.
.Purity as a
Positive Virtue
.
The Mystery of
Christian Sexuality
.
by Dietrich von Hildebrand
The Attitude of the Pure
The pure man (and woman)
perceives the mystery of sex. He perceives its
depth, its seriousness, its intimacy - whether
because, temperamentally awake to these
qualities, he apprehends intuitively the
character of sex, or because, temperamentally
unaware of them, he knows it rather from the
outside. He understands implicitly the sublime
purpose and fundamental significance of sex, and
perceives the fearful profanation which every
abuse of sex represents, the deadly poison,
defiling the soul and separating it from God,
which sexual pleasure generates when treated as
its own end. He is marked by a profound
shrinking from any contact with sex as soon as
it is thus isolated and rendered poisonous. He
possesses a deep reverence for the mystery of
which he is here in presence. Sex as such in no
aspect seems to him contemptible or base.
Bearing no repugnance to the fact of sex, free
from all prudish and hysterical disgust, whether
of sex as such or of the act of marriage, he
remains at a respectful distance from it so long
as he is not called by the disposition of God to
enter its domain.
Reverence is a fundamental component of
purity. The pure man (and woman) always lives in
an attitude of reverence for God and His
creation, and therefore reveres sex, its
profundity and its sublime and divinely ordained
meaning. Indeed, and we have now reached the
factor which is decisive both for purity and for
the character of sex, the pure man understands
that sex belongs in a special manner to God,
and that he may only make such use of it as is
explicitly sanctioned by Him. Only with God’s
express permission may he eat of the fruit of
this tree. Nothing reveals more plainly the
presence of a mystery than this need of a
special sanction from God to enter the sexual
domain. In contrast to the innocuous sphere of
eating and drinking, or that of intellectual
activity, the domain of sex belongs in a unique
fashion to God. To be sure, in his employment of
all earthly goods man must regard himself as
God's steward, not as his own master. Here,
however, an entirely new factor comes into play.
This sphere, in virtue of its depth and mystery,
is reserved in an altogether special fashion to
God, and man, even within the permitted bounds,
is not simply free, as in other spheres, to do
whatever seems good to him. Moreover, this
mystery which attaches to sex, even as an
objective reality, results from its quality as
revealed in experience, even if we leave out of
account the fact that it is the mysterious seat
of propagation, though the latter sets the
mystery of sex in a particularly vivid light,
and stands in a profound intrinsic connection
with it.
Man must feel for sex an awe which no other
sphere demands - an awe which permits his access
only if God in a special fashion should give him
leave, as He gives it in the sacrament
of matrimony. For the truly pure man the bond
with wedded love and the intention of a common
life to last till death are not sufficient; he
requires further the specific consciousness of
God's express sanction, the knowledge that it is
only by divine permission that he lifts the veil
from this mystery, an attitude which can be
paralleled elsewhere in the religious sphere.
And even when he may lift the veil, he will
never abandon himself without restraint to the
pleasure of sex. To be sure he may - indeed, he
should - surrender himself without reserve to
the beloved; but not to the specific quality of
sex. The latter always demands, even when it is
entirely positive, a reverent awe; and demands
it to be "formed" by being brought into explicit
relation to God.
The pure man (and woman) guards his secret,
never lifts the veil unbidden. He is always
modest. But his modesty has nothing that savours
of self-importance, whether of conduct or
feeling. He does not guard the secret by simply
concealing it from others while he revels in it
himself and in so doing feels himself somehow
important. That is the attitude of the prude.
With the pure you never breathe this oppressive
atmosphere. Simple and open, he is distinguished
by a limpid radiance of soul. He remains at a
distance from his secret so long as God does not
call upon him to unveil it. With spirit serene
and bright and in an attitude of humility he
leaves it in God's hand. We are here brought
face to face with an absolutely essential
element of purity.
In a special sense the pure man (and woman)
walks with God. He never departs from the divine
presence. He does not hide himself from God,
like Adam after the fall. He will never
consent to anything incompatible in its
quality with the light of holiness which
shines upon us from the countenance of Jesus.
