This seems a bit extreme. Affection isn’t reserved for family, some cultures actively kiss on the mouth (incl. male to male greeting)
Surely physical affection strengthens bonds between a courting couple. I have no intentions of embarrassing myself before my family and friends, with my pathetic attempt at a first kiss.
It is innocent, a way of saying “you could be the one for me”. Anyways surely it’s good fun for both parties.
Not all cultural ideas are as good as others. The point is the kiss is only to be chaste and not sensual or carnal in the slightest. A peck on the lips is possible but unwise for mixed sex people who could be passionately attracted to each other if they’re going to change it into that. I can easily see it changing from ‘hello’ to ‘hello’ with passion and teasing sexually, which is a sin.
As for your worries of ‘embaressment’ the Church has a name for this it’s called ‘human respect’ and condemned for being preferred to God.
It is much better for a husband and wife to have their first experiences together, to learn together rather than lose those precious first bonds and experiences to others. It is a sin for this not to be the case for more than one reason.
And as for your statement that Faith can’t overcome all things, if you do not believe that you do not believe in God.
Faith is the basis for confidence and valuing in any undertaking, and the lack the true source for lack of it.
I am not putting forth my own opinion here or trying to be contrary.
I would gladly tell couples to kiss or some such thing, if I could. I can’t. They can’t. I’m just telling you what you can do to avoid sin if you truly value purity. If you don’t value purity you’ve already lost it, and you don’t know how badly off you are. Seriously.
Purity is incredibly important. It is the most important thing. Without it you can’t see God.
If you wonder why we read news articles full of constant infidelity and adultery.
Now finally when you say, “it sure is fun” it’s sensual fun and it’s a sin.
And when you say: “He wasn’t even chaste while my mother was. Yet there is an infinite love between them. My father is a good person and has never set a foot wrong.”
This is a contradiction. You love your father and see the good in him, but when he is not chaste he is not being a ‘good person’, and he is not a person who has ‘never set a food wrong’ and if you truly care for your father you would help him rather than ignore the problems and say because he’s dad, ‘everything is good’, loving your father more than you do the Lord who is the true source of every real good in every family.
Infinite love is for God’s sake, not for one’s own sake, and that is a love that sacrifices the sensual pleasure for the sake of God.
Try some of the sermons below on marriage and dating for further info.
Self-love is so subtle a robber that it commits its thefts, even upon God himself, without fear or shame, employing his goods as if they were its own, and assigning as a reason that it cannot live without them. And this robbery is hidden under so many veils of apparent good that it can hardly be detected except by the penetrating light of true love, which always desires to remain uncovered and bare, both in heaven and earth, because it has nothing shameful to conceal.’
St. Catherine of Genoa
‘The Virgin Mother, all pure and all white, will make her servants pure and white.’
‘God knows how useful it is to us to be obliged to pray, in order to keep us humble, and to exercise our confidence; and he therefore permits us to be assaulted by enemies too mighty to be overcome by our own strength, that by prayer we may obtain from his mercy aid to resist them; and it is especially to be remarked that no one can resist the impure temptations of the flesh, without recommending himself to God when he is tempted.’
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
‘Prefer my will to yours, because my Mother, your Lady, from beginning to end, never wanted anything but what I wanted. If you do this, then your heart will be with my heart, and it will be set aflame with my love in the same way as any dry thing is easily set aflame by fire. Your soul will be filled with me and I will be in you, and all temporal things will become bitter to you and all carnal desire like poison. You will rest in my divine arms, where there is no carnal desire, only joy and spiritual delight. There the soul, both inwardly and outwardly delighted, is full of joy, thinking of nothing and desiring nothing but the joy that it possesses. So love me alone, and you will have all the things you wish, and you will have them in abundance.’
The Lord, to St. Bridget of Sweden
