Sigmund Freud believed that the sexual appetite, which he referred to as the “id,” was always at odds with the voice of reason, which he termed the “superego.” Given this radical conflict, this irremediable antagonism between the demands of instinct and the claims of reason, life, for Freud, was cursed with unredeemable dissatisfaction.

Though he did not understand chastity and had no place for it in his psychology, Freud did understand that without chastity, man is doomed to a life of hopeless discontent. Chastity, which in the Russian tradition is called “the wisdom of whole-

ness” (tselomudrie), is the virtue that brings the sexual appetite into harmony with reason. Sex and reason are no more in conflict with each other than dancing and music. Chastity, however, like any other virtue, requires a certain amount of effort and practice before it becomes a virtuous habit. One can dance, but one must adapt it to the right music. It is foolish to condemn dancing as a result of one’s frustrations in trying to march to a waltz. The siren songs of prurient commercial advertising, for example, are not fit accompaniment for human sexuality.

Chastity, therefore, does not require the renunciation of sexuality, but the right use of it. Chastity is a most honorable virtue. It honors the self as well as the other. It may be a difficult virtue to attain. Yet the greater part of its difficulty lies not so much in the intensity of sexual desire itself, but due to the fact that it is constantly being aroused by a social environment that can think of little else.

Friedrich Nietzsche, no friend of Christianity, recognized the validity of this point. In Thus Spake Zarathustra, he begins his chapter “Of Chastity” by stating, “I love the forest. It is bad to live in towns: too many of the lustful live there.” St. Thomas Aquinas, long before the days of mass media, understood only too well the dangerous role environmental seduction could play:“There is not much sinning because of natural desires . . . But the stimuli of desire which man’s cunning has devised are something else, and for the sake of these sins one sins very much.”

Modern man alleges that “chaste is waste,” “virtue can hurt you.” But the contemporary fascination with parts is itself a waste and a source of harm, for it enfeebles the whole. Chastity is, indeed, the virtue of wholeness, the virtue that prevents us from the disgrace of being reduced to a mere appetite. The gratification of appetite may bring about pleasure, but it cannot bring about joy, which is the experience of the whole person. The chaste person does not sacrifice joy for pleasure. Rather, he integrates pleasure with joy so that he has both and is thereby a more complete human being. Moreover, because the heart of chastity is love, the chaste person is more faithful to those whom he loves and therefore refrains from making the other person subordinate to his pleasure. Chastity frees us to love others justly and faithfully.

All rights reserved: Dr. DeMarco, St. Jerome’s College in Waterloo, Ontario. “ The Many Faces of Virtue and The Heart of Virtue.”

Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Jeffrey W. Couture