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The Heart of John
Paul II-On Family |
"A witness to spousal love for the church"
Pope John Paul II
General Audience
November 23, 1994
According to Perfectae Caritatis, religious "recall to the minds of
all the faithful that wondrous marriage decreed by God and which is
to be fully revealed in the future age in which the Church takes
Christ as its only spouse" (PC 12). In this marriage the basic value
of virginity or celibacy in relation to God is discovered. It is for
this reason that one speaks of "consecrated chastity."
The truth of this marriage is revealed by many statements in the New
Testament. We remember that the Baptist called Jesus the bridegroom
who has the bride, that is, the people who rushed to his baptism.
John saw himself as the "groom's best man who waits there listening
for him and is overjoyed to hear his voice" (Jn 3:29). This marriage
imagery was already used in the Old Testament to indicate the close
relationship between God and Israel. Especially after Hosea (cf.
1:2ff.), the prophets used it to exalt that relationship and to call
the people back to it if they had betrayed it (cf. Is 1:21; Jer 2:2;
3:1; 3:6-12; Ez 16, 23). In the second part of the Book of Isaiah,
the restoration of Israel is described as the reconciliation of an
unfaithful wife with her husband (cf. Is 50:1; 54:5-8; 62:4-5). The
presence of this imagery in the religious faith of Israel also
appears in the Song of Songs and in Psalm 45, wedding songs
prefiguring the marriage with the Messiah King, as they were
interpreted by Jewish and Christian tradition.
Within the context of his people's tradition, Jesus used the imagery
to say that he himself is the bridegroom foretold and awaited--the
Messiah bridegroom (cf. Mt 9:15; 25:1). He also insisted on this
analogy and terminology to explain what the "kingdom" is that he had
come to bring. "The reign of God may be likened to a king who gave a
wedding banquet for his son" (Mt 22:2). He compared his disciples to
the bridegroom's friends, who rejoice at his presence and will fast
when the bridegroom is taken away from them (cf. Mk 2:19-20). There
is also the well-known parable of the ten virgins waiting for the
bridegroom to arrive for the wedding feast (cf. Mt 25:1-3), as well
as that of the servants who must be watching to welcome their master
when he returns from a wedding (cf. Lk 12:35-38). In this regard it
could be said that the first miracle Jesus performed at Cana,
precisely at a wedding banquet, is significant (cf. Jn 2:1-11).
By calling himself the bridegroom, Jesus expressed the meaning of
his entrance into history. He came to bring about God's marriage
with humanity, in accordance with what the prophets foretold, in
order to establish Yahweh's new covenant with his people, and to
fill human hearts with the new gift of divine love, enabling them to
taste its joy. As the bridegroom, he invites everyone to respond to
this gift of love. All are called to answer love with love. He asks
some to give a fuller, stronger and more radical response: that of
virginity or celibacy "for the kingdom of heaven."
We also know that St. Paul accepted and developed the imagery of
Christ the bridegroom suggested by the Old Testament and taken up by
Jesus in his preaching and in teaching the disciples whom he would
establish as the first community. The apostle urges those who are
married to consider the example of the messianic marriage:
"Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church" (Eph 5:25).
In addition to this special application, he looks on the Christian
life in the perspective of a spousal union with Christ: "I have
given you in marriage to one husband, presenting you as a chaste
virgin to Christ" (2 Cor 11:2).
Paul wishes to make this presentation to Christ the bridegroom for
all Christians. However, there is no doubt that the Pauline imagery
of the chaste virgin finds its full realization and its greatest
meaning in consecrated chastity. The most splendid model of this
fulfillment is the Virgin Mary, who accepted in her being the best
of her people's marital tradition. She did not limit herself to the
awareness of her special belonging to God on the socio-religious
level, but applied the idea of Israel as a bride to the complete
giving of her soul and body "for the kingdom of heaven," in her
sublime form of consciously chosen chastity. Hence the Council could
state that in the Church the consecrated life is lived in deep
harmony with the Blessed Virgin Mary (cf. LG 41), who is presented
by the Church as "the one most fully consecrated" (cf. RD 17).
