622. December 6, Novena of the Immaculate Conception (VII)

Meditations no. 549 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Jesus is our model for living holy purity.

You know perfectly well that Jesus is our model, not only because you have heard it and meditated on it frequently, but also because you have taught it to many people and have reminded your brothers of it, using the wonderful means of fraternal correction whenever necessary.

Jesus is the Model. He himself has said so. Discite a me (Mt 11: 29). Learn from me. Today I want to speak to you about a virtue that is not the only virtue, nor even the first one. Yet it is the salt of our life, and the touchstone for an apostolic soul. I am referring to the virtue of holy purity. Charity, of course, is the highest virtue, but chastity is indispensable. It is a “sine qua non” for anyone who wants to be virtuous. When it is missing, when a person fails to struggle, he becomes blind; he can’t see anything.

As we approach the feast of holy Mary’s Immaculate Conception, it is only natural that we pray about holy purity. It is a virtue that we ought to be continually learning to live and teaching to those around us, with the example of Jesus and Mary ever before our eyes.

Years ago our Father said in a meditation: Jesus Christ, our Lord, received all sorts of insults while he lived on this earth. Remember how they abused him in every possible way. They called him a revolutionary and said he was possessed. At times they misinterpreted the actions that stemmed from his infinite Love, and called him a friend of sinners.

Later on they upbraided him for sitting at table with the rich, though he personified penance and temperance. They called him fabri filius (Mt 13: 55), a son of a workingman, a carpenter, as though that were an insult He let them call him a glutton and a drunkard. He permitted them to accuse him of everything except of being unchaste. He stopped them short because he wanted to leave us a wonderful model of purity, of a clean life, of a love able to enkindle the whole world and purify it.

We who are children of God want to live up to this model. It is an urgent need, since a hedonist mentality diametrically opposed to the Christian spirit has been introduced everywhere. The search for pleasure as the object and end of life can even ensnare the children of the Church. Christian virtues like chastity and modesty are ridiculed and considered archaic by many. Our founder’s statement from the thirties is more up-to-date than ever: There is a need for a crusade of manliness and purity to counteract and nullify the savage work of those who think man is a beast. And that crusade is your work.

We all have to struggle.

When some people hear the word chastity they smile. So many do so! I used to tell the first persons who lived alongside me, ‘As you know, there is a mineral kingdom. Then, on a higher plane, a vegetable kingdom, where we find life as well as existence. Higher still there is an animal kingdom comprised of beings endowed, for the most part, with sensitivity and movement.’

Then I would explain to them, in a manner that may not have been very scientific, although it made the point, that we ought to speak about another kingdom, a human kingdom, made up of human beings. For man has a marvellous intellect, a spark Of the divine intellect, which enables him to reason on his own. And along with it he has a wonderful freedom that enables him to accept or reject whatever he wants to.

I would say that in this kingdom of human beings, for normal people, sex comes in fourth or fifth place. First come spiritual ideals, which each person freely chooses. Next, a whole series of concerns for ordinary men and women: their father and mother, home, children and so on. After that, one’s job or profession. And only then, in fourth or fifth place, does the sexual impulse come in. For this reason, whenever I meet persons who have big problems of this sort, I have felt they were abnormal, unhappy people, who were clearly sick. And I used to tell the young fellows, much to their laughter, that I pitied these poor persons, just as I would a deformed child with a big, enormous head, one yard round. They are unhappy persons, in need of our compassion. And unfortunately they are not more of a man or a woman because of it.

You know as well as I do that chastity is possible and that it is a great source of joy. You also know that now and then it requires a bit of struggle. Let us listen to St Paul. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death (Rom 7: 22-24)? Then, if need be, but without exaggeration, you should cry out, Sufficit tibi gratia mea (2 Cor 12: 9). My grace is sufficient for you, is the Lord our God’s reply.

At times I have seen an athlete’s eyes light up at the sight of the obstacles he has to overcome. What a victory there is in store! How eagerly he conquers the difficulties! That is how the Lord our God looks upon us. He loves our struggle. We will always be victorious because he grants us his all-powerful grace. It doesn’t matter if we have to fight, since he never abandons us.

And now, my son, I ask you: how are you facing up to this battle? You know very well that a fight kept up from the beginning is a fight already won. Fight immediately, as soon as you are aware of the first sparks of passion, and even before. Also speak up immediately, if possible even before anything happens. If you speak clearly, you will not be defeated. You know that one act after another forms a habit, an inclination, that makes it easy to act Therefore you must struggle in order to build up a good habit, the habit of virtue, of love, knowing how to mortify yourself and live for the Love of loves.

Let us ask the Mother of God to help us to be humble and sincere and to speak up immediately. If anything happens, speak immediately. The source of rottenness cannot be left inside. Running water stays clean; but when blocked up, it becomes a stagnant pool full of repugnant filth. What was once drinking water becomes a breeding ground for insects. Something similar happens to souls.

Mother, grant my children and myself the blessed gift of a humble struggle, which will lead us to be sincere, to be victorious. Our role is to struggle, my children. If we struggle, God will give us his grace and we will win out.

Means to preserve holy purity.

Look what St Paul writes to Timothy: teipsum castum custodi (1 Tim 5: 22). Keep yourself chaste. We have to always be vigilant and determined to guard the treasure God has entrusted to us. The vocation to the Work grants us a special grace to live the virtue of apostolic purity. But grace also obliges us to correspond in a special way, shown in the exquisite care with which we protect and safeguard this virtue.

My children, don’t be afraid of the crude temptations that come from the environment. You should draw encouragement from the thought that Satan, the enemy of our soul, along with the world and the flesh, are like a dog that barks furiously but that can’t bite us, since it is tied down by a strong chain. It can’t harm us if we don’t get too close, if we put into practice the means that we have.

In the first place, sincerity: a savage sincerity if necessary, in spiritual direction. Although there is no obligation to tell the director your falls, I advise you, besides telling them in confession, to tell them in the Confidence as well.

Guard your senses and your heart. The human heart can so easily be ensnared, but we have to keep it for God alone, with our Lady’s help. Don’t let the filth enter inside under the guise of curiosity, experience, art or science… .

Mortification: it’s much better to leave a pool of blood on the floor than to give in. If a very strong temptation ever comes, grab the disciplines, even without permission, and you will see how it disappears.

And above all, in addition to prayer and the pious reception of the sacraments, we have our love for our Lady. Pray very well the three Hail Mary’s for purity at night before going to bed. By your chastity, you have to purify the world and everything around you, like that legendary King who converted everything he touched into gold… Have recourse to Mary, our Mother, who is also a wonderful model of holy purity. She will help us to keep our love enkindled.

Tota pulchra es Maria, et macula originali non est in te. How pure and simple she is, when the Archangel announces his message. She is amazed at the news he brings. And that young girl, faced with the marvel that she is to be the Mother of God, questions the Most High in a filial and trusting way: Quomodo fiet istud, quoniam virum non cognosco? (Lk 1: 34). Only when St Gabriel tells her that it will not be the work of man but rather a great miracle, and that her virginity and her maternity will be joined, only then does our Mother, the Queen of purity, the one who will always safeguard the hearts of my children and my poor heart, only then does she utter her fiat.

My child, look at the way Mary most pure responds. This is the wonderful ‘condition’ she sets to become the Mother of God: preserving her immaculate purity.