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GENERAL AUDIENCE OF WEDNESDAY, 23 JUNE [1982]
On Wednesday, 23 June, Pope John Paul resumed his catechesis on
the value of voluntary continence, basing his audience message on St.
Paul's treatment of the theme of virginity or celibacy.
1. Having analyzed Christ's words reported in Matthew's Gospel (Mt
19:10-12), it is now fitting to pass on to Paul's treatment of virginity
and marriage.
Christ's statement about continence for the sake of the kingdom of
heaven is concise and fundamental. In Paul's teaching, as we will soon
be convinced, we can distinguish a correlating of the words of the
Master. However, the significance of his statement (1 Cor 7) taken as a
whole is assessed in a different way. The greatness of Paul's teaching
consists in the fact that in presenting the truth proclaimed by Christ
in all its authenticity and identity, he gives it a stamp of his own. In
a certain sense it is his own personal interpretation, but it is drawn
primarily from the experiences of his apostolic missionary activity, and
perhaps directly from the necessity to answer the concrete questions of
those to whom this activity was directed. So in Paul we encounter the
question of the mutual relationship between marriage and celibacy or
virginity. This subject troubled the minds of the first generation of
Christ's confessors, the generation of disciples, of apostles, of the
first Christian communities. This happened through the converts from
hellenism, therefore from paganism, more than through the converts from
Judaism. And this can explain the fact that the subject appears
precisely in a letter addressed to the community in Corinth.
2. The tone of the whole statement is without doubt a magisterial one.
However, the tone as well as the language is also pastoral. Paul teaches
the doctrine handed down by the Master to the apostles. At the same time
he engages in a continuous conversation on the subject in question with
the recipients of his letter. He speaks as a classical teacher of
morality, facing and resolving problems of conscience. Therefore
moralists love to turn preferably to the explanations and resolutions of
this first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 7). However it is
necessary to remember that the ultimate basis for those resolutions is
sought in the life and teaching of Christ himself.
3. The Apostle emphasizes with great clarity that virginity, or
voluntary continence, derives exclusively from a counsel and not from a
commandment: "With regard to virgins, I have no command from the Lord,
but I give my opinion." Paul gives this opinion "as one who has obtained
mercy from the Lord and merits your trust" (1 Cor 7:25). As is seen from
the words quoted, the Apostle, just as the Gospel (cf. Mt 19:11-12),
distinguishes between counsel and commandment. On the basis of the
doctrinal rule of understanding proclaimed teaching, he wants to
counsel. He wishes to give his personal opinions to those who turned to
him. So in First Corinthians (chapter 7), the counsel clearly has two
different meanings. The author states that virginity is a counsel and
not a commandment. At the same time he gives his opinions to persons
already married and also to those who still must make a decision in this
regard, and finally to those who have been widowed. The problem is
substantially the same as the one which we meet in the whole statement
of Christ reported by Matthew (19:2-12): first on marriage and its
indissolubility, and then on voluntary continence for the sake of the
kingdom of heaven. Nevertheless, the style of this problem is totally
his own. It is Paul's.
4. "If however someone thinks he is not behaving properly with regard to
his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do
as he wishes; he does not sin. Let them marry! But whoever is firmly
established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire
under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his
betrothed, he will do well. So then, he who marries his betrothed does
well, and he who refrains from marriage does better" (1 Cor 7:36-38).
5. The one who had sought advice could have been a young man who found
himself faced with the decision to take a wife, or perhaps a newlywed
who in the face of the current asceticism existing in Corinth was
reflecting on the direction to give to his marriage. It could have even
been a father, or the guardian of a girl, who had posed the question of
her marriage. In any case, it would deal directly with the decision that
derives from their rights as guardians. Paul is writing at a time when
decisions in general belonged more to parents and guardians than to the
young people themselves. Therefore, in answering in this way the
question that was addressed to him, he tried to explain very precisely
that the decision about continence, that is, about the life of
virginity, must be voluntary, and that only such continence is better
than marriage. The expressions, "he does well," "he does better," are
completely univocal in this context.
6. So then the Apostle teaches that virginity, or voluntary continence,
the young woman's abstention from marriage, derives exclusively from a
counsel, and given the appropriate circumstances, it is better than
marriage. The question of sin does not enter in any way. "Are you bound
to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek
marriage. But if you marry, you do not sin, and if a girl marries, she
does not sin" (1 Cor 7:27-28). Solely on the basis of these words, we
certainly cannot make judgments on what the Apostle was thinking or
teaching about marriage. This subject will indeed be partially explained
in the context of First Corinthians (chapter 7) and more fully in
Ephesians (Eph 5:21-33). In our case, he is probably dealing with the
answer to the question of whether marriage is a sin. One could also
think that in such a question there might be some influence from
dualistic pro-gnostic currents, which later become encratism and
Manichaeism. Paul answers that the question of sin absolutely does not
enter into play here. It is not a question of the difference between
good and evil, but only between good and better. He later goes on to
justify why one who chooses marriage will do well and one who chooses
virginity, or voluntary continence, will do better.
We will treat of Paul's argumentation in our next reflection.
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