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GENERAL AUDIENCE OF WEDNESDAY, 17 MARCH
During the general audience on 17 March, Pope John Paul II continued
his reflection on the subject of virginity or celibacy for the kingdom of
heaven.
1. We continue the reflection on virginity or celibacy for the kingdom
of heavena
theme that is important also for a complete theology of the body.
In the immediate context of the words on continence for the kingdom of
heaven, Christ made a very significant comparison. This confirms us still
more in the conviction that he wished to root the vocation to such
continence deep in the reality of the earthly life, thereby gaining an
entrance into the mentality of his hearers. He listed three categories of
eunuchs.
This term concerns the physical defects which render procreation in
marriage impossible. These defects explain the first two categories, when
Jesus spoke of both congenital defects: "eunuchs who have been so from
birth" (Mt 19:11), and of acquired defects caused by human intervention:
"There are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men" (Mt 19:12). In both
cases it is a state of compulsion, and therefore not voluntary. If Christ
in his comparison then spoke of those "who have made themselves eunuchs
for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 19:12), as of a third category,
undoubtedly he made this distinction to indicate still further its
voluntary and supernatural character. It is voluntary, because those
pertaining to this category "have made themselves eunuchs," and it is
supernatural, because they have done so "for the kingdom of heaven."
2. The distinction is very clear and very forceful. Nevertheless, the
comparison also is strong and eloquent. Christ spoke to men to whom the
tradition of the old covenant had not handed down the ideal of celibacy or
of virginity. Marriage was so common that only physical impotence could
constitute an exception. The reply given to the disciples in Matthew
(15:10-12) is at the same time directed, in a certain sense, at the whole
tradition of the Old Testament. This is confirmed by a single example
taken from the Book of Judges. We refer to this here not merely because of
the event that took place, but also because of the significant words that
accompanied it. "Let it be granted to me...to bewail my virginity" (Jgs
11:37) the daughter of Jephthah said to her father after learning from him
that she was destined to be sacrificed in fulfillment of a vow made to the
Lord. (The biblical text explains how such a situation came about.) "Go,"
the text continues, "and he let her go.... She went with her companions
and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. At the end of two months she
returned to her father who did with her according to his vow which he had
made. She had never known a man" (Jgs 11:38-39).
3. In the Old Testament tradition, as far as we know, there is no place
for this significance of the body, which Christ, in speaking of continence
for the kingdom of God, wished to present and reveal to his own disciples.
Among the personages known to us as spiritual condottieri of the
people of the old covenant, there is not one who would have proclaimed
such continence by word or example.(1) At that time, marriage was not only
a common state, but still more, in that tradition it had acquired a
consecrated significance because of the promise the Lord made to Abraham:
"Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a
multitude of nations.... I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will
make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. And I will
establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you
throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you
and to your descendants after you" (Gn 17:4, 6-7). Hence in the Old
Testament tradition, marriage, as a source of fruitfulness and of
procreation in regard to descendants, was a religiously privileged
state: and privileged by revelation itself. Against the
background of this tradition, according to which the Messiah should be the
"son of David" (Mt 20:30), it was difficult to understand the ideal of
continence. Marriage had everything going in its favor, not only reasons
of human nature, but also those of the kingdom of God.(2)
4. In this environment Christ's words determine a decisive turning
point. When he spoke to his disciples for the first time about continence
for the kingdom of heaven, one clearly realizes that as children of the
Old Law tradition, they must have associated celibacy and virginity with
the situation of individuals, especially of the male sex, who because of
defects of a physical nature cannot marry ("the eunuchs"). For that reason
he referred directly to them. This reference has a multiple background,
both historical and psychological, as well as ethical and religious. With
this reference Jesusin
a certain sensetouches
all these backgrounds, as if he wished to say: I know that what I am going
to say to you now will cause great difficulty in your conscience, in your
way of understanding the significance of the body. In fact, I shall speak
to you of continence. Undoubtedly, you will associate this with the state
of physical deficiency, whether congenital or brought about by human
cause. But I wish to tell you that continence can also be voluntary and
chosen by man for the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew, in chapter 19, does not record any immediate reaction of the
disciples to these words. We find it later only in the writings of the
apostles, especially in Paul (3). This confirms that these words were
impressed in the conscience of the first generation of Christ's disciples
and they repeatedly bore fruit in a manifold way in the generations of his
confessors in the Church (and perhaps also outside it). So, from the
viewpoint of theologythat
is, of the revelation of the significance of the body, completely new in
respect to the Old Testament traditionthese
words mark a turning point. Their analysis shows how precise and
substantial they are, notwithstanding their conciseness. (We will observe
it still better when we analyze the Pauline text of the First Letter to
the Corinthians, chapter 7.) Christ spoke of continence "for" the kingdom
of heaven. In this way he wished to emphasize that this state, consciously
chosen by man in this temporal life, in which people usually "marry or are
given in marriage," has a singular supernatural finality. Continence, even
if consciously chosen or personally decided upon, but without that
finality, does not come within the scope of the above-mentioned statement
of Christ. Speaking of those who have consciously chosen celibacy or
virginity for the kingdom of heaven (that is, "They have made themselves
eunuchs"), Christ pointed outat
least in an indirect waythat
this choice during the earthly life is joined to renunciation and also to
a determined spiritual effort.
6. The same supernatural finalityfor
the kingdom of heavenadmits
of a series of more detailed interpretations which Christ did not
enumerate in this passage. However, it can be said that by means of the
lapidary formula which he used, he indicated indirectly all that is said
on the subject in revelation, in the Bible and in Tradition; all that has
become the spiritual riches of the Church's experience in which celibacy
and virginity for the kingdom of heaven have borne fruit in a manifold way
in the various generations of the Lord's disciples and followers.
NOTES
1) It is true that Jeremiah, by explicit command of the Lord, had to
observe celibacy (cf. Jer 16:1-2). But this was a "prophetic sign," which
symbolized the future abandonment and destruction of the country and of
the people.
2) It is true, as we know from sources outside the Bible, that in the
period between the two Testaments, celibacy was maintained in the circles
of Judaism by some members of the sect of the Essenes (cf. Josephus
Flavius, Bell. Jud., II 8, 2:120-121; Philo Al., Hypothel,
11, 14). But this happened on the margin of official Judaism and probably
did not continue beyond the beginning of the second century.
In the Qumran community celibacy did not oblige everyone, but some members
observed it until death, transferring to the sphere of life during
peacetime, the prescription of Dt 23:10-14 on the ritual purity which was
of obligation during the holy war. According to the beliefs of the Qumran
community, this war lasted always "between the children of light and the
children of darkness"; so celibacy was for them the expression of their
being ready for the battle (cf. 1 QM 7, 5-7).
3. Cf. 1 Cor 7:25-40; see also Apoc 14:4
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