Glory be to Jesus Christ!
This is the “sex-ed” talk which we often find lacking in some of our families and schools. We can picture here a concerned and wise father, sitting down with his son to counsel him on living a God-pleasing and successful life. Often times we make a big fuss about how normative sexual promiscuity has become in our culture (and we should!) and we think that somehow it has gotten much worse than in previous generations. Certainly it has gotten worse in some ways, especially with how easily we can beam pornography into our minds and how technology has made an essentially social sin appear to be such a private thing. But the root of what we are talking about, lust, is never far in any culture.
The struggle for chastity is the struggle for holiness. This passage reminds us that God is not some Cosmic Meany who is out to spoil all our fun with a list of “don’ts”, but is a Loving Father, desperately hoping His sons and daughters will choose life, and life to the full.
“Can a man take fire into his bosom and not be burned?” We are reminded today, brothers and sisters of the necessity of not playing with fire. Lust is a life and death thing, regardless of what Cosmo and the rest of the world tell you. Light the fire of your family hearth and struggle with chastity in a God-pleasing marriage or single vocation and the light and warmth will dispel the falsehoods of selfishness and bring life to the world!
Glory be to Jesus Christ!
