Wojtyla begins by reasserting that: “...justice to the Creator is done when reasonable creatures acknowledge His supreme rights both in the sphere of nature and in the sphere of the person and adapt their behavior to them.” He continues, “The rights of the Creator over the creature are very extensive: it is in its entirety the property of the Creator, for even beings who have themselves ‘created’ depend upon existence: if the creature did not exist its own creative activity would be impossible.” Man then concludes that “if I want to be completely just to God the Creator, I must offer him all that is in me, my whole being, for He has first claim on all of it.” Peter remarked on a talk given by Fr. Peter Hopkins, in which Fr. Peter emphasized we are on a journey to God. The big picture is the resurrection. We come from God, belong to Him and are on our way towards God.

Christ showed for us that man’s relationship with God must not be based on justice alone. Self-giving has roots in love, not justice. “... love raises man’s relations with God to a higher level than mere justice could. Justice is not at all concerned with the unification of persons, whereas love aims precisely at this.”

“When the relationship of man to God is understood in this way the idea of virginity acquires its full significance. ‘Virgin’ means ‘untouched’ — we speak in this sense of a virgin forest, for instance. Applied to a man or a woman ‘virgin’ means untouched, intact from the sexual point of view.... Sexual intercourse destroys this physical virginity.... When a woman gives herself to a man in marital intercourse, this gift must have the full value of betrothed love. The woman ceases to be a ‘virgin’ in the physical sense.... We see then the possibility of betrothed and requited love between God and man: the human soul, which is the betrothed of God, gives itself to Him alone. This total and exclusive gift of self to God is the result of a spiritual process which occurs within a person under the influence of Grace. This is the essence of mystical virginity — conjugal love pledged to God Himself.”

Wojtyla explains that physical virginity or celibacy is not the essence of virginity. Physical virginity is a factor favoring spiritual virginity, and also the result of this. It is possible to remain physically virgin without ever becoming spiritually virgin.

“The celibacy of priests in the Catholic Church is a special phenomenon.... Priestly celibacy, which goes so closely with dedication to the business of the kingdom of God on earth, asks to be reinforced by spiritual virginity, although the sacrament of Holy Orders can be taken by people who have previously been married.”

“Man has an inborn need of betrothed love, a need to give himself to another. The purely negative fact of not belonging to another can be taken as indicating at least the possibility of giving oneself to God.... The man who chooses virginity chooses God. This does not however, mean that in choosing marriage he renounces God for a human being.... Considered in the perspective of the person’s human existence, marriage is only a tentative solution of the problem of a union of persons through love.

Emily commented on an encyclical of Pius XII who wrote that the relation between spouses is not one of lust but they should help each other get to heaven. Marriage is not second class. Spouses are there to help each other in perfection. Peter added that married love is a symbol of God’s love for us. Sylvia remarked that marriage is an opportunity to practice heroic virtues — fidelity, loyalty, unconditional love, creating new life and helping them on the road to God. Emily brought to mind the scene in “The Sound of Music” where the Mother Superior tells Maria: loving this man doesn’t mean you love God less.

Sean commented that when he read about the superiority of virginity to marriage, he first felt a bit uncomfortable. Paul often equates flesh with sin and spirituality with good, sometimes to an exaggerated extent, but marriage is an icon of God’s love. Jesus says to Thomas, you believe because you have seen; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. In a sense, married people have a tangible icon of God’s love — it’s hard to love someone who’s not there. Sean concluded that he sees a higher calling in virginity because it is something more difficult.

“The value of virginity, and indeed its superiority to marriage, which is expressly emphasized in the Bible (1 Corinthians 7) and has always been maintained in the teaching of the Church, is to be found in the exceptionally important part which virginity plays in realizing the kingdom of God on earth. The kingdom of God on earth is realized in that particular people gradually prepare and perfect themselves for eternal union with God. In this union the objective development of the human person reaches its highest point. Spiritual virginity, the self-giving of a human person wedded to God Himself, expressly anticipates this eternal union with God and points the way towards it.”

Peter described the themes of the play written by Karol Wojtyla called “The Radiation of Fatherhood.” Many people choose loneliness over giving, though we’re not meant to be lonely; these themes are at the core of Love and Responsibility. The play ends:

“And everything else will then turn out to be unimportant and inessential except this: father, child, and love. And then, looking at the simplest things, we will all say, Could we have not learned this long ago? Has this not always been embedded in everything that is?”