The Vocation to
Continence in This Earthly Life
General Audience, March 17, 1982
1. We continue the reflection on virginity or celibacy for the
kingdom of heaven—a 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
Jesus—in a certain sense—touches 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 theology—that is, of the
revelation of the significance of the body, completely new in
respect to the Old Testament tradition—these 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 out—at least in an indirect way—that this
choice during the earthly life is joined to renunciation and also to
a determined spiritual effort.
6. The same supernatural finality—for the kingdom of heaven—admits
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
Taken from: L'Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English 22 March
1982, page 3.
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