A nun I knew was traveling one day by air and found herself engaged in a conversation with a lively young man.
The young man had a myriad of questions, many concerning celibacy. At a certain point he remarked, "Looking at you, what intrigues me is that you are obviously a person who has a zest for life. Now think, Sister, how much richer your life could be for you if you also had sex!"
The nun simply replied, "Looking at you, what intrigues me is that you are obviously a person who is sincere and searching for love. Love and sex aren't always the same thing. Now think how much richer your life could be if you understood that!"
This incident can help us understand why Christ chose to incarnate his sexuality in the manner that he did, namely as virgin.
By living and loving as virgin, Christ was not in any way trying to teach — as has sometimes been taught in the past — that consecrated celibacy is superior to marriage, or that there is something within sexual relations that works against the spiritual life. Rather, that the kingdom of God is more about the human heart than it is about the human groin.
Within Christ's perspective, the kingdom of God is about love, the nonexploitive meeting of human hearts. It consists of God and all persons of sincere will coming together in an all-in-one-heart-and-flesh community of life within which hearts are bonded in friendship, love, celebration and playfulness.
— Ronald Rolheiser, Forgotten Among The Lilies