Dear Anders,
Let me take a shot at your question. I cannot guarantee an awesome answer but I am sure we will give you want we know the Church teaches.
I searched the knowledge base for you and found a portion of this answer that should answer your question:
You said:
We often hear that it's normal to masturbate — people just do it. We often hear it being said that masturbating is way better than experiencing impulses to do sexual things with people who look good.
If people just do it, it is probably because they have not been catechized correctly on marriage and sexuality or they have and have chosen to ignore the Church's teaching.
You said:
It is also said that we are sexual beings that need to express our sexuality and we love people of the opposite sex.
You are not going to get an argument from me. I agree!
This is properly fulfilled in marriage, a life-giving, life-long commitment to raising the next generation of Christian children.
You said:
People sometimes say that if you are afraid of doing something sexual (just because you want to be morally and ethically good) you will not have such a good life.
So young Catholic men being called to the priesthood and religious life will not have a good life. <I disagree.>
There are many groups and individuals out there writing articles with a specific bias or agenda in mind. Many times, they will justify hedonistic, self-centered principles, while putting the societal responsibilities of bring forth the next generation of Christians on the back burner for purely selfish reasons.
This can mainly be seen in various homosexual groups and lobbies. No one in the homosexual community cares at all about bringing forth the next generation of Christians. (e.g. having children . . . because biologically they can't.)
They want to equate the self-sacrificing nature of Christian marital love with a self-pleasuring nature of a gay union. To compound the problem, they steal our Catholic vocabulary and try to re-define marriage as gay marriage, when there is no such thing as gay marriage. The Christian term marriage implies a sacred covenant between three parties: a man, a woman, and God.
Finally, nobody is denying that the struggles with the flesh are easy to handle. Jesus told us as much when He said:
The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41)
Those at AskACatholic and the Church would say, if you struggle and get pulled down by lust, go to Confession on Saturday and renew your Covenant with the Lord on Sunday. There is no sin that cannot be forgiven. Period.
My colleagues may have a different take but that's mine.
I hope this helps,
Mike |