We are victims of a contagious amorphism which dilutes the mysteries of faith into a current of humdrum uniformity. We have lost the form, the principle that determines the essence of a thing, distinguishing it from all others. The invitation to become perfect is open to everyone, but we have forgotten that there is a hierarchy of levels in the states of Christian life. Consequently, both marriage and the consecrated life are going through a profound crisis, having been flattened into the same level to ease the universal call to holiness. It is a crisis that also afflicts the celibate life, which has for a long while been subjected to the epicurean transformation of our times.

A solution is found in looking to the Virgin Mary. Her perpetual virginity is the original form that molded Christ and, in Him, every Christian and every Christian vocation. In her unsullied virginity we have the beginning and the fulfillment. The mystery of Mary's virginity is the assurance of God's primacy in the world. It is the confirmation that the Kingdom that Christ brought forth does not begin in the flesh but in the spirit-"God is spirit" (Jn 4:24) -whereby the flesh is ennobled, and man elevated into a higher dimension: that of the Kingdom in its plenitude, where God "worketh all in all" (1 Cor 12:6). Mary is the virginal womb in which the mystery of Christ and of the Church are safeguarded, enshrined, and treasured.