The Child-Like Wisdom Of Virginal Purity – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; September 22, 2024

St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church. So her name appears on the Roman Calendar. Apart from the Virgin of virgins, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the title “Virgin” appears another 16 times or so on the revised Roman Calendar, sometimes accompanied by the title “Martyr” and two other times accompanied by the title “Doctor”. There are many more virgin saints than appear on the Roman Calendar. Since the time of the Apostles, consecrated virginity has been prized in the Church; indeed, it is one of the marvels that Christianity introduced into the world.

St. Paul wrote: The unmarried woman or virgin is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. (1 Cor 7:34)

The virgin, through the consecration of her life to Christ, brings the purity and innocence of childhood into adulthood. She embodies the ardor of the child’s first communion, or what that first communion should be. It is fidelity to the first love, the purity of a heart that belongs completely to Christ. Further, the virgin bears witness to the supernatural character of the Christian life and the reality of eternal life, where they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. (Lk 20:35)

In a Psalm that speaks of the messianic wedding, the wedding of Christ and his Church, it is sung: All the glory of the king’s daughter is within, clothed in rich garments, fringed in gold; after her virgins are brought to the king. (Ps 45[44]:14)

Alas, though still exemplified by the Virgin Mary, the glory of virginity seems to have been forgotten. The armies of nuns that once characterized the life of the Church are greatly diminished. This is a great tragedy that might bring to mind the Psalmist’s lament: O God, the heathen have come into thy inheritance; they have defiled thy holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.  (Ps 79[78]:1)

That leads to a consideration of the evils spoken of in today’s readings.

Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training.

The first reading is a prophecy of the opposition to Christ on the part of the high priests and Pharisees that led to his crucifixion. Christ laid bare the hypocrisy of their religious show, belied by their pride and lust for power; they reacted by condemning him to a shameful death. (cf. Jn 2:13-22, Mt 23:13-36)

It also speaks to how the world, in the biblical sense referring to human society organized without and against God, instinctively hates those who follow Christ on the path of righteousness. This describes in particular the path of the modern world, which has been born of a rejection of Christ and his Church on the part of the nations that once professed belief in him.

This has reached a fever pitch in our own time. It is the underlying reason for instinctive hostility to Christ and his Church, such as was on display during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. We should remember that France is called ‘The Eldest Daughter of the Catholic Church.” The hostility is directed especially against Christ’s moral teaching, especially the teaching that by upholding the truth about marriage and the good of consecrated virginity, protects the innocence of children, while opposing the depravity of sensual indulgence, represented by Dionysius or Bacchus, the ancient pagan idol, revived in our own time.

This is why “non-judgmentalism” and “tolerance” have become supreme “moral values”, except that traditional Christianity is the one thing not to be tolerated. We may not have yet reached the extremes of being subject to torture and death, but we are facing contempt, mockery, and exclusion from our inclusive society, and even legal restrictions – just try to operate a business on truly Christian principles and see what happens.

Then we come to the 2^nd reading, which speaks of two opposed wisdoms. If we take a look at the introductory words, which have been left out of our selection, we will have: If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, animal, and diabolic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice. (Jm 3:14-16)

Disorder and every foul practice remind us again of the revelries of Dionysius.

It is deemed “wisdom” because it produces success in this world, the sort of success exemplified by a Taylor Swift. Yet, it is earthly, confined to the limits of this dying life. Yes, the pretty body of Taylor Swift will one day be rotting in a grave.

This so-called wisdom is animal because the practitioners of this wisdom operate according to a sort of animal cunning by which they quickly read people and situations in light of what serves their selfish ambitions; hence their ability to flatter, deceive, and manipulate. For all that, they are superficial and have no understanding of reality.

Finally, it is diabolic, because wittingly or unwittingly they have become tools of the devil, who – unless they be converted and cast themselves on the mercy of God – will have the last laugh. Hence the practitioners of this “wisdom” are truly miserable and wretched.

And note well, that this earthly, animal, and diabolic “wisdom” is the source of violence and wars in the world. It abandons truth and follows the false liberty that would define its own “concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” (Justice Anthony Kennedy, Planned Parenthood v. Casey); it thereby submits the human mind to the passions of the body, which possess no unity in themselves, and set men at odds with one another. How, finally, can there be peace between those who make an idol of their own conflicting passions?

And yet, we find that these same attitudes enter even into the life of the Church. The Apostles themselves, before the death and resurrection of Christ, were not immune. When Jesus foretold his coming suffering, death, and resurrection, they did not understand and were afraid to ask. Why were they afraid to ask? Because instinctively they knew that the answer would expose their own selfish ambition. Indeed, they had been arguing about who among them was the greatest.

