Today I want to talk about Chastity. As weird as it might seem…this gospel is actually about Chastity. Let me explain. Most people today…when they hear the word chastity…immediately think of sexuality. They think that chastity is about refraining from sexual behavior. Or…they might equate the word chastity with the word celibacy…which is incorrect by the way. The word Celibacy simply means the state of not being married…the single life. I am a Celibate because I am not married. Chastity is much different. Chastity means living in such a way as to never encroach upon the other…to never act out upon someone else in selfishness…willfulness…or impatience. Living chastely means never demanding something from the other…honoring the other in gracefulness and selflessness…taking nothing from someone unless it’s freely given. This is how a husband and wife are supposed to live out their lives…including their sexual relationship.

A story I’ve shared before during Advent might help us to understand better the idea I’m suggesting here. It’s the story of a mother and her son who was a boy scout. They were out in a field on a day trip one afternoon looking for birds…small animals…insects…the things that good boy scouts are interested in. As they were going down a pathway they came upon a cocoon hanging from a branch of a small tree. They stopped to look at it and found that it was about to open and a butterfly about to emerge. So they waited to see this simple miracle take place. After a few minutes they became impatient with the natural process…they wanted to see the butterfly so badly. So the young scout pulled out some matches. He held the flame beneath the cocoon and warmed it thinking the butterfly would emerge easier and it worked. The butterfly came out almost immediately…stretched its wings open and jumped off the branch only to fall to the ground unable to fly. The boy and his mother then realized that the wings came out too early…they weren’t strong enough to fly and the butterfly died. They realized that they had taken what wasn’t theirs…they had been too impatient…they were unchaste.

This gospel is a famous passage called the Song of Simeon. And as we heard…this man Simeon was righteous man in the temple where families would bring their children to present them to God…as was prescribed by the Law. In other words…the families…acting chastely…brought their little children to God in recognition that the child was a gift…not presuming to be entitled to the baby…selflessly recognizing that the baby given by God should be given back to God in respect…honor…and gracefulness.
As the story goes Simeon…an old man…was told by God some years earlier in a vision that he would not die until he saw the Messiah. So here he was…ready to die…ready to go to heaven…certainly tired and worn out…ready to be rewarded for his long years of service in the Temple…He was told to wait. This happens more often than we think. In retirement homes I often come across people who are completely ready to die and for whatever reason God makes them wait. Simeon waits patiently and finally he sees the Messiah and we hear the famous words…Now Master you may let me go in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen the savior. This is Chastity…waiting patiently for God.

This story is about patience which is at the very core of Chastity…both in human sexuality as well as many other aspects of life. It was the same for the pious woman Anna in the story. She too was patient…living many decades as a widow…not demanding an answer from God…not manipulating his plan…not willing herself upon the situation…but simply waiting…chastely.

I wonder…how chaste is our world…how chased are we? Not necessarily in a sexual context although that is a good question to ask of ourselves…but in a spiritual manner…are we chaste people? Do we live patiently with one another…not demanding immediate satisfaction…immediate answers? In our marriages…are we chaste…seeing your wife and your husband as pure gift and honoring her or him by not manipulating the relationship for your own desires and needs…by not seeing the other as an object to satisfy our needs? This is Chastity…yes it has to do with sexuality…but it also has to do with every manner in which we live our lives. I’ve heard it said…chastity is the virtue that invites us to live in total patience…to wait…to respect that which is outside of us in others and to carry the tension of waiting for satisfaction long enough that the gift can unfold precisely as gift. Chastity is about patience and this Gospel is about Patience…the Christian life is about patience.

Is it any surprise then that we have a problem with Chastity…particularly in our modern…wealthy…technologically advanced…immediate gratification world? Ultimately Chastity is about respect…respect for God and respect for each other. In our most intimate relationships and in our most public relationships. At home…at work…here at Church…in our neighborhoods…in line at HEB. We are called to the graceful patience of Simeon who was so chaste that he could wait for God’s answer and in doing so honor that Sacred Moment allowing the presentation of the Lord to be a gift for him and as he said…a light to enlighten the world.

I’ve shared with you before…the powerful words of one of my favorite modern day mystics…the Italian Carlo Carretto. He lived in the desert of North Africa as a hermit-monk for twenty years. He was once asked in an interview…what…in your solitude and prayer…did you hear God saying to those of us living active lives in the world? He responded…God is saying: learn to wait…learn to wait for everything – for love…for love’s fulfillment…for spiritual consummation…for God. Learning to wait…giving God and life the space it needs to unfold…explained Carretto…is the very essence of Chastity.