MATHETΩN

How are you advertising your chastity?

There is an idea in much religion of a metaphysical foundation upon which practical action can be taken. For example, Islam erects the “Five Pillars”

Profession (of the creed),
Prayers,
Charity,
Fasting,
Pilgrimage (to the holy cities).

And ancient Jewish rabbis proposed seven precepts upon which all the world should base behavior; they are the Noachide Laws:

Monotheism,
No murder,
No robbery,
Sexual purity,
No blasphemy,
Kindness to animals,
Just courts.

Another example are the various Catholic religiouses, who generally profess four vows:

Poverty,
Celibacy,
Obedience,
and the fourth varies (e.g., stability, silence, loyalty to the pope).

The Religious Society of Friends has its “testimonies”, which by now have been narrowed to

Honesty,
Simplicity,
Non-violence,
Abstinence from nicotine, alcohol, or recreational drugs.

The Amish – Mennonites among whom I grew up base their copious lifestyle-laws on a three-cornered platform, viz.:

Nonconformity (to American life),
Uniformity,
Obedience.

Perhaps it is my knowledge of these religions that has gotten me thinking: What “pillars” could I discern in Jesus’s and his Envoys’ teaching upon which to base my life’s acts? To list them accurately, I would need to put out of my head all Christian dogma, to read thoroughly but sweepingly, to think systematically. Here, tentatively, is what I propose (roughly in the order the reader can find them):

Slavery,
Poverty,
Love and non-resistance,
Honesty,
Liberty,
Chastity (with a special meaning for the married).

” ‘He who is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord: how he may please the Lord; but he who is married cares for the things that are of the world: how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a maiden. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married cares for the things of the world: how she may please her husband. …

” ‘I wish that all persons were as I myself[, unmarried]. But every person has his proper gift of God: one after this manner, and another after that.

” ‘[Yet] I say of the unmarried and widows: It is good for them if they abide as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn.’

“When Paul Apostle speaks of burning, I suppose he speaks of someone who contains so flammable a love or desire for another that the pain prevents his doing the work of Heaven. But what of he who, with everyday effort, is able to stand that flame but finds himself also frozen, in inaction, in despair — in a Ninth Circle of loneliness? Ice, touched, burns too.”

“The vow of chastity means more to Trappist monks than sexual abstinence. According to an old tradition, Chastity is modesty. That is: selfish thought and carnal desire must be restrained and retrained into friendly humility and attentive care.”

“Once, her master woke in the middle of the night to hear Rabia praying in these terms:

” ‘O light of my eyes! Thou knowest well that my keen desire is to carry out Thy commandments and to serve Thee with all my heart. But what can I do when Thou hast made me the slave of a human being?’

“In the morning he called her and told her his decision that, thenceforward, he would serve her, or, if she insisted on leaving, he was willing to free her from bondage.

“Rabia went into the desert to pray. There, she did not learn from a teacher but turned to God himself. …

“As news of her grew, she had many followers. She also had many discussions with the religious leaders of her time. And she had offers of marriage, one even from a king, but she had no time for anything but God. …

“She taught that God must be served for love of Himself and not for fear of hell. She once sang:

” ‘O my God! If I worship Thee for fear of hell, burn me in hell;
If I worship Thee from hope of paradise, bar me from paradise.
But if I worship Thee for Thine own sake,
Grudge me not Thy everlasting Beauty.’

“Rabia was in her mid-eighties when she died; by then, she felt continually united to her Lord. As she told her friends, ‘My Beloved is always with me.’ “