Presented by:

GLADYS LYN DIEL

KRISTIAN DAVE DIVA
CRISTEL ESTAMPADOR
 Human life is marked essentially by sexuality. It is
fitting, then, the immediately after the
Commandment on the respect for life, there should
come that which fosters proper respect for our
sexuality – even before the social imperatives
concerning possessions and truthful
communication. Human sexuality is God’s gift to
us. We are created according to the image
precisely as “male or female.”
 Itis not in lonely solitude but rather in relating to
others through our sexual natures that we share in
God’s life of love and creativity. Despite of misuses
and misunderstandings, our human sexuality is
something g good! It is a God-given power for love
and generativity that we must learn to gradually
integrate ever more fully within our total selves. To live
and associate with others in interpersonal
relationships, respecting their sexuality and proper
bodily expressions, is the vocation of every disciple of
Christ.
1.) In the relationships between men and women
according to their social status.
2.) In regard to interior lustful dispositions of the
heart.
IThe Sixth Commandment
 The sixth Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” (Ex
20:14; Dt 5:17), seems simple and direct. It forbids married
persons from entering into sexual union with someone other
than their spouse. But for the ancient Israelites, this
Commandment had more social significance than sexual. Its
aim was to protect the family, the absolutely necessary basis
of society the family and marriage were viewed directly I terms
of the two Genesis creation narratives. God created man male
and female so that the man would not be alone, and multiply
and fill the earth.
Sexuality, therefore, is for both human completeness
and procreation. Thus while focusing on the specific
relationship of marriage; the sixth commandment
actually touches upon the very nature of human
sexuality, the entire range of man-woman
relationships, and our common vocation to love and
communion.
 Sexualityis today understood in a more complete
and integral sense than in the past when the focus
was almost completely on the sex act. Today
sexuality signifies an essential dimension of the
whole person, by which he/she enters into the
relationship with others. It thus touches every
aspect of personal life, and has to be developed by
all men and women just as life itself must be.
 This wider meaning of sexuality is reaffirmed by the
Sacred Congregation for Education: “Sexuality is a
fundamental component of personality, one of its
modes of being, of manifestation, of communicating
with others, of feeing, of expressing and of living
human love. Therefore it is an integral part of the
development of the personality”. “It is, in fact, from sex
that the human person receives the characteristics
which, on the biological, psychological and spiritual
levels, make that the person a man or a woman, and
thereby largely condition his or her progress toward
maturity and insertion into society”
 The basis for this wider understanding of human
sexuality is, of course, creation. Man and woman
constitute two modes of “imaging” God and they
fully accomplish such a vocation not only as a
single person, but also as couples, which are
communities of love.
1.) God gives man and woman an equal personal
dignity.
2.) Man and woman are both different and
complementary.
3.) Man and woman are called to mutual gift of itself,
to reciprocity.
4.) Sexuality is for love.
1.) God, the personal loving Creator.
2.) His creating act through love.
3.) The human persons created in His likeness
precisely as man and woman for love.
 This Christian view of sexuality and marriage is supported
and developed by the biblical narrative of God’s
relationship with Israel, His “Chosen People” through
salvation history. First there was the simple innocence of
original creation when “the man and his wife were both
naked, yet they left no shame” (Gn 2:25). But sins
entered and bought disorder into the couple’s relationship
to God and to each other.
 The sexual relationship, while remaining fundamentally
good, often became a divisive force. Instead of feeling joy
at the unique difference of the other sex, the partners
experienced the selfish desire of possession. From a
natural power of outward self-giving in genuine love, the
human sex drive became pen to the temptation of turning
back on its self-centered hedonism.
