Castigus and Castus

"Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you" (D&C 95:1). The word chasten has two different Latin roots. "Castus" means morally pure or chaste. And "Castigus" means to punish. When we are chastened, we are punished not out of revenge or spite or on a whim, but that we may be made chaste and morally pure. God says that with our chastisement He will prepare a way for our deliverance. Our chastisement is the gate through which we make our escape from sin and temptation. When we are chastised, we are brought down into the depths of sorrow and humility and we are filled with a burning desire for forgiveness. Chastisement prepares our souls for deliverance. I also want to point out that while the Lord says chasten or chastisement twice in the verse above, He says love three times. If there were another way for us to escape from sin, a way that was less painful and distressing, I'm sure the Lord would prefer it. He feels our pain more acutely even than we do and would shield us if He could. But He loves us and more than our immediate happiness He wants us to be free from the debilitating influence of sin and if we must be chastened to be set free, then God will chasten us. As painful as chastisement is, if we can just remember that so long as we allow the chastisement to humble us and cause us to reach out to the Lord, then deliverance and forgiveness await us on the other side. God loves us more than He wants to chasten us, but more than that, He loves us more than He wants us to waste away in sin.