A portion of a homily given by Fr. John Hardin, S.J.Now some insights into Aloysius' spirituality. To the one virtue which the Church has chosen, and on account of which has chosen him 'the universal patron of youth', was his chastity. All the evidence we have indicates that he had very strong sexual passions. We know that from his own writing; we know that from people who knew him and we know that from what is called penance from one view-point, what is really, you might say 'preventive austerity' from another. He simply believed that unless he mortified his body, and I didn't tell you one tenth of what he did, he just would not get that passion under control. The lesson for us, in a sex-mad world, is obvious. You do not control that passion without mortification, you just don't. As a result, the Church has held him up as a model of what even the most passionate personality can achieve, always with God's grace, but not as we've said, more than once. We may not be able to, given our temperament of the circumstances in which we are living, we may not be able to cope with temptation--we need grace, very well, how do you get the grace? --through prayer and mortification. And Christ's words, remember? about a certain demon, not being able to be driven out except, remember? through penance. Well, it's a non-title to give the devil, but, he is the demon of lust; though being without a body himself, he knows, he knows, how by stirring this passion, he can lead people into any kind of sin. That's the first and towering lesson of the life of St. Aloysius. That chastity is not easily preserved in any age and in our day, is humanly impossible without grace merited through prayer and penance. A good reason, a very good reason, for becoming a religious these days, I mean, of course, a good religious, a real religious, is to preserve oneself from the lust that we breath in a country like ours like the atmosphere.
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