13 — MODESTY

Presence of God. — O Jesus, Spouse of virgins, show me how a soul consecrated to You must live.

Meditation

1 — Perfect chastity presupposes an absolute dominion of the spirit over matter. But this dominion is in us opposed by disordered tendencies toward sensible pleasures; even souls consecrated to God carry the treasure of chastity in vasis fictilibus (II Cor. 4, 7), that is, in the fragile vessel of a body of flesh, which feels the pull toward the satisfactions of the senses. The vow of chastity does not free the soul from these tendencies and therefore does not dispense it from continual vigilance: “he who has vowed to God the lily of integrity must fight with prayer and penance, so that he may be able to emerge a victor” (Pius XII).

With prayer, since no one can be chaste unless God grants it; with penance and mortification, because one must subject the body to the demands of the spirit.

Modesty is a particular exercise of mortification destined to moderate and regulate the whole interior and exterior conduct of man, in conformity with his vocation.

St. Paul recommends this virtue to all Christians: “let your modesty be known to all men” (Phil. 4, 5); but souls consecrated are bound to it more strictly because, being called - by their state of life - to keep intact the treasure of chastity, they need a more assiduous and delicate exercise of moderation of the senses. Just as one who, possessing material treasures of great value, takes every measure and precaution to defend them from thieves. “Brethren, be sober and watch,” exhorts St. Peter (I, 5, 8), because the enemy of good is always lying in wait.

The vow of chastity, consecrating the body to God, consecrates to Him the senses as well, which therefore must be freed from the low things of earth in order to be totally engaged in divine service.

2 — The more a person aspires to such self-giving to God, the more he aims at union with Him, and the more his conduct must be informed by perfect modesty. Modesty of the countenance, of gait, of gesture, of manner: “In every action or conversation, always be modest,” Teresa of Avila teaches her daughters; and St. Teresa Margaret of the Heart of Jesus “so restrained and guarded her powers and her senses that she kept herself from every glance and word that in any way had no relation to God” (Sp. p. 272). It is the golden rule of St. John of the Cross: to use the senses only for the service and glory of God and to raise the heart to Him (cf. A. I, 13, 4), which in practice means using them only in the fulfillment of one’s duties or for honest and rightful relief, and “leaving all the rest aside for the Creator” (J.C. S.C. II, 38). Therefore, guard the senses from all those things that uselessly burden them, with the danger of letting less pure, less holy impressions reach the soul.

He who, without necessity, wants to see everything, to hear everything, to experience everything, is like one who leaves the doors of his own house open to any invasion. The senses are the doors of the soul; they must be guarded so as not to endanger the treasure of chastity.

Modesty, however, is not only a weapon for the defense of chastity; it is also the bulwark of the interior life: only the soul that knows how to guard its senses is capable of recollecting itself within, to live in intimacy with God. Modesty, turning the senses away from earthly things, concentrates and fixes them on God: “We shall make die in us the curiosity of our eyes and, turning them from all useless things, we shall fix them on ourselves, on the movements of our heart and on the Heart of Jesus.”

Only one who loves the Lord much is capable of imposing on himself such a difficult decision.

Colloquy

“Grant that I may love You most ardently, O my God, my help and defense and my sweet hope! Grant that I may embrace You, O Infinite Good, without whom there is no good for me; grant that I may come to find my blessedness in You, fountain of perfection, without whom nothing is perfect.

“Open my ears to Your word, more penetrating than a two-edged sword, so that I may hear Your voice. Enlighten my eyes, O incomparable light, and do it with such power that they may never again turn to earthly vanities, but seek only You, O invisible Good. Create in me a new smell, You, sweetest fragrance of my life, so that I may run after the perfume of Your ointments. Heal my taste, so that I may know and savor Your great sweetness, O Lord, that sweetness which You have reserved for those who are full of Your holy love. Dissipate and destroy with Your sweetness my concupiscence, so that I may be unable to have any desire except for You alone; so that I may not be enticed and deceived by worldly vanities so as to deem sweet what is bitter and bitter what is sweet, darkness light and light darkness. Grant that I may be saved from the snares set and spread here below by the enemy of our souls, who fills the world with his traps.

“Behold, my sweetest Lord, the world is all full of snares of concupiscence. And who will ever be able to flee them all? Certainly only he to whom You remove the pride of the eyes, the concupiscence of the flesh, irreverence and obstinacy of soul. Oh, how happy is he to whom You grant such grace, since among so many enemies he shall pass unharmed!” (St. Augustine).

O my sweetest Lord, with all my heart I renew to You the consecration of my senses. I consecrate to You my eyes, that they may seek only Your face and look only at what leads to You; I consecrate to You my tongue, that it may be worthy to sing Your praises and never utter a word displeasing to You; I consecrate to You my hearing, so that it may listen only to Your voice and only to what is necessary for Your service; I consecrate to You smell, taste, and touch, so that they may delight only in You, O Spouse of virgins! With St. Agnes I want to repeat to You: “Loving You, O my Christ, I am chaste; touching You, I am pure; possessing You, I am a virgin!” (BR.).