The surprising answer to a seemingly silly question

"Can a man be a virgin once he is married and has children?" This sounds like a silly question. In reality it is no sillier than the question asked the Lord by Nicodemus, when he asked, "can a man be born when he is old" (John 3:4)? The answer to both questions, surprisingly, is Yes! Giussani, in the final chapter of the third volume of Is It Possible, says, "Virginity is to profess the presence of God in the world; Christ, this man, here and now. Apart from this, there's nothing, everything ends up nothing...man's vocation is virginity...[a]nd to this virginity, God gives one task or another. There is only one vocation." The one vocation, to which we are called when we are baptized, is to follow Christ. So, if God "gives a certain task, that of family, it's then that St Peter says, after considering everything, 'If that's the case, it's better not to get married'" (Matt. 19:10 emboldened emphasis mine).

"Just as the vocation was given to you, it is preserved for you in front of the world by the same thing, that is, by the same hand, by the same face of Christ that told you 'Come,' and said 'Come' to people who are like all the others."

All of this reminds me of Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing

Is It Possible, vol 3, pgs. 115-116