This summer and other summers are seasons of impropriety. In fact, many people consider that summer is a period during which they do not have to control their behavior. Some think that attending the Holy Mass is not essential, arguing that a visit to the countryside exempts them from meeting the Lord during the Eucharist, or that an outing to the beach takes the whole day. Perhaps they did not read about the dangers of sunlight, and about the link between long exposure to the sun and skin cancer.
The problem lies in the fact that the Lord’s Day is a rest day in Christian nations, although the Bible does not mention this. I understand the need for relaxation after a tiring week, but the Bible states that the Eucharist is to be celebrated on Sundays. Thus, we should pray early in the morning in summer, or we shall go to an orthodox church before heading for the beach or the mountains.
As for swimming suits, what can I say? Or what can I say about the gathering of the two sexes in what looks like a scene of nudity? I do not have solutions, and physicians say that swimming is a highly beneficial activity. Of course, honest people say that these indecent clothes are a source of seduction or some kind of seduction. Thus, let everyone be responsible, examine their innermost self, and behave as an adult.
That is not all. In fact, nudity is becoming very usual for many females. I want be naïve and repeat what women say: “these are just clothes”. However, no one is convinced by this. If the woman wanted to honest, she would admit that these clothes involve some kind of temptation, and that she likes it. Eyes are often pleased by these scenes; and most eyes are insatiable. Who believes that a woman wearing short and tight clothes is not doing it intentionally? Is she really convinced that she is not exposing herself and that she is not arousing men’s desires?
Poets have praised the exposed parts of a woman’s body, so you can notice a complete harmony since the sixteenth century in Europe between exposed parts and these in poetry.
Why a woman does not content herself with the spiritual and moral attraction, which is the deep aspect in her, in order for her heart to meet the man’s heart, and for her mind to meet the man’s mind? What does she want to buy him through her body as if she is not confident about her personality? Why does she want to be chosen for her body, which means that the man’s choice would not be free and responsible?
If I accepted, as a way of leniency, to be indulgent with a single lady who looks for seduction because she is despaired of her deep personality, how can I understand that a married lady, before or during middle age, would wear these indecent and tight clothes as if she was totally exposed? Doesn’t she believe that her body is an integral part of her personality which her husband appreciates, and that it is a means of communication between her and her husband?
Why would she make her body a means of communication between her and a stranger? Isn’t she aware that she might be arousing the stranger’s desire as if she was inviting him to stare at her? Everything indicates that she is pleased by all of this. Why is she interested, after marriage, in being appreciated for her beauty? Eyes touch just as hands, thus isn’t this kind of induced touching obscene? Behaving in such a manner and claiming chastity make an apparent contradiction. Perhaps our contemporary period is one where decency is not anymore one of the aspects of chastity.
Translated by Amani Haddad
Original Text: “هذا الصيف” – 01.08.93