common of a personal, profound human loss.

STOLEN CHILDHOOD

12. With or without words, they convey a sense of abiding injury, often accompanied by episodes of recurrent emotional pain. Moreover, many have suffered physical injuries, sexual and otherwise, which exacerbated their psychological and spiritual wounds. People who have been sexually assaulted express their deep sadness over the loss of innocence and trust.

13. Some speak of how their childhood was stolen from them. And again, how peace and love elude them still. Thus, in many instances, the injured person understandably perceives himself as incapable of being restored whole and entire. He believes something within himself has died. Hence, the singular poignancy of the phrase buried memories.

TRENCHANT ADMIRATION

14. Ask those who have suffered abuse, sexual addiction or adultery about the nature of human personhood: Do you understand the power of your human conscience? Do you understand the nature of your human spirit? Are you aware of the extraordinary bond body and spirit?

15. You will learn that, regardless of their different histories--uniquely personal circumstances, perceptions or vocabulary--that these persons share a poignant, even trenchant admiration of the loveliness of human personhood and the delightful attributes which bring one to experience a disinterested pleasure in the gift of his own humanity.

LOOTED AND ABANDONED

16. These mysteries are worthy of all human beings and are to be pursued diligently in the name of hope, but victims of abuse share a universal, distressing bond in that their own pursuit of the loveliness of human personhood was interrupted--most often in childhood and adolescence--by searing spiritual and physical aggression.

17. What was theirs to pursue and attain--in the metropolis of human relationships and within the domicile their own interior goodness--was looted by robbers and abandoned like a grave site. This is to say that victims of abuse have acquired the knowledge of the things that are good precisely through experiences that are the opposite of good.

MOCKERY OF GOOD

18. And it is in this mockery of good that evil attains its disinterested but ruthless power over victims long after formal abuse has ended. Victims often turn on themselves, becoming their own accusers and imitating their abusers. They discover that recovery and equilibrium, if not subject to the law of impossibility, is a grueling and lifelong battle.

19. It is as if victims of abuse are disoriented and cannot extract themselves from life-changing events that were a stunning and shocking reversal of the good that was and was intended to be in the days of their innocence. How does one break the hold of an overpowering event which transmogrifies itself into a law that says, evil is a path to good?

MEMORY AS ENEMY

20. How can one clearly identify the enemy without identifying himself? Feeling the impulse to search for justice, how can one neatly blame the enemy for his attack without bitterly reproaching himself? How does one cope when memory itself becomes an enemy? Cried St. Paul:

WRETCHED MAN that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. [Rom 7:24-25]

21. Clearly then, victims of sexual abuse--and men and women of good will who discern the communion of sin--know first-hand how a choice for evil, whether made willingly or under compulsion, tends to the enslavement of the human soul and body. You and I may take for granted the rightly-ordered harmony of body and soul when we possess it. But it is impossible for a human being to take for granted, regardless of callous or desperate denial, the rightful communion of soul and body when he or she has been dispossessed.

HUMAN INTEGRITY

22. The community of faith would do well to reaffirm its appreciation of the value and worth of virginity and its integral role in the conservation of human personhood, for its virtuous safekeeping is a pledge that human beings and their bodies are more than a breath or passing shadow. [cf. Psa 144:4]

23. As we have observed, a consistent and mature habit of choosing for the good sets the boundaries of freedom for the human person--enabling him to face the present day with integrity, apply the medicine of reconciliation to unhealed memories, and strengthen himself for the future.

24. Virginity, understood in the context of seeking and finding God, enobles the singular unity of spirit and flesh in the human person. Any definition of human integrity, therefore, must acknowledge God's invitation to man to be transfigured:

NOW THE Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit". [2Cor 3:17-18]

Human beings must renounce imposture and non-redemptive suffering. They must freely entrust their lives to the absolute, unchanging and eternal God and to the healing ministry of Jesus Christ who is Truth.

ANALOGUE OF FREEDOM

25. People who call out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' [Mk 10:47] make it clear they seek the anointed ministry of Jesus, a peace which only God can give, a spiritual home that is delightful and secure. Examine the lexicon of Christian thought, and you will discover virginity to be the analogue of true freedom.

