An Apologetical Explanation of

Growing In Purity

How can we best maintain purity?

How can a young man keep his way pure? / By guarding it according to your word.  (Ps 119:9)

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  (Mt 5:8)

Shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.  (2 Tm 2:22)

To rise above concupiscence requires purity of heart, faith, prayer, recourse to the Sacraments, and commitment to the virtues that support this disposition.  The struggle against concupiscence takes place primarily in the human heart, which is the source of all personal sin.  In order to overcome temptation, we must rely on God’s grace, strive to control our human passions, and seek purity of heart.  True purity of heart means the aligning of our minds and wills to what God expects of us.  A pure heart fosters purity of body and purity of faith—thus purity in what we desire, what we do, and what we believe.  (Cf. CCC 2517-2519)

Our battle against concupiscence begins at Baptism.  With the help of God’s grace obtained through prayer and the reception of the Sacraments, we strive to live lives of chastity in keeping with our state of life; to have purity of intentions, meaning to seek God’s will in all things; and purity of vision, which is the practice of guarding our senses and thoughts from anything that might lead us away from the will of God.  A life of prayer, of course, is a constant and invaluable aid in building and maintaining purity of heart.  (Cf. CCC 2348-2359, 2520)

Purity is thus the perfection of the motives that inspire our acts.  In merely natural acts, purity of intention is characterized by the motive coinciding with the nature of the action done, for example, eating for the purpose of conserving and building up the body.  In supernatural acts, purity of intention is characterized by the action being done because of our love of God.

Purity also calls for the virtue of modesty, especially in how we dress, act, and speak.  Respect for human sexuality demands that we regard its sacredness even in how we speak of it and how the human body is portrayed in public and in the media.  Aversion of our eyes and ears from inappropriate entertainment and lewd conversations are essential elements of the practice of modesty.  (Cf. CCC 2521-2525)

The Catechism addresses this question in paragraphs 2531-2533.

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