Within his soul an indefinable "something"
always abides in unclouded light; his spirit is
neither corroded by the intoxicating poison of
sex as its own end, nor infected by the
oppressive sultriness which distinguishes the
zone of evil lust. His soul is steeped in a
peculiar light, radiant and clear; there is in
him no twilight or dusk; he is surrounded by no
atmosphere heavy with poisonous perfume and in
which it is impossible to breathe freely. No
cloud darkens his spirit as it "shines" before
God.
As we have already seen, the pure is
distinguished by the rich plenty of his
spiritual endowment. The specific beauty
attaching to the unclouded lustre of a soul
which has come from God's hand, has been
redeemed by Christ, and is the likeness of God -
the beauty, that is, of the spiritual person
- shines out upon us from the pure. The
pure man remains a vessel in which the light
which flows forth from God can unfold without
obscuration; his soul shines before God, because
it reflects His glory. Moreover, a peculiar
peace has possession of his entire being; not
inwardly alone, but outwardly to the world his
soul reflects something of His peace who is
called "our peace and our reconciliation." But
only the soul that is filled with love
can be pure in this positive sense; the cold and
proud spirit can never possess this unclouded
light.
Purity is further characterized by a humble
sincerity. The pure man feels himself a sinner
capable, but for the help of God's grace, of
being submerged at any moment by the flesh. With
the heathen poet he confesses "Homo sum,
humani nihil a mealienum puto." He does
not shrink from looking the dangers which
surround him full in the face. He never forgets
that "the devil goeth about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour." He does not imagine
himself made of other material than flesh and
blood and inaccessible to the weakness of the
flesh. Remote from him, too, is the false
modesty of the prude, who refuses to admit the
existence of these dangers for himself or
others. And his attitude continues the same even
if he has never experienced sexual temptations.
For simplicity, sincerity, and humility are
almost as essential to true purity as is
reverence.
Brief biographical
background on Dietrich von
Hildebrand (1889-1997),
from
Ignatius Press:
Hitler
feared him and Pope Pius XII
called him a “twentieth century
Doctor of the Catholic Church.”
For more than six decades,
Dietrich von Hildebrand – philosopher,
spiritual
writer, and anti-Nazi crusader
– led
philosophical, religious, and
political groups, lectured
throughout Europe and the
Americas, and published more than
30 books and many more articles.
His influence was widespread and
endures to this day...
Soon after the end of
World War I, Nazism began to
threaten von Hildebrand’s beloved
southern Germany. With his
characteristic clearsightedness,
von Hildebrand immediately
discerned its intrinsic evil. From
its earliest days, he vociferously
denounced Nazism in articles and
speeches throughout Germany and
the rest of Europe.
Declaring himself
unwilling to continue to live in a
country ruled by a criminal, von
Hildebrand regretfully left his
native Germany for Austria, where
he continued teaching philosophy
(now at the University of Vienna)
and fought the Nazis with even
greater vigor, founding and
editing a prominent anti-Nazi
newspaper, Christliche
Ständestaat.
This angered both
Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler,
who were determined to silence von
Hildebrand and to close his
anti-Nazi newspaper. Orders were
given to have von Hildebrand
killed in Austria. Although his
friend and patron, Austrian
Premier Engelbert Dollfuss, was
murdered by the Nazis, von
Hildebrand evaded their hit-squads
and fled the country just as it
fell to the Nazis.
It is characteristic of
von Hildebrand that even while he
was engaged in this dangerous
life-and-death struggle against
the Nazis, he maintained his deep
spiritual life, and managed to
write during this period his
greatest work, the sublime and
highly-acclaimed spiritual
classic, Transformation in
Christ (Cf. pp. xiv-xvii).
Fleeing from Austria,
von Hildebrand was pursued through
many countries, ultimately
arriving on the shores of America
in 1940 by way of France,
Switzerland, Portugal, and Brazil.
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[Excerpt from Purity: The
Mystery of Christian Sexuality,
Part II, pp.40-43, © 1970 Dietrich von
Hildebrand © 1989 Alice von Hildebrand, 1989
edition published by Franciscan University
Press, Steubenville, Ohio, USA.]
top
illustration: Jesus at Cana Wedding,
painting by Michael O'Brien
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