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

YOUCAT Question n. 145 - Part VIII. 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 929) By a "life perfectly and entirely consecrated to [such] sanctification," the members of these institutes share in the Church's task of evangelization, "in the world and from within the world," where their presence acts as "leaven in the world" (Pius XII, Provida Mater; cf. PC 11). "Their witness of a Christian life" aims "to order temporal things according to God and inform the world with the power of the gospel." They commit themselves to the evangelical counsels by sacred bonds and observe among themselves the communion and fellowship appropriate to their "particular secular way of life" (Cf. CIC, can. 713 § 2).    

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 God—even 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 930) Alongside the different forms of consecrated life are "societies of apostolic life whose members without religious vows pursue the particular apostolic purpose of their society, and lead a life as brothers or sisters in common according to a particular manner of life, strive for the perfection of charity through the observance of the constitutions. Among these there are societies in which the members embrace the evangelical counsels" according to their constitutions (Cf. CIC, can. 731 §§ 1 and 2).    

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