Jesus, in his mercy, lays bare their childish ambition by his question and then says, If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last and the servant of all. Then putting the innocent child in their midst, he says, Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me. Later, after teaching against divorce and restoring the integrity of marriage, he will say, Amen, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of heaven like a child shall not enter it. (Mk 10:15; cf. Mk 10:2-12)

This leads us back to the innocence of children and the wisdom from above. This is the wisdom of St. Therese’s little way, the wisdom that she pursued in all the little things of daily life with confidence and trust in God’s mercy, and she teaches us to pursue this same wisdom.

The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.

These are the qualities of a well-disposed child; these are the qualities that a mother or father should cultivate in their children. These are the qualities that consecrated virginity seeks to carry by conscious intention into adulthood and throughout life. These are the qualities that the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother, would like to inculcate in us.

First of all pure: unless the protecting wall around the child’s innocence has been broken down – and alas today powerful forces on every side seek to break down and do break down that protecting wall – the child is not subject to the disorder of lust. The battle first assaults the adolescent.

Through consecrated virginity, the maiden takes the axe to the root, seeks to master the disorder of desire, subordinating all her desires to the love of Christ, the Bridegroom.

Now, don’t get me wrong, chastity is also required of men and besides virginal chastity there is also marital chastity. Nevertheless, as the Blessed Virgin Mary treads the demonic serpent beneath her feet, it is feminine virginal chastity, when wedded to humility and charity, that possesses a tremendous power from God to put a stop to evil, to inspire noble conduct, and raise the whole moral level of human society. That did indeed happen back when there were armies of nuns.

By attacking and degrading womanhood during the course of the past century or two, the devil has succeeded in dragging the human race into the mire.

Purity and chastity renders the soul peaceable, gentle, and compliant. These are the qualities needed for a “disciple”, that is a student, a learner. Lust forms in a person a sort of “double heart,” lacking the sincerity needed to learn, and sets a person on the path of either laziness or selfish ambition. From Jesus, we must want to learn the right way to live, which means living in sincerity and truth, opposed to all guile and duplicity.

Only then can we be full of mercy and good fruits, not as a sort of practice of “random acts of kindness” when the fancy takes us, but with steadfast determination, without inconstancy or insincerity.

Following the path of the wisdom from above requires great strength of character both to overcome the opposition of our own flesh, the opposition of lust and laziness, while enduring the mockery from without, from those who see such a life as “wasted”, lacking in excitement.

The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace. We know the labor and patience required in planting and harvesting. The wisdom from above requires us to labor patiently in the field of our own soul, so as to reap a spiritual harvest of righteousness.

He who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Gal 6:8)

It belongs to all of us to pursue the wisdom from above and, in doing so, to do what is in our power to protect the innocence of children, by word and example, from the grave attacks to which it is subject today.

We cannot pursue the path of wisdom except through following Christ on the way of the Cross. We need to have our own innocence restored through the Blood of the Lamb. We need the Cross to purify our heart. Through the Cross Christ delivered us from the evil of sin and death; through the Cross he continues to protect us.

I began with the mention of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor, let me conclude with the mention of two Virgins and Martyrs.

First is St. Agnes of Rome, who at age 12 refused marriage because she had already consecrated her life to Christ the Bridegroom. It was her refusal of marriage that betrayed her as a Christian and led to her martyrdom at the beginning of the 4^th century.

St. Ambrose wrote of her: “A new kind of martyrdom! Too young to be punished, yet old enough for a martyr’s crown; unfitted for the contest, yet effortless in victory, she shows herself a master in valor despite the handicap of youth. As a bride she would not be hastening to join her husband with the same joy she shows as a virgin on her way to punishment, crowned not with flowers, but with holiness of life, adorned not with braided hair but with Christ himself. In the midst of tears, she sheds no tears herself. The crowds marvel at her recklessness in throwing her life away, as if she had already lived life to the full. All are amazed that one not yet of legal age can give her testimony to God. So she succeeds in convincing others by her testimony about God, though her testimony in human affairs could not yet be accepted. What is beyond the power of nature, they argue, must come from its creator.” (Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. III, pp. 1311-1312)

Then, closer to our own time, there is the 11 year old, St. Maria Goretti, who died in 1902. She resisted to death when the violence of lust, which has become so prevalent in our age, was suddenly unleashed against her.

Pope Pius XII, at her canonization, said, “Parents can learn from her story how to raise their God-given children in virtue, courage and holiness; they can learn to train them in the Catholic faith so that, when put to the test, God’s grace will support them and they will come through undefeated, unscathed and untarnished.” (Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. III, pg. 1526)