Immodesty Satan's Virtue

[Pax Vobiscum]

Chapter 7 (Part 3)

Regarding Cosmetics and Perfumes…

 

     It is interesting to note, Fr. Tanquerey also says this in regard to perfumes, “As to the sense of smell, suffice it to say that the immoderate use of perfumes is often but a pretext for satisfying sensuality, and at times a ruse to excite lust. Earnest Christians should use them with moderation, clerics and religious should never use them.” One only has to take a look at the perfume advertisements or names to understand just what the perfume manufacturer’s intent was and is. They surely do not promote purity and innocence and we must think twice before contributing to these companies that are surely on the path to hell and trying to take our young with them! Or, simply, we should think, from a man’s point of view, how a woman can linger on his mind because of her scent. Would we want to be the occasion of his impurity not just because God made us beautiful but because WE decided to spray some perfume this morning that caused us to linger just a little too long on that poor man’s mind? God forbid!

     Along with perfume, comes the next in line, cosmetics. Just what words are used to describe the eyelashes you will have after using this product? Seductive, alluring, sexy…Why of course, this is exactly what these items do! Making eyes and lips and cheeks even more prominent is no difference that using a highlighter to highlight a line on this page! But more than drawing attention of the wrong kind your way, cosmetics also are a lie. They say, “This is what I look like”. And that is really untrue. It is a deception. For example; imagine a young woman who “puts on her face” each time sees her beau. Then one day, they decide to get married. He wakes up the next morning, to find a face that he is not familiar with, but unlike buying the wrong size, he cannot return her! In “You and Yours”, a book by Fr. Martin J. Scott says, “I beg a young woman who is contemplating marriage to avoid even the slightest deception. Either she is naturally attractive to the young man, or she is not. If she is, she does not need deceptive aids. If she is not, she is like a merchant disposing of goods under false pretense.” He goes on to say, “The girl who paints (her face) loses some of his respect…since a man knows that painting is generally an indication that a woman is older than she cares to admit, he wonders whether she is concealing not only years but defects…(it) makes a man suspicious.” This may all sound absurd in a day and age when young girls are taught to be pretty with make up at three years old! But perhaps, we have been duped again and need to look at this a little more. The world has lied to us before!

     In the Catechism book, “My Catholic Faith”, by Rev. L. Morrow, pg. 223, says, “Be always modest and pure in your dress, posture and conversation. This is not only to save yourself from immodesty, but to avoid giving the occasion for others to sin, or being even an unwitting cause for others to sin. Women who waste countless hours looking at themselves in the mirror, painting their faces and varnishing their nails, or choosing clothes to put on, care more for their body than their soul. They should remember that after death, they will become skull and bones just like the rest, and all their finery will avail them nothing.”

     As a trained cosmetician in my old days and also trained in the study of health, I quickly learned that there is nothing that ages a beautiful face faster than all that paint that smothers the pores day after day. I know how pale I was when I first met my husband, but he would rather I didn’t wear make up. But I would look so terrible if I didn’t, even at only 18! But as time went on and I began to be home with our children I wore it less and less. It took some time but I finally began recovering the colour back in my face again. My husband was so pleased! He is now so happy that I have natural colour and not cosmetics. What is it that is so alluring to young girls about make-up? Many adult women wear it and adulthood and anything associated with that is attractive to young children in general. But not only are cosmetics artificial, they are most unhealthy and will eventually age you in a way that you are trying to avoid by wearing the cosmetics. You pay for it sooner or later. But in all honestly, as an older woman, you will look younger if you have kept your face free from makeup in the early years. A little sun is all that is needed for some healthy colour. So, it really does pay off!

