Chapter 19 - A saying of St. Basil, about his virginity.
A saying of St. Basil, Bishop of Caesrea, is recorded: 'I have never known a woman, yet I am not a virgin.' By this he means that purity of the flesh does not lie merely in abstinence from women, but in singleness of heart, which is the perpetual guardian of unsullied holiness of the body, either through fear of God, or love of chastity. - Cassian, The Monastic InstitutesYou see, it is all about sanctification... doing God's will. It's very simple.
This is the will of God and your sanctification. - I Thess. 4:3
Photo source.
At first it seemed like he was saying that in this sense, even married folk could be "virgins", even if they do not avoid sex as much as possible like most marred saints seem to have.
ReplyDeleteBut then upon reading it again, you can see thy Cassian considers abstinence from women a prerequisite for purity of the flesh ("does not lie merely in"), and this makes sense, for I doubt he or Basil considered married people to be pure unless they abstained perpetually. After all, reading the Fathers one gets the impression that marriage is a concession for the weak, not a virtuous path, and married people were encouraged to give it up as soon as they were able.
I don't "love chastity" very much I guess - I want to be married, and I don't want to live that marriage continently, either. The Church can continue to extol the beauty of marriage, but historically, it's always been seen as the path for weak Christians who were not willing enough to be virgins or continent, and sex was ONLY for the purpose of making babies, but allowed for the impure folk lest they be tempted to adultery.
I'm sorry I'm obnoxious.
I was almost going to leave a Bill photo with a warning for you not to read this. LOL!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha.
ReplyDeleteMerc, as I see it, you want to do your part in creating new Catholics.
ReplyDelete