The bond between man and wife is one of the closest, and nothing can be
more gratifying to both than to know that they are objects of mutual and
special affection. On the other hand, nothing inflicts deeper anguish than to
feel that the legitimate love which one owes the other has been transferred
elsewhere. Rightly, then, and in its natural order, is the Commandment which
protects human life against the hand of the murderer, followed by that which
forbids adultery and which aims to prevent anyone from injuring or destroying
by such a crime the holy and honourable union of marriage - a union which is
generally the source of ardent affection and love.
In the explanation of this Commandment, however, the pastor has need of
great caution and prudence, and should treat with great delicacy a subject
which requires brevity rather than copiousness of exposition. For it is to be
feared that if he explained in too great detail or at length the ways in which
this Commandment is violated, he might unintentionally speak of subjects which,
instead of extinguishing, usually serve rather to inflame corrupt passion.
As, however, the precept contains many things which cannot be passed
over in silence, the pastor should explain them in their proper order and
place. {a}
This Commandment, then, resolves itself into two heads; the one
expressed, which prohibits adultery; the other implied, which inculcates purity
of mind and body.
To begin with the prohibitory part (of the Commandment), adultery is
the defilement of the marriage bed, whether it be one's own or another's. If a
married man have intercourse with an unmarried woman, he violates the integrity
of his marriage bed; and if an unmarried man have intercourse with a married
woman, he defiles the sanctity of the marriage bed of another.
But that every species of immodesty and impurity are included in this
prohibition of adultery, is proved by the testimonies of St. Augustine and St.
Ambrose; 2
and that such is the meaning of the Commandment is borne out by the Old, as
well as the New Testament. In the writings of Moses, besides adultery, other
sins against chastity are said to have been punished. Thus the book of Genesis
records the judgment of Judah against his daughter-in-law. 3 In Deuteronomy is found the excellent law of Moses, that there
should be no harlot amongst the daughters of Israel. Take heed to keep thyself,
my son, from all fornication, 5. is
the exhortation of Tobias to his son; and in Ecclesiasticus we read: Be
ashamed of looking upon a harlot. 6
In the Gospel, too, Christ the Lord says: From the heart come forth
adulteries and fornications, which defile a man. 7 The Apostle Paul expresses
his detestation of this crime frequently, and in the strongest terms: This
is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from
fornication; 8
Fly fornication; 9 Keep
not company with fornicators; 10 Fornication, and all uncleanness and
covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you; 11 Neither fornicators nor
adulterers, nor the effeminate nor sodomites shall possess the kingdom of God.
12
But the reason why adultery is expressly forbidden is because in addition
to the turpitude which it shares with other kinds of incontinence, it adds the
sin of injustice, not only against our neighbour, but also against civil
society.
Again it is certain that he who abstains not from other sins against
chastity, will easily fall into the crime of adultery. By the prohibition of
adultery, therefore, we at once see that every sort of immodesty and impurity
by which the body is defiled is prohibited. Nay, that every inward thought
against chastity is forbidden by this Commandment is clear, as well from the
very force of the law, which is evidently spiritual, as also from these words
of Christ the Lord: You have heard that it was said to them of old:
"Thou shalt not commit adultery." But I say to you, that whosoever
shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with
her in his heart. 13
These are the points which we have deemed proper matter for public
instruction of the faithful. The pastor, however, should add the decrees of the
Council of Trent against adulterers, and those who keep harlots and concubines,
14 omitting many other species
of immodesty and lust, of which each individual is to be admonished privately,
as circumstances of time and person may require. {b}
We now come to explain the positive part of the precept. The faithful
are to be taught and earnestly exhorted to cultivate continence and chastity
with all care, to cleanse themselves from all defilement of the flesh
and of the spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God. 15
First of all they should be taught that although the virtue of chastity
shines with a brighter lustre in those who make the holy and religious vow of
virginity, nevertheless it is a virtue which belongs also to those who lead a
life of celibacy; or who, in the married state, preserve themselves pure and
undefiled from unlawful desire. {c}
The holy Fathers have taught us many means whereby to subdue the
passions and to restrain sinful pleasure. The pastor, therefore, should make it
his study to explain these accurately to the faithful, and should use the
utmost diligence in their exposition. Of these means some are reflections,
others are active measures.
The first kind consists chiefly in our forming a just conception of the
filthiness and evil of this sin; for such knowledge will lead one more easily
to detest it. Now the evil of this crime we may learn from the fact that, on
account of it, man is banished and excluded from the kingdom of God, which is
the greatest of all evils.
