THE SIXTH

COMMANDMENT
CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ
THOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY

• What are we obliged by the sixth

commandment? By the sixth
commandment we are obliged to
be pure and modest in our outward
behavior, that is, to use sex
according to its holy purpose
wanted by God, open to the
procreation of human life within
marriage alone (cf. M. Guzman,
Guide to Christian Living)

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

THOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY

• Because it is the handiwork of

God, sex is by its nature
something good. It is a sacred
power. It is the highest physical
expression of the love between
man and woman.
• God thus set well-defined limits
regulating the use of the
generative power (cf. M. Guzman,
Guide to Christian Living).

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

THOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY

• Adultery refers to marital

infidelity. When two partners (of
whom at least one is married to
another party) have sexual
relations – even transient ones –
they commit adultery.
• Christ condemns even adultery of
mere desire (Catechism 2380).

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

THOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY

• Adultery is an Injustice. He who

commits adultery fails in his
commitment.
• He does injury to the sign of the
Covenant which the marriage
bond is, transgresses the rights of
the other spouse, and undermines
the institution of marriage by
breaking the contract (Catechism
2381).

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

FALSE VIEWS OF SEXUALITY IN MARRIAGE
• The Puritanical View:
– Regards absolutely all sexual passions and
attractions as sinful
– The conjugal act as necessary for
procreation but sinful in itself
• The Self-Centered Approach:
– The sexual act is not treated reverently or in
a sacred manner, according to the plan of the
Creator: just for pleasure
• Unbridled Attitude:
– No place for moderation nor periods of
continence among couples (hence, little
regard for dialogue and sacrifice)
CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ
MARRIAGE COVENANT AND MUTUAL
CONSENT
• Love is an essential good, but after
the consent is given, its absence
does not annul the consent. The
conjugal covenant is established
by an irrevocable personal
consent.
• God’s grace heals, perfects and
elevates the nature of conjugal
love establishing marriage as a
sacrament (Gaudium et Spes, 49)

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

MARRIAGE COVENANT AND MUTUAL
CONSENT
• I’ll tell you something I always
tell the rest: From now on, you
have to love the defects of your
husband. He will have some. And
he has to love your defects. If not,
you don’t love him enough, nor
does he love you, for as long as
those defects are not an offense
against God (Josemaria Escriva)

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

MARRIAGE COVENANT AND MUTUAL
CONSENT
• And then, try not to be careless,
because you don’t belong now to
yourself. You belong to your
husband, and he belongs to you...
He has to go with you to Heaven
(Josemaria Escriva)
• Marriage is a supernatural
vocation to holiness and the
principle of a specific apostolic
mission. Before, holiness was
considered a path for some only.

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

GOD SHARES HIS LOVE

• God is love and in himself he

lives a mystery of personal loving
communion (Catechism 2331).
• Creating the human race in his
own image… God inscribed in the
humanity of man and woman the
vocation, and thus the capacity
and responsibility, of love and
communion.

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

GOD SHARES HIS LOVE

• The union of man and woman in

marriage is a sharing in the
Creator's generosity and fecundity.
• “Therefore “sex is not a shameful
thing. It is a divine gift, ordained
to life, to love, to fruitfulness."
(St. Josemaría, Christ is Passing
By, 24)

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

DISORDER IS INTRODUCED

• Original sin broke the harmony

within each person and with
others.
• Sin made it more difficult for the
will to exercise control over the
affective and bodily forces of
sexuality.
• There is a need to heal this
disharmony and restore the true
grandeur of sexuality. Chastity
helps us love through our bodies.

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

DISORDER IS INTRODUCED

• Part of the struggle to live chastity,

involves the struggle to control
some passions that are disordered
• Attaining this control is a task for
a lifetime, which requires repeated
efforts. This can be demanding at
times
• Chastity can always keep grow,
with the grace of God and our
personal ascetical struggle (cf.
Catechism, 2342).

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

DISORDER IS INTRODUCED

• “Faced with a culture that largely

reduces human sexuality to
something commonplace, living it
in an impoverished way, linking it
solely with the body and with
selfish pleasure,
• Parents must help educate their
children in this area" (cf. John
Paul II, Familiaris consortio, 37)].

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

REMEDY AND THE PRACTICE OF
CHASTITY
• Pray: ask God for the virtue of
holy purity (“Holy purity is
granted by God when it is asked
for with humility" - St Josemaria,
The Way, 118)
• Frequent the sacraments, which are
the “medicine" for our weakness
• Work intensely and avoid idleness
• Avoid excesses in food, drink,
surfing, etc (remember self-
mastery)

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

REMEDY AND THE PRACTICE OF
CHASTITY
• Care for details of decency and
modesty in action, looks, words
• Avoid inappropriate books,
magazines, newspapers, and
immoral or suggestive film clips
• Being sincere with one’s efforts to
get close to God
• Foster a deep devotion to Mary
Most Holy

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

VIRTUE OF CHASTITY

• Chastity is also called Holy Purity.

It is the moral virtue which rightly
regulates all voluntary expression
of sexual pleasure in marriage and
excludes it altogether outside the
married state.
• It is a habit that helps one use the
procreative powers according to
God’s will.

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

VIRTUE OF CHASTITY

• Chastity, while an eminently

personal virtue, “involves a
cultural effort (Catechism, 2344),
since there is “an interdependence
between personal betterment and
the improvement of society."
(Vatican Council II, Const.
Gaudium et spes, 25)
• A person leading a chaste life will
have greater freedom to love in
sacrificial service to others

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

VIRTUE OF MODESTY
• Modesty is distinct from chastity
or holy purity. It is the guardian of
chastity, a kind of protective wall
for chastity.
• This habit inclines the person to
avoid actions, looks or words that
are likely to arouse unlawful
sexual appetite in oneself or in
others.
• Your body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit, who is in you… use
your body for the glory of God (1
Corinthians 6:19-20).
CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ
 CONCLUDING: TOTAL SELF-GIVING
• The Sacrament of Marriage unites a
man and woman in a permanent and
exclusive partnership for life. “What
therefore God has joined together,
let no man put asunder” (Mt 19: 6)
• Total Existential gift: Spouses are
“called to grow continually in their
communion through day-to-day
fidelity and total mutual self-giving”
• Total Essential gift: If a gift is given,
the giver no longer has any rights to
the gift, but it belongs to the other

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

 REFERENCES

Bibliography
1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2331-2400.
2. Benedict XVI, Enc. Deus caritas est, 25 December 2005, 1-18.
3. John Paul II, Apost. Ex. Familiaris consortio, 22 November
1981.
4. Fr. M. Guzman, Guide to Christian Living

Recommended Reading
St Josemaría, “For They Shall See God," in Friends of God:
Homilies, 175-189; “Marriage, a Christian Vocation," in Christ is
Passing By, 22-30.

CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ

APPENDIX: SINS AGAINST MARRIAGE
• Adultery: Sexual relations
between two people when one
or both are married to someone
else
• Incest: Intimate relations with
relatives or in-laws within a
degree that prohibits marriage
• Free union: Usually involves a
man and women living
together, having sexual
relations with little or no
possibility of marriage
CHAPTER 8 – Our Moral Life in Christ
• Polygamy: Having more than
one spouse
• Trial marriage: Or
cohabitation, consists of a man
and woman living together and
having sexual relations with the
intention of marrying in the
future
• Divorce: the civil dissolution
of marriage
• Contraception: the artificial
prevention of the conception of
new life