26. Simply expressed, virginity is the sum of the human person's integrity of spirit and body. Virginity is a two-fold reality: it is the bodily integrity of the human person from the moment of conception and the spiritual integrity of the human person conferred at the moment of Christian baptism.[5]

DESIGN OF HUMANITY

27. Human personhood, intimacy and relationship argue against perceiving virginity as merely a cultural conceit which is presumed to disappear at the instant one engages in sexual relations with another person. Virginity is a state of being, an inner and spiritual liberty worthy of all men and women, a way of life.[6]

28. Virginity attains to virginity, that is to say, purification leads to perfection. By growing in holiness and being attentive to its conservation, one experiences virginity as an ongoing participation in the extraordinary design of humanity. Thus the similitude of virginity and holiness in the exercise of true freedom: seeking God, and having found him, to rest in him.

NORM OF DISCIPLESHIP

29. Man pursues beauty because God is beautiful, he seeks truth to discover God who is true, he pursues virginity because God is virginity itself, the splendor of integral, harmonious and fruitful perfection. Virginity is the proof of justice, the eloquent witness of the faithful disciple's confident self-respect and his determination to give to others what they are due in the eyes of God.

30. Without question, orthodox Christian belief holds spiritual and physical purity to be the norm of discipleship. A follower of Jesus Christ must nurture and cherish the virginity of personhood conferred upon him at baptism by Christ:

WHAT SHALL we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. [Rom 6:1-4]

SCHOOL OF MODESTY

31. A virginal person is one whose body and soul are rightly ordered to the good. Cherishing freedom, we reject egregious misconduct and its inevitable spiritual and physical harm. God's Spirit empowers us in Christ to return to the virginal life through the virtue of chastity. To live virginally is to enter a school of modesty[7] where one's purity of body and soul is oriented to life's ultimate end, that is, intimate participation in the peace of Christ, his eternal priesthood, and the heavenly city Jerusalem of twelve foundations on which are inscribed the "twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb". [Rev 21;14]

32. We choose freedom by pursuing the integral harmony of body and soul, valuing innocence and trust, for spiritual childhood,[8] and for reconciliation. We take to heart the words of the Lord: "So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." [Mt 7:12] We strive to purify our thoughts, words and deeds such that our Lord Jesus Christ would be pleased to take them as his very own. We practice, that is to say, live the virtue of virginity in chaste single and married lives. We teach our children the meaning of virginity and its corollary chastity, and we respect and defend our children's virginity at all times and in all places.

ULTIMATE SOURCE

33. "Behold, I make all things new!" [Rev 21:5] One of the new things we receive from Jesus is a "peace which the world cannot give". [Jn 14:27] Peace is the fruit of Christ's forgiveness of our sins in this life. Peace is the healing of broken lives. Peace is the eternal life Christ promises for those who call on his name.

34. Peace is the fruit of fair love,[9] which has as its true object, or proper end, the unhindered good of the other.[10] The greatest good we may offer to one another is the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass is the ultimate source of fair love and surpassing peace, the sign of our unity with all members of the universal Church whether intimate or distant.

VOCABULARY OF GAIN

35. Without question, everyone would opt to remain forever "young at heart" if he or she were asked. Though the meaning of these words may vary from one person to the next, Christians can agree the that the Good News of Jesus Christ is forever young.

36. The gospel message is astonishingly original and restorative: Christ's redemptive sacrifice on the cross changed the definition of virginity from a vocabulary of loss to a vocabulary of gain. To be sure, most of us are no longer physically virgins, and a significant number of us have experienced the evils of sexual promiscuity, adultery or abuse at one time or another, but Our Lord's sacrifice offers us the power to rise with Him from the entombment caused by these painful experiences.

LORD'S INVITATION

37. What we are speaking about is the source of grace from which all good change derives: a sure and certain transformation,[11] our return to virginal newness, and our being saved from bondage to this world. Christ offers you now, in this life, the full regeneration of your incomparable human dignity and the renewal of meaning and purpose to your life.

38. If you will accept now Our Lord's invitation to live your life in spiritual and physical chastity, if you strive to abstain from everything that is mentally, emotionally and physically impure, whatever you ask in Jesus' name, he will do it, "that the Father may be glorified in the Son". [Jn 14:13] The King of Kings and Lord of Lords will restore to your future all its vibrant and virginal potential.[12]

ADVOCATE OF FREEDOM

39. Our Lord's victory on the cross is triumphant and definitive: Christ will draw a greater good from the victory of justice than could have existed had your suffering never occurred. In the comprehensive procession of his kingdom, Our Lord promises you the full harvest of all his graces and blessings.