In the Christian world a new light was shed by Christ's word and
Mary's example of oblation, a light soon to be known by the first
communities. The reference to the nuptial union of Christ and the
Church gives marriage itself its highest dignity. In particular, the
sacrament of Matrimony introduces the spouses into the mystery of
Christ's union with the Church. However, the profession of virginity
or celibacy enables consecrated persons to share more directly in
the mystery of this marriage. While conjugal love goes to Christ the
bridegroom through a human union, virginal love goes directly to the
person of Christ through an immediate union with him, without
intermediaries--a truly complete and decisive spiritual espousal.
Thus in the person of those who profess and live consecrated
chastity, the Church expresses her union as bride with Christ the
bridegroom to the greatest extent. For this reason it must be said
that the virginal life is found at the heart of the Church.
In line with the evangelical and Christian concept, it must also be
said that this immediate union with the bridegroom is an
anticipation of the life of heaven, which will be characterized by a
vision or possession of God without intermediaries. As the Second
Vatican Council said, consecrated chastity will "recall to the minds
of all the faithful that wondrous marriage decreed by God and which
is to be fully revealed in the future age" (PC 12). In the Church
the state of virginity or celibacy thus has an eschatological
meaning. It is an especially expressive foretaste of the possession
of Christ as the one bridegroom, as will occur in the fullness of
the life to come. This is the meaning of what Jesus said about the
state of life which will belong to the elect after the resurrection
of the body. They "neither marry nor are given in marriage. They
become like angels and are no longer liable to death. Sons of the
resurrection [= raised up], they are sons of God" (Lk 20:35-36).
Despite the obscurities and difficulties of earthly life, the state
of consecrated chastity foreshadows the union with God, in Christ,
which the elect will have in heavenly happiness, when the
spiritualization of the risen man will be complete.
The profound happiness of consecrated life is understood from a
consideration of this goal of heavenly union with Christ the
bridegroom. St. Paul refers to this happiness when he says that the
unmarried man is busy with the Lord's affairs and is not divided
between the world and the Lord (cf. 1 Cor 7:32-35). But this is a
happiness from which sacrifice is neither excluded nor dispensed
with, since consecrated celibacy involves renunciations by which one
is called to be more closely conformed to Christ crucified. St. Paul
expressly states that in his bridegroom's love, Jesus Christ offered
his sacrifice for the holiness of the Church (cf. Eph 5:25). In the
light of the cross, we understand that every union with Christ the
bridegroom is a loving commitment to the One who was crucified.
Those who profess consecrated chastity know they are destined to a
deeper sharing in Christ's sacrifice for the redemption of the world
(cf. RD 8, 11).
The permanent nature of the nuptial union of Christ and the Church
is expressed in the definitive value of the profession of
consecrated chastity in religious life. "This consecration will be
the more perfect, inasmuch as the indissoluble bond of the union of
Christ and his bride, the Church, is represented by firm and more
stable bonds" (LG 44). The indissolubility of the Church's covenant
with Christ the bridegroom, shared in the pledge of self-giving to
Christ in the virginal life, is the basis for the permanent validity
of perpetual profession. It could be said that it is an absolute
gift to him who is the Absolute. Jesus himself made this clear when
he said: "Whoever puts his hand to the plow but keeps looking back
is unfit for the reign of God" (Lk 9:62). Permanence, fidelity in
the commitment to religious life, is clarified in the light of this
Gospel saying.
With their witness of fidelity to Christ, consecrated persons
support the fidelity of couples themselves in their marriage. The
task of giving this support underlies Jesus' statement about those
who become eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt
19:10-12). By this statement the Master wished to show that the
indissolubility of marriage--which he had just enunciated--is not
impossible to observe, as the disciples were implying, because there
are people who, with the help of grace, live outside marriage in
perfect continence.
Hence we see that, far from being opposed to one another,
consecrated celibacy and marriage are joined in the divine plan.
Together they are meant to make the union of Christ and the Church
more visible.
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
