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In the earnest exhortations I have addressed to you on the maidenly virtues, my object always has been, and always will be, to induce you to make a firm resolution to preserve your most precious treasure, the lily of chastity, in untarnished splendor, no matter what the cost. A glance at the faded lily will greatly tend to strengthen you in this resolution.
How great a misfortune it is when the lily has faded, and innocence is lost! Innocence is lost through any voluntary deliberate offense against chastity, in thought, word, or deed; for every voluntary transgression of this kind is a mortal sin; in other words, every sin of impurity is mortal when it receives the full consent of the will. Why then should you inquire if this or that sin be greater or less; it ought to be enough to know that through it the soul is slain, the grace of God is forfeited, heaven is closed, and hell opened. We can measure the terrible nature of this sin by the loss of innocence and of sanctifying grace which it entails. What a misfortune is this!
The young woman who has fallen, or perhaps even given herself over completely to vice, may be blind enough to think that she is no very great sinner after all; she may say in her heart: I have never stolen even the smallest sum of money; I am not half so quarrelsome as this one or that one; I have never done any one an injustice; I have not deprived any one of his honor or good name. I know that I have my weakness, but where is the woman who is without frailty?” A fallen woman may talk thus to one of her class, but it is impossible for a Catholic girl, well-instructed in her religion, to adopt such language. St. Thomas of Aquin, that great Doctor of the Church, says: “Unchastity is a greater sin than any which can be committed against one’s neighbor, greater than theft, calumny, or detraction; murder alone exceeds it in enormity.”
We may also measure the magnitude of the misfortune occasioned by the loss of innocence by the severity of the punishments which God inflicts upon the unchaste. Even in days of yore He commanded: “Cast them into the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” How awful a sentence is this! The fair face of the country where we now see valley and mountain, town and village, was once covered by water. Before it was submerged it was inhabited by a numerous and iniquitous population. They were happy and careless; they ate and drank, married and gave in marriage; they were given up to sensuality and pleasure. No doubt they might have been heard to say: “We are not angels, but creatures of flesh and blood. We cannot make ourselves peculiar—we must do as others do. And there can surely be no great harm in following the universal custom.”
Unhappily sins of impurity everywhere prevailed. Noe alone protested against them. But his words had no effect; he was only laughed at. He built a large ship in order that he might be saved, together with the members of his family. The sinners by whom he was surrounded mocked at him, just as in the present day confessors and preachers are ridiculed when they warn sinners of their impending fate. We know how destruction came upon the sinful world; all perished in the deluge except the just Noe and his family, who had entered the ark.
To take another instance. In Asia, in the Promised Land, was a fair and fertile place, beauteous as an earthly paradise; its inhabitants were, however, given to impurity. What has become of that fertile plain? It is changed into a lake, called the Dead Sea. Nothing more desolate than this lake could possibly be imagined; no tree, no blade of grass, grows upon its shores; its waters are turbid and foul; the neighborhood is a dreary desert. Where are the unchaste inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha? You know the dreadful fate which overtook them—their bodies were consumed by fire from heaven. Poor sinners like these, if they die unrepentant, are “cast into the exterior darkness; where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” We read in the Apocalypse that “the unchaste shall have their portion in the pool burning with fire and brimstone.”
And how sad is the condition of the conscience of a girl who has fallen! She is constantly tormented by remorse; she has no peace either by night or by day; a terrible voice sounds constantly in her ears, saying over and over again: “Where would you go if you were to die in your sins?” Yet, sad as is this state, sadder still is it if the voice of conscience has ceased to speak and the dreadful lull before the storm prevails, the false peace of hardened sinners. May such a misfortune never be your lot. Strengthen yourself anew in the firm resolution to avoid, with the assistance of divine grace, all the enemies of your lily of purity, that you may not fall into the greatest of all misfortunes, the loss of innocence!
Heed a kindly warning, lest too late
With tears thou should’st bewail thy cruel fate;
If cheerful and light-hearted thou would’st be,
Preserve with greatest care thy purity.