40. Virginity is the seed of God's kingdom, already sprouted but as yet not mature, fertile and promising in this life but destined for glory: "When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to every one." [1Cor 15:28] You can depend upon the Roman Catholic religion to be the advocate of your God-given human rights in body and spirit. The Church defends your legitimate aspirations for a meaningful life. Choose life-giving virginity and the "glorious liberty of the children of God". [Rom 8:21]

[1] Cycle C /Sixth Sunday of Easter /Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 /Rev 21:10-14, 22-23 /Jn 14: 23-29

[2] The faithful disciple of Jesus Christ chooses to uphold the right to life. Life nurtured, enriched and morally directed, is the pre-eminent means by which every person may seek God as his just end. Yet, as our century's history of wanton slaughter sadly attests, we know that the right-to-life is not self-guaranteed. Thus our Holy Father directs us to defend the "...fundamental right of religious freedom, which is the guarantee of every other human right" [John Paul II "On the American Experiment" reprinted in "First Things" vol. 82, April 1998, p. 36], including the supreme right, the right to life itself. To the extent that freedom of religion is diminished or abrogated by government, personal life and liberty suffers.

[3] Man being a creature of flesh and spirit, created in the image and likeness of God. [cf. Gen 1:26]

[4] We have only to contrast free will with the vile destruction of human life and liberty in 20th century history: dictatorships, false imprisonments, religious persecutions, genocides, world wars, abortion and all manner of hostility and provocation toward human dignity made under the banner of human supremacy and egalitarian revolutions.

[5] Cf Tertullian, On Exhortation to Chastity, Ch. I, ANTE-NICENE FATHERS, eds. Alexander Roberts, et al., vol. 4, (ca 1885; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1994) 50. "The first virginity is (the virginity) of happiness, (and consists in) total ignorance of that from which you will afterwards wish to be freed: the second...being the glory of virtue...for moderation is the not regretting a thing which has been taken away, and taken away by the Lord God, without whose will neither does a leaf glide down from a tree, nor a sparrow of one farthing's worth fall to the earth."

[6] Cf Ambrose of Milan, THREE BOOKS CONCERNING VIRGINS, Book I, Ch. VI, no. 30, NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS, eds. Philip Schaff, et al., vol. 10 (ca 1888; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1997) 368. "Let God alone be sought as the judge of loveliness, Who loves even in less beautiful bodies the more beautiful souls."

[7] Cf Ambrose of Milan, THREE BOOKS ON THE DUTIES OF THE CLERGY, Book I, Ch. XVIII, no. 70, NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS, eds. Philip Schaff, et al., vol. 10 (ca 1888; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1997) 13. "A noble thing, then, is modesty, which though giving up its rights, seizing on nothing for itself, laying claim to nothing, and in some ways somewhat retiring within the sphere of its own powers, yet is rich in the sight of God, in Whose sight no man is rich. Rich is modesty, for it is the portion of God."

Cf ibid., no. 78, p. 14. "Is not nature herself then a teacher of modesty? Following her example, the modesty of men, which I suppose is so called from the mode of knowing what is seemly, has covered and veiled what it has found hid in the frame of our body....Thus the Make of our nature so thought of our modesty, and so guarded what was seemly and virtuous in our body, as to place what is unseemly behind, and to put it out of the sight of our eyes."

[8] Spiritual childhood, as Our Lord taught, is the essential path by which his disciples gain entrance into heaven. [cf. Mk 10:15]

[9] Cf John Paul II, CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE, "Is There Really Hope in the Young?" (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995) 122-123. "Love is not something that is learned, and yet there is nothing else as important to learn! As a young priest, I learned how to love human love. This has been one of the fundamental themes of my priesthood--my ministry in the pulpit, in the confessional, and also in my writing. If one loves human love, there naturally arises the need to commit oneself completely to the service of fair love, because love is fair, it is beautiful."

[10] Cf Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II), LOVE AND RESPONSIBILITY, trans. H. T. Willetts (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981) 42. "For to be just always means giving others what is rightly due to them. A person's rightful due is to be treated as an object of love, not as an object for use. In a sense it can be said that love is a requirement of justice....Justice concerns itself with things (material goods or moral goods, as for instance one's good name) in relation to persons, and hence with persons rather indirectly, whereas love is concerned with persons directly and immediately: affirmation of the value of the person as such is of its essence."

[11] "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." [2Cor 3: 17-18]

[12] Human imagination is closely associated with virginal potential in the sense of reflecting what is and what could be, yet imagination must yield to the primacy and preservation of human potential and not become the instrument of its manipulation. Cf Abiding "...in the shadow of the Almighty". [Psa 91:1]