Psalm 119:9
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to thy word.
Words like “purity” and “virginity” are not highly prized today. To judge from virtually every portrayal in the media, to be a virgin is to be a loser and a sort of weakling. Not coincidentally, our obsession with sex tends to want to sexualize our children at earlier and earlier ages (as depraved media fascination with JonBenet Ramsey well attests). Conversely, a culture that is more and more obsessed with sex tends to be a culture that is more and more hostile to childhood. For childhood is virginity. So it is no surprise that a culture which celebrates sexual license, is marinated in sexual obsession, and demands absolute sexual autonomy, should also be a culture which assaults children with endless images of violence, tempts children to sexual sophistication far beyond their years, and seeks to kill children who have not yet been born. A culture that hates virginity is a culture that hates children. And the one and only way back to sanity is found in today’s verse: youth is kept pure by living according to the Word of God — Jesus — who himself remains a virgin — and young — through all eternity. On the Feast of Holy Innocents, let us pray for the innocence of our children and work to thwart Herod’s every assault on them.
