Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 145 - Part III.




YOUCAT Question n. 145 - Part III. Why does Jesus want there to be Christians who live their whole lives in poverty, unmarried chastity, and obedience?


(Youcat answer - repeated) God is love. He longs for our love also. One form of loving surrender to God is to live as Jesus did — poor, chaste, and obedient. Someone who lives in this way has head, heart, and hands free for God and neighbor.        

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 918) From the very beginning of the Church there were men and women who set out to follow Christ with greater liberty, and to imitate him more closely, by practicing the evangelical counsels. They led lives dedicated to God, each in his own way. Many of them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became hermits or founded religious families. These the Church, by virtue of her authority, gladly accepted and approved (PC 1). (CCC 919) Bishops will always strive to discern new gifts of consecrated life granted to the Church by the Holy Spirit; the approval of new forms of consecrated life is reserved to the Apostolic See (Cf. CIC, can. 605).      

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) In every age individual Christians let themselves be completely taken over by Jesus, so that “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:12) they give everything away for Godeven such wonderful gifts as their own property, self-determination, and married love. This life according to the evangelical counsels in poverty, chastity, and obedience shows all Christians that the world is not everything. Only an encounter with the divine Bridegroom “face to face” will ultimately make a person happy.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 920) Without always professing the three evangelical counsels publicly, hermits "devote their life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance" (CIC, can. 603 § 1).     

(This question: Why does Jesus want there to be Christians who live their whole lives in poverty, unmarried chastity, and obedience? is continued)

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