HomeArticlesDirect lineA Lotus flower in a Muddy Pond

A Lotus flower in a Muddy Pond

Does virginity still make sense today? (L.P.)

Come to think of it, nothing seems to make sense in 2017! Controversial heads of state, the looming break- up of the european union started by Brexit, the return of racism and the death penalty, the threat of an outright nuclear war with North Korea, the creation of virtual worlds that make people forget the existence of this real world, unlimited freedom of expression through the swift and uncensored posts on all types of social media, these are but a few types of social media.

So why should virginity still make sense today when there are no longer any limits set on the type of relationship – sexual or otherwise – that a person can engage in? what then is the essence and meaning of virginity today?

Sexuality is a gift that we receive when we are born. It is also a kind of language employed on a very intimate level which expresses one’s whole person. Sexuality is the way a male, a man, manifests everything about himself and the way a female, a woman, and manifests herself, in a reciprocal and in a complementary manner. Those who, by choice or by vocation, have decided to remain celibate or virgin – as is the case of priests, nuns, consecrated men and women – can nevertheless exercise their own sexuality through loving in the characteristic way of a man and a woman. This way does not consist of a body but communication in a deeper way, no less intimate than the former.

It is totalitarian and holistic and does not in any way diminish that wholeness of the male or female person since he or she is intimately linked with God through love which makes him/her whole and complete, without leaning on the other, complementary sex.

So, this “sacrifice” is not a sign of some physical or psychological problem, but an opening up to a greater love which exists between the love of the three persons of the Holy trinity – not based on the body or “Eros” but on pure love itself called also “Agape” – an unconditional and selfless love .

The renunciation of physical fecundity is in fact a herald of the fecundity of spiritual love, at the service of all of humanity, a love which makes them spiritual fathers and mothers. This “sacrifice” has exactly the same logic of one who gets married: it is a choice made out of love. A love for God that draws a person to a total giving of himself or herself also grants that person the strength and the grace to correspond to it.

The love that attracted consecrated persons to God has become, through their renewed faithfulness, a fecundity towards their neighbours, as well as the witness of a loving intimacy with Christ. For this reason people call a fulfilled consecrated man, “father” and a fulfilled consecrated woman, “mother”. They are fathers and mothers of souls, because of the total giving of themselves to others.

A certain author has called virgins “rare flowers” like magnolia trees in full bloom in the midst of a forest, or like lotus flowers that growing in a stagnant pond of muddy water. Hence virgins today remind us that there is a greater love worth living for.

Ezio Aceti, Ting Nolasco and Fr. Am Mijares

 

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