Video Transcript
Emily: We all want to give gifts to the people we love. And we probably all appreciate when someone thinks about us and gives us a gift. But sometimes, it can be complicated. Maybe you’ve had that experience as a kid when someone gives you a gift for your birthday, but you can tell they don’t really know what you like or weren’t considerate with the gift. Or perhaps you’ve gone out of your way to give someone a gift and she doesn’t appreciate it at all.
Edmund: That is true. The gift shows something about the relationship between the two people. You want to show someone love, and you also want that person to receive it!
Emily: And as humans, we can be drawn to expressing our desire for relationship and communion through concrete actions, which highlights a truth about how we’re created. We’re made in the image and likeness of God as creatures who possess both a soul and a body.
Edmund: That’s right. We’re created for a relationship of life and love with God, and are called to enter and experience relationships on earth in a way that reflects God’s love in the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Emily: There are different types of love we can experience on Earth. The love we have for our family, our neighbors, and our friends, for example. But as we know, one of the most profound experiences of love is the spousal love we can give and receive in marriage.
Edmund: This is why God blessed and raised marriage, originally a natural institution, to the level of a Sacrament. The Sixth and Ninth Commandments speak to our responsibility concerning one of the greatest gifts we can give to or receive from another person. The Sixth Commandment is “You shall not commit adultery.” The Ninth Commandment is “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.”
Emily: These two Commandments speak to the great gift of love that we have as creatures who are both body and soul. God created us male and female with the gift of sexuality. We are able to give and receive love in a very special and intimate way. And the act of giving yourself body and soul to another person in the conjugal act, which literally means to be yoked together, is an act that can reflect the love of God.
Edmund: The Sixth and Ninth Commandments speak to chastity in our bodily actions and purity in our heart and mind. Jesus spoke about these Commandments and elevated them to an even higher standard.
Emily: That’s right. Jesus says in the Gospels, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Edmund: The dignity of the human person includes our body, and our human sexuality is not just a biological feature but reflects a deep spiritual reality that points to the communion of life and love found in the Trinity. For this reason, we don’t look at human beings like objects. Objects are made to be used. People are made to be loved.
Emily: Our human sexuality is a gift we can give to and receive from others. The virtue of chastity safeguards our ability to fully and freely use this gift for the good of others AND ourselves.
Edmund: The Catechism reminds us in paragraph 2339 that “Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom.” Being truly free to make good use of our sexuality means making sure that when we are giving this gift of ourselves to our spouse, it fully reflects the truth of this gift.
Emily: The purpose of the gift of our sexuality is to reflect the love God has among the persons of the Trinity and the love God wants us to experience. The appropriate context for this gift is marriage. Which is why the Ten Commandments, and specifically the Sixth Commandment, forbids engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage.
Edmund: I think a lot of people misunderstand this Commandment. It’s not because sex is bad or wrong. It’s the opposite! This gift of self represents a love that is a free, total, faithful, and fruitful giving of oneself to one’s spouse. It means a life-long, unconditional love.
Emily: The gift of sexuality is a gift of the whole person. You’re giving yourself mind, body, and soul to another person. And this includes everything in your possession as a human person who is body and soul. Even your sexuality and your ability to have children. And you’re saying with your body what you have committed with your heart, mind, and soul in marriage. Namely, “I am yours and only yours; freely, totally, faithfully, and fruitfully, till death do us part.”
Edmund: We can sin against the gift of sexuality by using it in ways that are contrary to this purpose. And because we have been weakened by sin, we struggle with temptations in our body and our soul. This is why Jesus reminds us it isn’t enough to only avoid committing adultery through our actions. God wants to purify not just our bodies and our actions, but our hearts as well.
Emily: The Catechism says in paragraph 2533 that “Purity of heart requires the modesty which is patience, decency, and discretion. Modesty protects the intimate center of the person.” Through modesty and striving to have a pure heart, we resist the temptation to look on others as objects to be used for sexual pleasure.
Edmund: Human sexuality is a profound and mysterious gift we have been given by God.
Emily: Through the right use of our sexuality and by striving to grow in chastity, we can experience a much deeper love here on Earth with our spouse. Because the great power of human sexuality finds its fulfillment only within marriage.