 

Vanity…

 

     We only need to consider the stories of the punishments of those in purgatory for vanity and we would no longer be so concerned for our outer appearance beyond what is necessary! In the book called, “Purgatory”, we read, “Souls that allow themselves to be dazzled by the vanities of the world, even if they have the good fortune to escape damnation, will have to undergo terrible punishment.” The goes on to give a story from the “Revelations of St. Bridget”, Book Six, “Happily, before death I confessed my sins in such dispositions as to escape Hell, but now I suffer here to expiate the worldly life that my mother did not prevent me from leading!... This head, which loved to be adorned, and which sought to draw the attention of others, is now devoured with flames withing and without, and these flames are so violent that every moment it seems to me that I must die. These shoulders, these arms, which I loved to see admired, are cruelly bound in chains of red-hot iron. These feet, formerly trained for the dance, are now surrounded with vipers that tear them with their fangs and soil them with their filthy slime; all these members which I have adorned with jewels, flowers, and divers of other ornaments, are now a pray to the most horrible torture.” This sobering story is sure to bring most of us, hopefully all of us, to our sense! Let us never forget it!

     A last word from Fr. Scott, “Of all women who appearance should conform to the most proper standards, Catholics should be conspicuous. Let those who have no religion, or very little, use the arts that deceive and mislead, and very often tempt sin. But a Catholic woman should keep aloof from any such artifices.” As women wanting to do God’s will, we will prayerfully consider all of this, since in the end it is only His Will that matters.

     Another department which Rev. Kuehnel discusses is the imagination. He says to feed it on truth and do not let it run out of control like an uncontrolled fire. Fill your minds instead with noble stories of Saints and virtues and leave all the trashy romance novels for the trash!

     So, as we can see here, we have much direction from religion on what modesty is and what protects it. Let us remember all of these points and refer to them often if necessary. Remembering that the senses are the protection of our soul as we struggle both exteriorly and interiorly for modesty and purity. In the book entitled “Hell” we read that, “…we can step off into it (impurity) gradually, it is being promoted by the agents of the devil through their domination of the mass media, it impinges upon us in immodesty of dress, it is accepted by our corrupted society as “really not too bad, not bad at all” or “not anything to get upset about,” and it is prevalent everywhere and in all sorts of forms. Under the best of circumstances, a person has always to be vigilant and on his guard against falling into some form or other of sins of impurity.” It can be especially difficult today but Our Lord has promised us that His grace would be sufficient for us.

     In this age of tremendous impurity, one cannot stress enough that modesty in dress is the main point in a program of action to regain purity in the world. But modest dress will have little effect if it is just a covering for a spirit of immodesty. Modesty in dress is just the first step to help us to return our interior to modest ways. It is all perfectly summarized on page 240 in the book “Hell,” “The way to achieve purity is through modesty in dress, modesty of the eyes, modesty in our speech, modesty in not listening to lewd stories, modesty in our thoughts, great care in our entertainment (television, movies, plays, books, magazines, pictures, night clubs, the beach, etc.) precaution in not being alone too long with a member of the opposite sex, absolutely avoiding impure people, having recourse continually in prayer to possess the virtue of purity, especially invoking the aid of the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, being constant and unrelenting in our determination to avoid or overcome all impurity at whatever price, resorting to prayer immediately upon being tempted, and always having a complete distrust of our strength in resisting temptations against purity…” One only has to consider that willful impurity is a mortal sin and that the most souls that go to Hell are from this sin. All of the Saints agree with this view and even St. Alphonsus Ligouri has stated that the great Fathers and Doctors of the Church “are unanimous in their opinion that most by far of the people who go to Hell go there because of this type of sin.” 24.

     If this is not enough to convince one of the importance of purity one only has to consider the description from St. Bonaventure who states, “If the body of a damned person, were deposited on the earth, that of itself alone would be sufficient to make the earth uninhabitable; it would fill it with its infection, as a corpse that might be left to rot in a house would infect it all the way through.” Is this not, enough to make us understand the importance of practicing all the tenets of modesty? Does this not even inspire us, out of charity for our loved ones, to spread this message of modesty in hopes of saving some, perhaps many from Hell? 24.

      Each one of us, will make the difference like a candle in the darkness, that will slowly bring the light of truth back to this world. Do not allow the devil to make you believe this is an unimportant issue, but through prayer allow yourself to be guided in seeing the truth that modesty must be practiced by everyone!