The abovementioned calamity is indeed common to every mortal sin. But what
is peculiar to this sin is that fornicators are said to sin against their own
bodies, according to the words of the Apostle: Fly fornication. Every sin
that a man doth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication,
sinneth against his own body. 16 The reason is that such a one does an injury to his
own body violating its sanctity. Hence St. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians,
says: This is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain
from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel
in sanctification and honour; not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles
that know not God. 17
Furthermore, what is still more criminal, the Christian who shamefully
sins with a harlot makes the members of Christ the members of an harlot,
according to these words of St. Paul: Know you not that your bodies are the
members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the
members of a harlot? God forbid. Or know you not, that he who is joined to a
harlot is made one body? 18 Moreover, a Christian, as St. Paul testifies is the temple of the
Holy Ghost ; 19
and to violate this temple is nothing else than to expel the Holy Ghost.
But the crime of adultery involves that of grievous injustice. If, as
the Apostle says, they who are joined in wedlock are so subject to each other
that neither has power or right over his or her body, but both are bound, as it
were, by a mutual bond of subjection, the husband to accommodate himself to the
will of the wife, the wife to the will of the husband; most certainly if either
dissociate his or her person, which is the right of the other, from him or her
to whom it is bound, the offender is guilty of an act of great injustice and
wickedness. 20
As dread of disgrace strongly stimulates to the performance of duty and
deters from the commission of crime, the pastor should also teach that adultery
brands its guilty perpetrators with an unusual stigma. He that is an
adulterer, says Scripture, for the folly of his heart shall destroy his
own soul: he gathereth to himself shame and dishonour, and his reproach shall
not be blotted out. 21
The grievousness of the sin of adultery may be easily inferred from the
severity of its punishment. According to the law promulgated by God in the Old
Testament, the adulterer was stoned to death. 22 Nay more, because of the criminal passion of
one man, not only the perpetrator of the crime, but a whole city was destroyed,
as we read with regard to the Sichemites. 23 The Sacred
Scriptures abound with examples of the divine vengeance, such as the
destruction of Sodom and of the neighboring cities, 24 the punishment of the
Israelites who committed fornication in the wilderness with the daughters of
Moab, 25
and the slaughter of the Benjamites. 26 These examples the pastor can easily make use of to
deter men from shameful lust. {d}
But even though the adulterer may escape the punishment of death, he
does not escape the great pains and torments that often overtake such sins as
his. He becomes afflicted with blindness of mind a most severe punishment; he
is lost to all regard for God, for reputation, for honor, for family, and even
for life; and thus, utterly abandoned and worthless, he is undeserving of
confidence in any matter of moment, and becomes unfitted to discharge any kind
of duty.
Of this we find examples in the persons of David and of Solomon. David
had no sooner fallen into the crime of adultery than he degenerated into a
character the very reverse of what he had been before; from the mildest of men
he became so cruel as to consign to death Urias, one of his most deserving
subjects. 27
Solomon, having abandoned himself to the lust of women, gave up the true
religion to follow strange gods. 28 This sin, therefore, as Osee observes, takes away
man's heart and often blinds his understanding. 29
We now come to the remedies which consist in action. The first is
studiously to avoid idleness; for, according to Ezechiel, it was by yielding to
the enervating influence of idleness that the Sodomites plunged into the most
shameful crime of criminal lust. 30 {e}
In the next place, intemperance is carefully to be avoided. I fed
them to the full, says the Prophet, and they committed adultery. 31 An overloaded stomach begets impurity. This our Lord intimates in
these words: Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be
overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. 32 Be
not drunk with wine, says the Apostle, wherein is luxury. 33 {f}
But the eyes, in particular, are the inlets to criminal passion, and to
this refer these words of our Lord: If thine eye scandalize thee, pluck it
out, and cast it from thee. 34 The Prophets, also, frequently speak to the same
effect. I made a covenant with mine eyes, says Job, that I would not
so much as think upon a virgin. Finally, there are on record innumerable
examples of the evils which have their origin in the indulgence of the eyes. It
was thus that David sinned, 36 thus that the king of Sichem fell, 37 and thus also that the elders sinned who
calumniated Susanna. 38
Too much display in dress, which especially attracts the eye, is but
too frequently an occasion of sin. Hence the admonition of Ecclesiasticus: Turn
away thy face from a woman dressed up. 39 As women are given to excessive fondness for dress,
it will not be unseasonable in the pastor to give some attention to the
subject, and sometimes to admonish and reprove them in the impressive words of
the Apostle Peter: Whose adorning let it not be the outward plaiting of the
hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel. 40 St. Paul likewise says: Not
with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire. 41 Many women adorned with
gold and precious stones, have lost the only true ornament of their soul and
body. {g}
Next to the sexual excitement, usually provoked by too studied an
elegance of dress, follows another, which is indecent and obscene conversation.
