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In the course of my instructions I have already mentioned several virtues which you ought specially to practice. There is, however one upon which I have hitherto only occasionally touched without speaking of it in detail. And yet this virtue is the most necessary and important for you, the virtue belonging to youth, and to the young girl more particularly; a virtue without which you would indeed be a virgin no longer; a virtue to which other virtues, such as modesty, obedience, piety, serve as an escort to safeguard and protect it; a virtue which is absolutely indispensable to your temporal and eternal happiness. And what is this virtue? What is this fairest of all the flowers with which you are to adorn yourself? I am sure that your pious heart already knows full well that it is the lily of chastity.
Although I have given you many fatherly counsels and instructions, I should feel that as yet I had done but very little toward promoting your temporal and eternal happiness were I not to urge you, with all the power and earnestness which the heart of a dutiful priest is capable of feeling, to love and practice this angelic virtue; were I not to warn you, in the most forcible terms I can possibly employ, against the opposite vice; were I not to teach you how to recognize the enemies of this virtue, and tell you what weapons you must use in fighting against them.
Chastity is the lily, the pearl of virtues, the most precious of all, the most pleasing to God. It is called the angelic virtue, because it raises man almost to a level with the angels. This virtue enables man to avoid all impure, carnal, forbidden pleasures, to rise superior to temptation, to remain chaste in thoughts, words, and actions. And how utterly indispensable this virtue is for a maiden! St. Francis of Sales writes upon this subject: “Young women ought to guard their chastity with special care, to banish from their minds all reprehensible thoughts, and repel with contempt all impure desires.”
And how great is the charm which innocence lends to a child, to a young girl! So magical is this charm that it often inspires even bad men and libertines with awe and veneration. For example, we find the poet Heine, whose own morals were not of the purest, writing these touching lines about an innocent child:
How like a flower of the field,
Pure, fair, and sweet thou art;
I gaze on thee, and while I gaze
A sigh escapes my heart.
Methinks upon thy youthful head,
My hands I ought to lay;
To keep thee sweet and fair and pure
My God I ought to pray.
We can clearly perceive the great value which chastity possesses in the eyes of God. He has most plainly shown this in various ways “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” In order to atone for our sins, the Son of God subjected Himself to all human miseries; to hunger and thirst, to cold and heat, to watching and weariness. But He did not choose to come into the world in the same manner as other men: no;—He did this in a manner contrary to the natural laws, by a miracle of His omnipotence: He was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of Mary, the purest of virgins. How great was her love for virginal purity! The Doctors of the Church teach us that she was ready to decline the exalted dignity of becoming the Mother of God rather than relinquish the state of virginity.
While sojourning in the wilderness the Redeemer permitted the devil to tempt Him to ambition, to idolatry, but not to a sin against holy purity. He permitted the Jews to blaspheme and revile Him, but He did not allow them to impute to Him so much as the shadow of anything impure. Among His Apostles He tolerated one He knew would prove a traitor, but no unchaste person was to be found in the little band. Why did He do all this? In order to show us His intense abhorrence of the sin of impurity, and His great esteem for the pearl of virtues. Fire is opposed to water; therefore the flame sputters if only a few drops of moisture have fallen upon the wick of a taper. Likewise God, being purity itself, is opposed to what is impure. God loves the pure and detests the impure. He is the purest of spirits, and must therefore of, necessity abhor the impure, who indulge their carnal appetites, their bestial lust.
With whom is the chaste soul to be compared? Holy Scripture tells us that it can be compared with nothing upon earth. “What,” asks St. Bernard, “is more precious than chastity, which makes an angel out of a man? A chaste man differs from an angel, not, indeed, in angelic virtue, but only in regard to the state of beatitude. The pure angels are more blessed, but chaste men are more valiant.”
You, my dear child, who regard your body as the temple of the Holy Ghost, and desire to keep it pure, mark well what I am about to say. In the course of your life you may be sick and destitute and wretched , you may be despised and forsaken by men, but as long as you remain pure in soul you will never cease to be dear to God as are His holy angels. As the Saviour, whilst lying in the crib, took delight in listening to the songs of the celestial choirs, so will He not fail to listen to your petitions, for you will be an angel upon earth. Had He cared for wealth and earthly splendor He would not have summoned poor, simple, unknown shepherds to His crib; He looks with favor upon the chaste heart adorned with angelic virtue.
The virtue of chastity has the most beneficial influence on one’s whole being. A young girl who is really and truly chaste will be bright and happy, will enjoy peace of mind, will face difficulties with courage and perseverance, will pass with comparative ease through trials and sufferings. Chastity contributes not a little to the preservation of physical health, to a fresh and blooming exterior. Hence the lines:
To keep thy soul as pure and white
As lily thou shouldst seek;
And then be sure that roses bright
Will blossom on thy cheek.
If you desire to be beautiful in reality, not in appearance only, if you desire to be beautiful in the sight of God, not only before the eyes of men, be pure and chaste! If you desire to obtain everlasting happiness, immortal glory, I say again, be pure and chaste! If you desire to possess the love of God, of the saints, and of all good men, in time and throughout eternity, once more I repeat, be pure and chaste! Bear in mind the words of Holy Writ: “How beautiful is the chaste generation with glory; for the memory of it is immortal, because it is known both with God and with men.”