Matthew 1
For the last twenty years at least, I have never heard preaching for virginity. Have you? Sometimes we hear chastity talks usually given in Catholic high schools. But I haven’t yet met a person who speaks for virginity. At the same time, we always call Mary the Blessed Virgin. Virginity is a singular grace only the Blessed Mother enjoys? On this nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was virgin from her birth forever, it would be proper to reflect virginity.
Some may think virginity is an extension of the virtue of chastity. Chastity moderates the desire for sexual pleasure according to one’s state and by right reason. Thus, the actual exercise of chastity is different according to one’s marital state. Continence is required for an unmarried person. Moderation and sobriety for married couples. But virginity demands much more than chastity. Virginity first requires bodily integrity without involvement in any sexual act in the past. You can be chaste again, but you cannot be a virgin again. Moreover, virginity indicates not only a bodily state. Virginity demands a firm resolve to abstain perpetually from all sexual pleasure in thought, word, and deed for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. It may be called perfect chastity, but virginity is a special state of a person before the Lord usually instituted by a vow.
Thus, when we call Mary the Blessed Virgin, we believe that the Blessed Mother dedicated her entire life to God by her firm resolve to abstain from all desire for sexual pleasure. Her virginity was not merely a result or a state because of the absence of the sexual act. The Blessed Virgin strove for virginity from her youth until she was assumed to heaven. Through her virginity, the Blessed Virgin showed the mystical union with Christ. When a person is entirely dedicated to God by sacrificing the desire for sexual union, the person is considered to be betrothed to Christ. In this way, the Blessed Virgin exemplified this heavenly reality of union with the Lord.
We are living in a world where virginity is mocked and even shamed. Unless we talk about it and promote it, we cannot hope we may have virgins among our children. This is why we venerate the parents of the Blessed Virgin – St Joachim and St Anne. Without their supports, Mary could not have made her choice for virginity. Children need to hear about the praise of virginity from their parents. Jesus highly regarded the virginity for the kingdom of heaven. St Paul wholeheartedly promoted it over marriage.
Let us pray the Lord may give our children the gift of virginity so that they may become the true signs of the kingdom of God on earth and help us sanctified through their examples.
