Jubilee 2021: Ivory of Chastity
Ivory as an image for chastity may be one that is a little lost on us today; it seems more likely to bring paint swatches to mind, or wedding season. As Dominicans, we have to admit to thinking more of ivory habit fabric than moral fabric… But there are remnants of the symbol’s meaning that still remain: those who know that ivory is white can make the connection with purity; others who know a little something about the ivory trade and its many excesses will be able to perceive something of the value of this commodity. In the ancient world, ivory was a sign of the loftiest luxury and was possessed only by the incredibly wealthy – even the Psalms note this by making a point of mentioning it in Psalm 45, an ode for a royal wedding: “From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad…”[1] In fact, the symbol was previously so tied to extravagance that in the 5th century Cassiodorus was forced to make the distinct link between ivory and purity in order that the faithful might not be scandalized by Christian references to it!
It would not do to speak of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin in the same breath as the gaudy Roman nobility.
Not terribly edifying company.
Equating ivory with wealth, though, is largely forgotten in our silicon world, which is why we think it’s critically important to talk about it in reference to the virtue of chastity. The link between being chaste and being pure is everywhere. The link between being chaste and being wealthy?
Not so much.
We readily see chastity as a loss, a sacrifice, and for those in vocations in which chastity demands celibacy, an almost heroic state that exists ‘above nature’. Now, of course, celibacy is a sacrifice, and one that requires supernatural graces to live, but conventional wisdom looks at celibacy as a sort of madness and, at least since Sigmund Freud, an unhealthy stunting of human development. The controversy around whether the Church ought to continue mandating priestly celibacy brings out all the arguments – it’s ‘too much’, they say, to ask of a twenty-first century man.
But what if chastity isn’t a burden, but a boon? A gift to the one who lives it and everyone with whom he or she connects?
Since this jubilee year is a celebration of St. Dominic’s entry into Heaven, it is fitting that we mention his last hours in considering this virtue in his life. On his deathbed, St. Dominic made one, singular boast – for which he thoroughly repented two minutes later, of course – and it was this: he had lived perfect chastity for the entirety of his life. Of all that he had accomplished, of the abundant graces God had poured out on him, the one he could not hold in his praise for was? His chastity.
But why?
Well, the best way to understand the wealth of the chaste is to understand the poverty of their opposite. The opposite of chastity is not ‘freedom’, it is lust, and it is a raging devourer of people – both the lustful and those who fall victim to their desires. When we stop viewing sexual and relational intimacy as a gift between two persons and start viewing it as a ‘need’ to be ‘filled’, a ‘consumer desire’, it becomes clear that the personhood of the other in that equation begins to vanish. At best, he or she becomes a sort of ‘supplier’ and the relationship a willing but utilitarian exchange. At worst? We all know what it looks like when a person is totally dehumanized in the name fulfilling a lustful impulse, whether in an abusive relationship, the widespread pornography culture, or the horrors of human trafficking.
Being a virtue under the wider mantle of ‘Temperance’, chastity is aimed at governing these impulses and preventing us from becoming our desires. It liberates us from being defined by every movement of our sexual appetites and protects the dignity of those who are potentially prey to our lack of control. In fact, one of the most famous quotes attributed to St. Dominic goes as follows: “A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil.” Not only that, but the more our vision clears from the single-minded pursuit of these devouring desires, the better we are able to see things around us in their proper truth, beauty and goodness. Seeing everything as it truly is, we cannot help but respond as God does: with a love that is wholehearted and totally generous.
It should be clear, then, that we do not mean that, in being ‘chaste’, St. Dominic was some sort of angelic being who had no human warmth or sentiment. His humanity was noted by any and all who knew him! In the same deathbed confession, he admitted to preferring the conversation of young women to the lecturing of the old ones… and through this little fault we catch a glimpse of the lightness of his character – and perhaps a little hint of his humor! His chastity, total and robust as it was, was not one shriveled by prudery, but was a broad, embracing joy that found its fullness in charity. And it is this charity, this love that is really the root of chastity, the driving force of it, which claims the soul and bursts forth into the world with a unifying zeal for the good of others. It is this love that overcomes every human ideal and heals division and brokenness. It is this love that we so sorely need right now, when everyone is championing the cause of ‘love’, but cannot even agree on its basic definition.
It is a love which comes from God alone.
St. Dominic fed on this love throughout his life, and it came from the dynamic relationship he had with the Lord, one filled with the Holy Spirit and a living faith that filled him with a knowledge of Total Love, and thus freed him from looking only to fulfill his own ‘needs’ and refusing to look at others.
That is why chastity made St. Dominic wealthy indeed.
By this same Holy Spirit, his knowledge also took on a higher form than simple learning, being transformed by this Consuming Fire into a truth that surpasses human ideas and an understanding that encompasses all.
Join us in a fortnight when we’ll reflect on St. Dominic as he who freely pours out the ‘Waters of Wisdom’.
Blessed St. Dominic, Ivory of Chastity, pray for us!
[1] Psalm 45:8 (RSVCE)
