Vigils Weekday
THE SPOUSE OF THE VIRGIN
By St Ambrose 2
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What is virginal chastity but purity free from stain? And whom can we judge to be its author but the immaculate Son of God, whose flesh saw no corruption, whose Godhead experienced no infection? Consider, then, how great are the merits of virginity. Christ was before the Virgin, Christ was of the Virgin. Begotten indeed of the Father before the ages, but born of the Virgin for the ages. The former was of His nature, the latter is for our benefit. The former always was, the latter He willed.
Consider, too, another merit of virginity. Christ is the spouse of the Virgin, and if one may so say “spouse” of virginal chastity, for virginity is of Christ, not Christ of virginity. He is, then, the Virgin who was espoused, the Virgin who bore us, who fed us with her milk, of whom we read: “What great things has the virgin of Jerusalem done! The breasts shall not fail from the rock, nor snow from Lebanon, nor the water which is borne by the strong wind.”
Who is this virgin that is watered with the streams of the Trinity, from whose rock waters flow, whose breasts fail not, and whose honey is poured forth? Now, according to the Apostle, the rock is Christ. Therefore, from Christ the breasts fail not, nor brightness from God, nor the river from the Spirit. This is the Trinity which waters their Church, the Father, Christ, and the Spirit.
But let us now come down from the mother to the daughters. “Concerning virgins,” says the Apostle, “I have no commandment of the Lord.” If the teacher of the Gentiles had none, who could have one? And in truth he had no commandment, but he had an example. For virginity cannot be commanded, but must be wished for, for things which are above us are matters for prayer rather than under mastery. “But I would have you,” he says, “be without care. For he who is without a wife is careful for the things which are the Lord’s, how he may please God… And the virgin takes thought for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and in spirit. For she that is married takes thought for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.”
I am not indeed discouraging marriage, but am enlarging upon the benefits of virginity.
2
The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Vol.X, Cp.V, p.366-7.