 Again, when questioned by the Pharisees about divorce,
Jesus reiterated the Creator’s original meaning of
sexuality. “A man leaves his father and mother and clings
to his wife, and the two of them become one body’. Thus
they are no longer two but one flesh (Gn 2:24. Therefore,
let no man separate what God has joined”
 St.Paul used this same text (Gn 2:24) to teach that
Christian marriage takes on a new meaning. It symbolizes
the intimate love relationships between Christ and the
Church. “Husband, love your wives, as Christ loved his
Church. He gave himself up to her. In any case, each one
should love his wife as himself, the wife for her part
showing respect for her husband. This Pauline image of
Christian image rest firmly on the conviction that our
bodies are members of Christ. been purchased, and at a
price. So, glorify God in your body” (1Cor 6:1-20)
 Inpaying the price of our redemption, Jesus Christ
wished most of all to restore human relationships
to what God intended before original sin distorted
and corrupted them. This restoration pertains not
only to our relationship with God, but especially to
the mutual interrelationships between men and
women within the community and in family life.
 By word and example, Jesus revealed the true
nature of our human sexuality and of marriage.
More importantly, through his own Resurrection,
Jesus redeemed our whole persons, with all our
instincts, powers and relationships, including our
sexuality.
 Sexuality and marriage, then, are not just
biological facts for Christians. Rather, renewed by
God’s love through Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit,
they are real personal power and a perduring state
for love, a love which develops, heals, and creates.
“In the light of the mystery of Christ, sexuality
appears to us as a vocation to realize that love
which the Holy Spirit instills in the hearts of the
redeemed.”
 The Sixth Commandment, then, when viewed
through the eyes of faith in the Risen Christ, far
from restricting us, actually liberates from two
“tyrannies.”

1. The tyranny of puritanical attitudes.

2. The tyranny of indecency.
 Breaking through both tyrannies, the Christian view
of sexuality and marriage presents the dignity and
authentic freedom of single and married life that is
truly fulfilling, desirable, and fruitful.
 The high human costs of adultery and of divorce
are often covered up by phrases like ‘having an
affair.” In reality, adultery gravely injuries the life
and character of the individual married persons
involved, as well as the community. Commitments
are broken, suspicion and anger aroused, person
trust betrayed, relationships destroyed, children
threatened and the whole social fabric of the
community weakened.
 Despite all sexist propaganda in the mass media, real
human freedom and love are not found in “free sex”.
In rejecting polygamy, incest, and uncommitted free
unions (“living-in”), the commandment guides us away
from such false, ruinous attempts to fulfill our yearning
for true love and communion. But Christ is ever
mindful of our human frailty, and the many temptations
constantly bombarding us. His grace is ever present.
God’s fidelity to the covenant holds firm and with it our
human covenants; in them alone will we find our true
human freedom love.
 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” ( Ex
20:17) completes the Sixth Commandment by
going to the interior root and sources of disorders
of the flesh: covetous of the heart. “From the mind
stem evil designs – murder, adulterous conduct,
fornication, stealing, false witness, blasphemy.
These are the things that make a man impure.”
 Such has been the pattern down through the
ages: human covetousness has been the radical
source of sin that alienates us from God and our
fellowmen. Three traditional forms are cited in St.
John’s classic text. “All that is in the world, lust of
the flesh, enticements for the eye, pride of life, is
not from the father” (1 Jn 2:16)
 The Ninth Commandment, of course, also rejects
the effects of this covetousness, and the
systematized covetousness featured in so much of
today’s Philippine consumerist, sexiest society. It
calls us to acknowledge our deep inbred lust for
possessions and power, and to venture out in an
“exodus’ away from the “flesh spots of Egypt,” the
house of slavery, toward the liberation of respect
and solidarity with one another.
 Positively,what is called for is purity of heart, or
the virtue of chastity. All Christians have the
vocation to chastity. Chastity here refers to the
wholesome integration of one’s sexuality within
one’s person. This creates in us an inner harmony
and unity of body and spirit that grounds our
integrity as a persons and in our self-giving in love.
 Inthe Christian view, chastity by no means
signifies rejection of human sexuality or lack of
esteem for it: rather, it signifies spiritual energy
capable of defending love from the perils of
selfishness and aggressiveness, and able to
advance it towards its full realization..
