In my last post I noted how Father John Unni has urged parishioners at St. Cecilia's Parish in Boston to "shed the burden of shame." It is most significant that Father Unni does not preach on the importance of chastity. The virtue of chastity liberates a person from the tyranny of concupiscence which in turn strengthens his or her will for the battles of life. Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that, "When the lower powers are strongly moved towards their objects, the result is that the higher powers are hindered and disordered in their acts. Now the effect of the vice of lust is that the lower appetite, namely the concupiscible, is most vehemently intent on its object, to wit, the object of pleasure, on account of the vehemence of the pleasure. Consequently the higher powers, namely the reason and the will, are most grievously disordered by lust." (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 153, a. 5).
You might be scratching your head and saying "huh?" Joseph Pieper, in his excellent work "The Four Cardinal Virtues," puts it nicely:
"An unchaste man wants above all something for himself; he is distracted by an objective "interest"; his constantly strained will-to-pleasure prevents him from confronting reality with that selfless detachment which alone makes genuine knowledge possible. St. Thomas here uses the comparison of a lion who, at the sight of a stag, is unable to perceive anything but the anticipated meal. In an unchaste heart, attention is not merely fixed upon a certain track, but the 'window' of the soul has lost its 'transparency,' that is, its capacity for perceiving existence, as if a selfish interestedness had covered it, as it were, with a film of dust...
This kind of interest is altogether selfish, The abandonment of an unchaste heart to the sensual world has nothing in common with the genuine dedication of a searcher for truth to the reality of being, of a lover to his beloved. Unchastity does not dedicate itself, it offers itself. It is selfishly intent upon the 'prize,' upon the reward of illicit lust. 'Chaste,' says St. Augustine, 'is the heart that loves God without looking for reward.' One further comment: For anyone whose function it is to lead and counsel young people, it is this selfishness which characterizes the inner nature of unchastity (as intemperance)." (The Four Cardinal Virtues, p. 161).
Lust destroys peace of mind and causes spiritual blindness. It enslaves. Chastity liberates us from concupiscence and makes us more noble. By refusing to preach chastity, Father Unni is delivering up souls to a sensual world which results in darkness of intellect and will. He is encouraging the souls entrusted to his spiritual care to live with total disregard for chastity. And this in opposition to St. Paul's warning that, "..this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity; that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathens who do not know God; that no man transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you. For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness." (1 Thessalonians 4: 3-7).
Father Unni wants his flock to shed any feelings of shame and to embrace a total disregard for chastity. The book of Sirach includes the prayer of the just man who wants to live a chaste life:
"O Lord, Father and God of my life, do not give me haughty eyes, and remove from me evil desire. Let neither gluttony nor lust overcome me, and do not surrender me to a shameless soul." (Sirach 23: 4-6).
Notice the wording here: "Do not surrender me to a shameless soul." This is the exact opposite of what Father Unni preaches as he urges his flock to "shed the burden of shame."
The spirit of Christ and the spirit of Antichrist. The City of God and the City of Satan.
Which do you choose?
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