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Sight is one of the greatest among the benefits we have received from God. The enjoyment which this priceless gift confers can be estimated aright only by one who has been unfortunate enough to lose it, one who is condemned to pass the rest of his days in perpetual darkness. Yet in the case of many young person it would be the greatest benefit, it might ever preserve them from eternal destruction, were they to lose the sight of their bodily eyes. To such I might repeat the words which St. Severin addressed upon one occasion to a young monk, who besought him to pray for the restoration of his sight. “My son,” he said, “do not trouble yourself about the eyes of your body, but rather about those of your soul.” To many young persons the saying of the prophet may be applicable: “Death is come up through our windows (the eyes), it is entered into our house (the soul).” The enemy of the lily of purity enters into the human heart through the eye, the enemy in our own heart; in a previous instruction I have sought to portray the enemy in our own heart, to-day I shall most earnestly warn you against the enemy in our eyes.
With what did the first sin begin in paradise? With a longing look Eve gazed at the luscious fruit which hung on the forbidden tree; that look excited a wish to taste the fruit; she yielded to the wish, gathered and ate the forbidden fruit, and gave some of it to her husband; thus was the first sin committed. And if at a period when as yet no evil concupiscence had stirred within the human breast, the eyes could work irretrievable ruin, how great, how terrible must be the result after the fall, when the enemy in our eyes works in concert with the enemy in our heart. When we see what came of a mere love of eating we may judge what a much stronger passion will do—unchaste, sensual desire kindled by bold, unguarded glances, and suffered to burst into fierce flames.
Experience teaches that unchaste looks very frequently lead men to a terrible end. We find examples of this in Holy Scripture. The proximate cause of David’s sad fall was a bold and sinful look; with this look, the entire edifice of his virtue crumbled away, all his good resolutions were rendered null and void, and he, the man after God’s own heart, became a murderer and an adulterer. Putiphar’s wife cast unchaste glances upon Joseph, committed adultery in her heart, and would fain have sinned in act as well as in desire.
Yet why should we turn to olden times in order to illustrate our meaning when our own daily observation furnishes only too many melancholy examples of the truth of our assertion. Segneri relates the following incident in one of his eloquent discourses. A girl who had formed an illicit connection with a young man was attacked by a fatal disease. She sent for a priest, and amid tears of contrition made a general confession. Having done this she caused the companion of her sin to be brought to her bedside. She thought to persuade him to repent, and be truly converted. But when her eyes fell upon him, unruly passions suddenly flared up in her soul and she exclaimed: “O my beloved! I know that I shall go to hell for your sake; yet I cannot, I will not leave you!” With these words upon her lips the unhappy girl breathed her last.
Pay heed to the warning of Holy Scripture and say: “I have made a covenant with mine eyes that I should not look upon anything dangerous, lest death should come up through our windows and enter into the soul.” Be on your guard against the enemy in your eyes, lest it should gain power over you, and destroy both body and soul. What biting frost is to the flowers in spring so is an impure glance to the lily of chastity.
The numerous indecent and shameless pictures and engravings to be found in the present day in the pages of certain periodicals and illustrated journals are an open grave of innocence. In cities such pictures are too often exhibited in shop windows and on bill-boards, or hawked about the streets. It is deeply sad to think how many souls, and the souls of young girls among the rest, are by this means soiled and ruined. This danger is a very great one for you, my dear daughter. Do not imitate the heedless girls who say: “We are no longer children! It is quite allowable for us to see certain things, we have reached an age when we ought to be acquainted with such subjects!” Girls who talk in this fashion are alas! no longer children of God, or at least are not to be counted among His innocent children.
Remember also that maidens who boldly fix their gaze upon persons of the opposite sex, doing this, not from mere curiosity, but with some measure of sensual desire, are either already unchaste, or will become so before very long. St. Bernard tells us that if persons of different sexes take deliberate satisfaction in contemplating each other and yet no sinful desires arise within them, it is a more wonderful thing than if a dead man were to return to life.
One word more in conclusion. When the consort of Tigranes, the heathen monarch, was told that her husband had offered to give up his life to deliver her from captivity, she from that day forward refrained from looking at any other man.
My dear daughter, as long as you remain in the state of virginity you are indeed the bride, I might almost say the spouse, of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And this heavenly Bridegroom was not only willing to give His life in order to deliver you from the captivity of Satan, but He did this in reality. Let your eyes be therefore fixed upon your celestial Bridegroom in ever lasting gratitude and love.
O maiden, keep thy heart serene,
Thy soul keep pure, thy conscience clean;
Keep careful watch o’er ear and eye
And close them both when sin is nigh.