 Chastity deals with our external acts but precisely as
expressing the inner “yearnings of our heart.” At the
root, purity of heart is a positive power for authentic
human freedom and love, not a repressive denial of
the true value and exercise of our sexuality. This is
proclaimed in the Sixth Beatitudes, “Blessed are the
pure-hearted, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8). The
“pure of heart” designates those who direct their
hearts, bodies and mind toward God, in charity, or
purity of heart; in chastity, or purity of body; an in
orthodoxy, or purity of faith.
 But in order for the value of sexuality to reach its
full realization, education for chastity is absolutely
essential, for it is a virtue that develops a person’s
authentic maturity and makes him or her capable
of respecting and fostering the nuptial meaning” of
the body. Fruit of the grace of God and of our
cooperation, chastity tends to harmonize the
different components of the human person, and to
overcome the frailty of human race, marked by sin,
so that each person can follow the vocation to
which God has called.
 What is of utmost importance in the importance
and practice of chastity is motivation. This means
taking seriously our imagination, which is the key
factor in arousing or controlling the human sexual
drive. It means focusing on the values of our
sexuality which ground the moral norms – values
such as: personal growth in interpersonal dialogue
and the gift of self in love, creative fecundity and
the transmission of human life.
 Education in love as self-giving is also the
indispensable premise for parents called to give
their children a clear and delicate sex education.
Faced with a culture that largely reduces human
sexuality. An impoverished way by linking it solely
with the body and with selfish pleasure, their
education service must be training truly and fully
personal: for sexuality is an enrichment of the
whole person body, emotions and soul – and it
manifest its inmost meaning in leading the person
to the gift of self in love.
 The government’s “value education and “moral
reform” programs are valiant attempts to work toward
goals. But our Christian faith, confirmed by 2,000
years of Christian history, shows conclusively that all
such human efforts will be ineffective without a deep
spiritual renewal. For the Catholic Filipino this involves
fostering an active, personal and community prayer
life, love for the Eucharist, reception of the sacrament
of Reconciliation, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Mary and to other saints who excelled in the practice
of chastity.
 since chastity or purity of heart is directed toward
love, it pertains directly to all persons according to
their different states of life. This includes both
married and single persons. Chastity for the
married consist in fidelity to their marriage vows,
and to their respect and reverence for what is good
and lovely in their marriage. Self-control is
demanded by chastity of both single persons and
of married couples.
 Regarding contraception, the church has insisted that
“marriage and conjugal love are by their nature
ordained toward the begetting and educating of
children.” Hence, while rejecting artificial means of
contraception and birth control, the Church
encourages natural family planning to ensure that the
procreation, nurture and education of the children
might be achieved in a truly human and Christian
responsibility.” The parents themselves must
ultimately make this judgment, in the sight of God, and
with Christian consciences enlightened by the
teaching of the church, reckoning with both the
material and spiritual conditions of the times, as well
as their state in life.
 Chastityfor both married and single also combats
the search for solidarity sexual pleasure in
masturbation. This complex and delicate problem
has repercussions on the integral growth of the
person. Masturbation is an abuse of our sexual
powers because it lacks the sexuality’s essential
relationship which is ordered towards self-giving
love and the service of life according to God’s
design. Often it is a result of deficient affective
growth, and/or a symptom of much deeper
personal problems.
 “Understanding human sexuality correctly includes
recognition of heterosexuality as normative, while
respecting the personhood of those with homosexual
tendencies.” Homosexuality represents another grave
impediment to the integral sexual growth of a person.
St. Paul condemns both male and female homosexual
acts as God’s punishment for idolatry, worship of
unnatural lust. But care must be taken to distinguish
between a condition of homosexual orientation, for
which the homosexual cannot be held responsible,
and homosexual acts.
Catholic sexual morality is based clearly on the doctrines that:
1) God created every human person precisely as male and
female in His own image and likeness;
2) That the Risen Christ has healed and perfected our
whole persons, including our sexuality.
3) The Holy Spirit, received from God, indwelling in our
bodies.
 Presented by:
GLADYS LYN DIEL
CRISTEL ESTAMPADOR
KRISTIAN DAVE DIVA