Voluntary Continence
Derives From a Counsel, Not From a Command
General Audience, June 23, 1982
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.
Taken from: L'Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English 28 June
1982, page 5
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