Agere Sequitur Esse: On the Excellence of Virginity
If one were to take a survey of the general population today and ask people what they thought about virginity, most responses would probably be negative. In modern culture, the term “virgin” is often used as an insult against those deemed undesirable by the opposite sex, and if a person willingly chooses to remain virginal, others would likely criticize his alleged refusal to fulfill his sexual potential. A small percentage of responses might be positive, singing the praises of those who renounce marriage and marital relations for the sake of some greater good, such as dedicating oneself to researching cancer cures or performing social work. Among Catholics who know of the Church’s teaching that virginity and celibacy are objectively superior to marriage1—likely a small percentage, given the disdain for hierarchy prevalent in the modern Church—, most would probably speak of the increased freedom that unmarried individuals have for prayer and apostolic work without worrying about pleasing one’s spouse and providing for one’s children.
While this practical advantage is mentioned by St. Paul in his exhortation on the superiority of virginity over marriage,2 it is not the essential reason for such superiority. What one does flows forth from what one is, according to the maxim agere sequitur esse (action follows being), in contrast to the modern world’s tendency to view people as “human doings,” rather than human beings. A person’s vocation is defined essentially not by what he does, but by what he is, which is why Christ and the Church restrict the priesthood to men and the liturgical consecration of virgins to women. Men may possess the virtue of virginity (and a common opinion among theologians holds that St. John the Evangelist possesses the aureole for virgins, as well as those for martyrs and doctors, in heaven), but only women can receive formal and public consecration as living icons of the Church as virgin, bride, and mother.3 Likewise, while women are not incapable of the physical acts involved in celebrating the sacraments or giving spiritual advice, only men can become priests as spiritual fathers, because grace builds upon nature without destroying it.
A person’s work may constitute a “vocation” in the most general sense; the word comes from the Latin word vocare, which means to call, and one may certainly speak of a “call” to the profession of teaching, nursing, etc. However, the deeper, theological notion of vocation is inherently connected to one’s very identity: a secular cleric and a religious sister may work as teachers at the same Catholic school, and their identities as (male) priest and (female) religious might affect how they teach, but they could both switch to some other apostolate tomorrow without losing their essential identities as priest and religious. What makes virginity a vocation is not the fact that it frees someone to engage in one activity or another, but that it is consecrated to God for the sake of the kingdom; to think otherwise would risk falling into a naturalistic utilitarianism that domesticates God for human (and perhaps humanitarian) purposes. While the consecration of a virgin may find its practical expression in a certain field of work, a virgin may switch from one apostolate to another without losing her core identity as the Spouse of Christ.
If vocation were defined by agere, rather than esse, then there would be no difference between a virgin who intends to marry eventually and one who does not, as long as both perform the same work. In reality, the states of these two virgins differ ontologically: the one who chooses virginity from a supernatural motive is mystically espoused to Christ and becomes an icon of the Church, His Bride, while the one who is materially virginal but intends to marry someday is not espoused to Christ because she remains available for a potential human spouse. This mystical wedding of the virgin to Christ is what renders virginity superior to marriage: she already possesses a heavenly state, as men and women will no longer marry at the Resurrection, and she becomes like an angel in that respect.4 While the modern world may view virginity solely as a deprivation of marriage and its goods, the Church teaches that marriage as a symbol of the unity between herself and Christ can only be understood in light of virginity, notwithstanding the sacrifice and renunciation required to remain perpetually virginal. The virgin does not deny her natural feminine qualities but directs them to the supernatural order as a spiritual mother, even without physically bearing and raising children.
What marriage anticipates—the eternal wedding feast of heaven—, virginity already possesses in its fullness. The difference between marriage and virginity is analogous to the difference between Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist and His Presence in heaven. The Eucharistic Presence is a Real Presence, but it is hidden under a sacramental sign; the veil will only be removed in heaven, where such external signs will no longer be necessary. Likewise, the relationship between Christ and the Church is truly made present when a baptized man and woman confer the Sacrament of Matrimony upon each other, but this too is hidden under a sign. The virgin, by contrast, has no need for such signs, because her marriage is more than an external sign; it is the interior reality itself and thus is not and cannot be a sacrament. If the spousal union with Christ is the ultimate destiny of every soul, which is why souls are often referred to as “she” in spiritual texts, then virginity is the end, whereas the sacraments are only the means to that end.
The excellence of virginity arises not from the possession of extra time and freedom to care for the needs of the Church and the community; nor does it come from any kind of apostolic activity or even prayer. These things all flow forth from the virgin’s ontological status as the Spouse of Christ, and her never-ending mystical wedding—being what all souls are ultimately destined for in heaven—is what accounts for the excellence of virginity that surpasses even the sacraments.
Council of Trent, Session XXIV, Canon 10.
1 Corinthians 7:32-35.
D. Ludwig-Wang, “The Liturgical Novelty of Female Doctors of the Church,” The 1568 Project with Dorothea Ludwig-Wang, 1 August 2022, https://dorothealudwigwang.com/p/the-liturgical-novelty.
Matthew 22:30.
excellent.