Obscene language is a torch which lights up the worst passions of the young
mind; and the Apostle has said, that evil communications corrupt good
manners. 42
Immodest and passionate songs and dances are most productive of this same
effect and are, therefore, cautiously to be avoided.
In the same class are to be numbered soft and obscene books which must
be avoided no less than indecent pictures. All such things possess a fatal
influence in exciting to unlawful attractions, and in inflaming the mind of
youth. In these matters the pastor should take special pains to see that the
faithful most carefully observe the pious and prudent regulations of the
Council of Trent. 43
If the occasions of sin which we have just enumerated be carefully
avoided, almost every excitement to lust will be removed. But the most
efficacious means for subduing its violence are frequent use of confession and
Communion, as also unceasing and devout prayer to God, accompanied by fasting
and almsdeeds. Chastity is a gift of God. 44 To those who ask it aright He does not deny it; nor
does He suffer us to be tempted beyond our strength. 45
But the body is to be mortified and the sensual appetites to be
repressed not only by fasting, and particularly, by the fasts instituted by the
Church, but also by watching, pious pilgrimages, and other works of austerity.
By these and similar observances is the virtue of temperance chiefly
manifested. In connection with this subject, St. Paul, writing to the
Corinthians, says: Every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth
himself from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible
crown, but we an incorruptible one. 46 A little after he says: I chastise my body and
bring it into subjection, lest, perhaps, when I have preached to others, I
myself should become a castaway. And in another place he says: Make not
provision for the flesh in its concupiscence. 47 {h}
Endnotes
– The Sixth Commandment
1>
Exod.
xx. 14.
2>
Amb.
lib. officior. 1. c. 50; Aug. Super Exod. Quæs.71.
3>
Gen.
xxxviii. 14.
4>
Deut.
xxiii. 17.
5>
Tob.
iv. 13.
6>
Eccl.
xli. 35. <<<< Note: This
vs. is not found, but is most likely vs.25
7>
Matt.
xv. 19.
8>
1
Thess. iv. 3.
9>
1
Cor. vi. 18.
10> 1 Cor. v. 9.
11> Eph. v. 3.
12> 1 Cor. vi. 9.
13> Matt. v. 27, 28.
14> 14. Sess. xxiv. c. 8. De
Reform.
15> 2 Cor. viii. 1.
16> 1 Cor. vi. 18.
17> 1 Thess. iv. 3-5.
18> 1 Cor. vi. 15, 16.
19> 1 Cor. vi. 19.
20> 1 Cor. vii. 4.
21> Prov. vi. 32.
22> Levit. xx. 10; John viii. 5.
23> Gen. xxxiv. 25.
24> Gen. xix. 24.
25> Num. xxv. 4.
26> Judges xx.
27> 2 Kings xi.; xii.
28> 3 Kings xi.
29> Osee iv. 11.
30> Exech. xvi. 49.
31> Jerem. v. 7.
32> Luke xxi. 34.
33> Ephes. v. 18.
34> Matt. v. 29, 30.
35> Job xxxi. 1.
36> 2 Kings xi. 2.
37> Gen. xxxiv. 2.
38> Dan. xiii. 8.
39> Eccl. ix. 8.
40> 1 Pet. iii. 3.
41> 1 Tim. ii. 9.
42> 1 Cor. xv. 33.
43> Sess. xxv. Decret. De
Invocat. et Vener. Sacr. Imagin.
44> 1 Cor. vii. 7.
45> 1 Cor. v. 13.
46> 1 Cor. v. 27.
47> Rom. xiii. 14.
{a} On the sixth Commandment see Summa Theol.
2a. 2æ. cxxii. 6; St. Alphonsus, Theol. Mor. iii. tr. 4. c. 2.
{b} On lust and incontinency see Summa Theol.
2a. 2æ. cliii. cliv. clvi.
{c} On chastity, virginity and continence see Summa
Theol. 2a. 2æ. cli. clii. clv.
{d} On the ecclesiastical penalties against
adultery and other sins of impurity see Code of Canon Law, canons 2356 ff.
{e} On sloth see Summa Theol. 1a. 2æ. xxxv.
clxviii. 2-4.
{f} On temperance in eating and drinking see
Summa Theol. 2a. 2æ. cxlviii-cl.
{g} On modesty of dress see Summa Theol. 2a. 2æ.
clxix.