Marriage and Virginity (continued)
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 she has loved much," but I am concerned that you may love little, because you think you have been forgiven little.†47
A Holy Fear Is Good for Virgins
38, 39. I am frightened, I say, that you will become proud about following the Lord wherever he goes, and then you will not be able to follow him through the narrow places because you are swollen with pride. O virgin soul, virgin as you are, the same in your heart as you were when you were born again, and the same in your flesh as you were when you were first born, you must still conceive, by the fear of the Lord, and give birth to the spirit of salvation.†48 It is true, as the scripture says, that in love there is no fear, but perfect love drives out fear (1 Jn
4:18), but that is fear of human beings and fear of material evils, not the fear of God's last judgment. Do not be proud, but be afraid (Rom 11:20). Love God for his goodness, and fear him for his severity; both will keep you from being proud. In loving you have fear of giving serious offense to the one you love, who also loves you. What offense could be worse than causing displeasure to the one who for your sake caused displeasure to the proud. Where else ought there be that chaste fear that lasts for all ages (Ps 19:9) if not in you, who do not think about the affairs of the world and how to please your husband, but about the Lord's interests, how to please the Lord (1 Cor 7:32)? In love there is never that other fear, but in love this chaste fear is never absent. If you do not love, then be afraid of being destroyed; if you do love, then be afraid of offending. Charity drives out that other fear; with this one within it races on. The apostle Paul also says: We have not received again the spirit of slavery and fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption as children, whereby we cry out, "Abba, Father" (Rom 8:15). He is speaking, I believe, about a fear we find in the Old Testament, the fear of losing the material benefits that God promised to those who were not yet children living by grace, but were still slaves subject to the law. There is also the fear of eternal fire; serving God to avoid that is certainly not yet the way of perfect love. Desire for reward is one thing; dread of punishment is something else. It is one thing to say, Where will I go to be away from your spirit, and where will I escape from your presence (Ps 139:7)? It is another to say, I seek only one favor from the Lord, I ask only for this: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to savor the pleasures of the Lord and find shelter in his temple (Ps 27:4); and, Do not hide your face from me (Ps 27:9); and, My soul yearns and pines for the palace of the Lord (Ps 84:2). The first would be said by the one who did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven, and the woman who washed the Lord's feet with her tears to implore forgiveness for her great sins. The other is for you to say, you who are concerned about the Lord's interests, so as to be holy in body and mind. The first are words accompanied by the fear that brings torment with it, which perfect love drives out. The other are words accompanied by that chaste fear of the Lord that lasts for all ages. In both cases there is need to say, Do not be proud, but be afraid (Rom 11:20), so that one will not become proud, either by making excuses for one's sins or by taking justification for granted. Even
Paul, who says, You have not received the spirit of slavery in fear again (Rom 8:15), still has fear as the companion of love when he says, I came to you with much fear and trembling (1
Cor 2:3). And for fear the wild olive that has been grafted on might lord it over the broken branches of the olive tree, he made that statement I quoted, Do not be proud, but be afraid.
Giving a general warning to all Christ's members, he also says, Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling; for it is God who brings it about in you both that you will anything and that you act in accordance with your good will (Phil 2:12-13). He says this so that the text, Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in him with trembling (Ps 2:11), will not seem to be relevant only to the Old Testament.
The Holy Spirit Dwells in a Humble Heart
39, 40. What members of the holy body, which is the Church, ought to take care to have the Holy Spirit resting over them, more than those who declare themselves committed to the holiness of virginity? How will the Spirit rest, though, where it finds no place for itself? And what place is there, other than in a heart made humble, a heart he fills, not one he recoils from, a heart he excites, not one he weighs down? It is said very clearly, On whom will my Spirit rest? On the one who is lowly and at peace and in awe of my words (Is 66:2). Now you are living justly, now you are living devoutly, and are living a pure and holy life in virginal chastity. Just the same, you still live here. So does it not make you humble to hear the words, Is not the human life on earth a trial (Jb 7:1)? Does it not deter you from over-confidence and self-satisfaction to hear the words, Woe to the world because of scandals (Mt 18:7)? Do you not tremble to think that you might be counted among the great number whose love grows cold, because sin abounds (Mt 24:12)? Do you not beat your breast to hear it said, Therefore, whoever thinks he or she stands upright, let that person take care not to fall (1 Cor 10:12)?
