Virgin and Undefiled?

[PRmerger]

Why in our Catholic language do we associate being a virgin with being undefiled? The corollary to this is, of course: to not be a virgin is to be defiled.

I understand that Catholic teaching on human sexuality is that the marital embrace is holy, sacred, life-giving and a gift from God.

This manner of speaking of someone as a “virgin, undefiled” seems to contradict our understanding of the beauty of marital love.

The Blessed Mother was a virgin, and undefiled, but it seems to me that it’s not necessarily that she’s undefiled simply because she’s a virgin. She was pure and undefiled in her very essence.

Comments?

 

[Fidelis]

From Revelation 14:

1
Then I looked and there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
2
I heard a sound from heaven like the sound of rushing water or a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.
3
They were singing (what seemed to be) a new hymn before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn this hymn except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been ransomed from the earth.
4
These are they who were not defiled with women; they are virgins and these are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been ransomed as the firstfruits of the human race for God and the Lamb.
5
On their lips no deceit has been found; they are unblemished.

The NAB footnotes add:

3 [4] Virgins: metaphorically, because they never indulged in any idolatrous practices, which are considered in the Old Testament to be adultery and fornication (Rev 2:14-15, 20-22; 17:1-6; cf Ezekiel 16:1-58; 23:1-49). The parallel passages (Rev 7:3; 22:4) indicate that the 144,000 whose foreheads are sealed represent all Christian people.

4 [5] No deceit: because they did not deny Christ or do homage to the beast. Lying is characteristic of the opponents of Christ (John 8:44), but the Suffering Servant spoke no falsehood (Isaiah 53:9; 1 Peter 2:22). Unblemished: a cultic term taken from the vocabulary of sacrificial ritual.

Thus, while you may be thinking of virginity in primarily sexual terms, the Scriptures (and therefore the Church) think of virginity in terms of being totally dedicated to God.

While marriage is called by the Church a worthy and sacred institution, those who have totally dedicated themselves to God, especially through consecrated celibacy, are seen to have voluntarily given up one recognized good for the sake of a higher good:

I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband. (1 Cor. 7:32-34)

To praise one state does not, ipso facto, demean the other.

 

[PRmerger]

From Revelation 14:
The NAB footnotes add:
Thus, while you may be thinking of virginity in primarily sexual terms, the Scriptures (and therefore the Church) think of virginity in terms of being totally dedicated to God.

Thank you, Fidelis, for your informative response.