Marriage and Virginity
37. Cry out to these, let them hear you say it, that you are gentle and humble of heart. The more exalted they are, the more they should make themselves humble in everything, in order to find favor with you. They are just, but are they like you, who make the unholy just? They are chaste, but their mothers nourished them in the womb in sin.†43 They are holy, but you are the Saint of saints. They are virgins, but they were not also born from virgins. They are inviolate in body and mind, but they are not the Word made flesh (Jn 1:14). Nevertheless let them learn, not from those whose sins you forgive, but from you yourself, the Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29), because you are gentle and humble of heart.
38. O devout, pure soul, you who have not given in to your sensual inclinations even for legitimate marriage, you who have not allowed your mortal body the prospect of having an heir, you who have raised your agitated earthly body to the calm of a heavenly level of existence, far be it from me to send you to sinners and tax collectors to learn humility, even though they enter the kingdom of heaven before the proud; I do not send you to them. They, who have been rescued from the abyss of impurity, are not worthy to have spotless virgins sent to imitate them. I send you to the king of heaven, to him through whom all men and women have been created, and who for their sake has been created as one of them. I send you to the one who is the most handsome of men (Ps 45:2), but who for the sake of the human race was despised by the human race. I send you to him who, even though he is Lord over the immortal angels, did not think it demeaning to serve mortal creatures. It was certainly not sinfulness that caused him to be humble, but love, the love that does not envy, is not puffed up, does not look after its own interests,†44 because Christ did not please himself, but, as scripture says of him: the abuse of those who abused you fell on me (Rom 15:3). Go on then, go to him and learn, for he is gentle and humble of heart. You will not be going to the one who did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven because of the burden of his sinfulness, but to the one who came down from heaven under the weight of his love.†45 You will not be going to the one who washed her Master's feet, because she wanted forgiveness for her great sins, but to the one who washed the feet of his servants, although he was giving the forgiveness of all sins.†46 I know how honorable your virginity is; I do not ask you to imitate the tax collector humbly accusing himself of his sins, but I worry that you may imitate the Pharisee proudly boasting of his merits. I do not say, "Be like her of whom it was said, Many sins are forgiven her, because