Bishop Erik Varden: chastity is integrity, "to harmonize my carnal desires towards life in Christ"
Convert of Lutheranism and Norwegian traps, one of his last books is about the virtue of chastity.
Monsignor Erik Varden, OCS [Cistercian Order of the Cistercian Order of the Stense Of Observance] is bishop of Trondheim, Norway.
Baptized in the Lutheran Church, which in Norway was the official Church until 2012, I grew up in a family without a very explicit Christian practice. My religious search began at the age of 14 or 15, caused by an inner thirst, fueled by literature and music.
I was 17 years old when I first visited a monastery, a little by chance. Monastic life scared me a little because of its radicalism; at the same time, it fascinated me deeply.
During my first year in Cambridge, a Marist priest, professor of Irish history, accompanied my conversion to Catholicism: we read together all the documents of the Second Vatican Council, an excellent preparation. I stayed at the university for ten years as a student of theology and history of the Church. My doctoral thesis was about Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629) and in 2000 I was able to spend a time of postdoctoral research at the École normale supérieure de la Rue d'Ulm, in Paris. When I returned to Cambridge, it was clear to me that that chapter of my life was over.
My first visit to Mount Saint Bernard Abbey took place in October 2001. I went in search of spiritual guidance and found my future. All life is demanding. The life of the Trap also has its pleasures and comforts. It's a happy life that I've loved myself a lot.
— what St. Benedict meant when he exhorted his monks to "love chastity”:
In the Latin vocabulary of his time, the term castus ("chaste") could be used as a synonym for integer ("integre"). Chastity, understood correctly, implies a search for integrity; it is about harmonizing the various aspects of my being, including my carnal desires, to guide them towards an adequate end: life in Christ that leads me to fulfill the bold promise made by St. Peter, that we become "participants of divine nature" (2 P 1, 4). Only this perspective allows us to understand the deep impulse of our heart and our body.
The meaning of the Greek word "asceticism" is "exercise". Therefore, it is a very appropriate word for our time, in which, even in small rural towns, we find gyms on every corner. Why do we frequent them so often? To allow the body to reach its optimal state, in search of balance and strength.
"When we discover that the soul has demands as great as those of the body, we will want to satisfy them to fulfill the promises that those demands entail. First of all, it will be necessary to awaken to the life of the soul. This is a great and joyful challenge for Christian preaching and catechesis.