With all these divine warnings and human perils, must we still work to convince holy virgins of the need for humility?
The Virgin Should Love More Because of Her Greater Gifts
40, 41. Are we to believe there is any other reason why God allows many men and women to be associated with you in your calling who are going to lapse from it, except to have your fear become greater because of their lapse, and so to keep pride suppressed? God detests it so much that the Most High made himself lowly just to oppose this one vice. Otherwise you might be less fearful and more easily grow proud, and even though he loved you so much and gave himself up for you,†49 you might love him little because he has forgiven you little, seeing that from childhood you have lived devoutly and purely in the holy chastity of spotless virginity. Should you not rather love him more ardently, since he has saved you from falling into all those sins for which he has forgiven sinners after they have turned back to him? Is it not true that that Pharisee, who loved little because he thought he was forgiven little,†50 was blinded by that error for no other reason than that he did not know God's justice and wanted to have his own, and so was not subject to God's justice (Rom 10:3)? You, however, are a chosen people, especially chosen even among the chosen ones; you are the choir of virgins who follow the Lamb; yet you too have been saved by grace through your faith, and this is not your own doing but a gift from God, not brought about by your deeds, so that no one may become proud. We are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared, for them to be our way of acting (Eph 2:8-10).
So then, is it that the more he adorns you with his gifts, the less you love him? May he himself ward off such horrendous insanity! Since then the Truth speaks the truth, and says that someone who is forgiven little loves little, in order to love most ardently the one you have become free to love by forgoing the bonds of matrimony, you must consider yourself as having been forgiven in an absolute way all the evil you have not committed because of his intervention. Let your eyes always be turned to the Lord, because he will pluck your feet from the snare (Ps 25:15); and, Unless the Lord guards the city, those who guard it watch in vain (Ps 127:1). Also when the apostle talks about celibacy, he says, I should like everyone to be like me, but each has one's own gift from God, one in one way, another in another way (1 Cor
7:7). Who then gives those gifts? Who is it who distributes the appropriate gift to each person in whatever way he chooses (1 Cor 12:11)? It is God, with whom there is no unfairness.†51
What is fair in the way he treats different persons differently, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the human mind to discern; but it would be wrong to have any doubt that he does act fairly. So, what do you have that you have not received (1 Cor 4:7)? What kind of perversion would it be to love him less, when he gave you more?
The Virgin Has Been Saved from Many Sins
41, 42. The first thing to think about, therefore, is acquiring humility, so that God's virgin will not think that she is a virgin by her own doing, rather than that this splendid gift has come down from above from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change and no shadow of change (Jas 1:17). Then she will not think she has been forgiven little, and therefore love little, and, unaware of God's justice and wanting to have her own, not be submissive to God's justice.†52 This was the sin of Simon, the one who was inferior to the woman who was forgiven many sins because she loved much. On the contrary, with more caution and greater truth she will ponder how all the sins God has saved her from committing must be looked on as having been forgiven. Witness to this are all those devout prayers in holy scripture which show that even God's commandments are not carried out unless he who gives the command makes it possible and assists. It would be dishonest to pray for these things, if we could do them without the help of God's grace. Is there anything commanded so universally, and with such urgency, as the obedience by which God's commandments are kept? Yet we find this being prayed for. You, he said, have commanded your commandments to be kept to the utmost (Ps 119:4). This is followed by: May my steps be directed toward keeping your laws; then I will not be ashamed when I look at all your commandments (Ps 119:5-6). What he first said
God commanded, he then prayed to be able to do. He certainly does this in relation to avoiding sin. But what if sin is committed? There is a commandment to repent, so that the one who did the deed will not be destroyed by being proud and defending and excusing the sin, instead of repenting and wanting the deed to be destroyed. There is prayer to God for this too, which implies that it will not happen unless it is granted by the one from whom it is sought in prayer. Place a guard on my mouth, O Lord, it says, and the gate of continence on my lips; do not let my heart descend to evil words, making excuses for my sins as the wicked do (Ps
If, therefore, we desire and pray for both the obedience whereby we keep his