Friday, March 31, 2017
Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 265 - Part II.
(Youcat
answer - repeated) Not everyone is called to marriage. Even people who live
alone can have fulfillment in life. To many of them Jesus shows a special way;
he invites them to remain unmarried “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt
19:12).
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 1620)
Both the sacrament of Matrimony and virginity for the Kingdom of God come from
the Lord himself. It is he who gives them meaning and grants them the grace
which is indispensable for living them out in conformity with his will (Cf. Mt
19:3-12). Esteem of virginity for the sake of the kingdom (Cf. LG 42; PC 12; OT
10) and the Christian understanding of marriage are inseparable, and they
reinforce each other: Whoever denigrates marriage also diminishes the glory of
virginity. Whoever praises it makes virginity more admirable and resplendent.
What appears good only in comparison with evil would not be truly good. The
most excellent good is something even better than what is admitted to be good
(St. John Chrysostom, De virg. 10, 1:
PG 48, 540; Cf. John Paul II, FC 16).
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment) Many people who live alone suffer from
loneliness, which they perceive only as a lack and a disadvantage. Yet a person
who does not have to care for a spouse or a family also enjoys freedom and
independence and has time to do meaningful and important things that a married
person would never get to. Maybe it is God’s will that he should care for
people for whom no one else cares. Not uncommonly God even calls such a person
to be especially close to him. This is the case when one senses a desire to
renounce marriage “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven”. Of course a
Christian vocation can never mean despising marriage or sexuality. Voluntary
celibacy can be practiced only in love and out of love, as a powerful sign that
God is more important than anything else. The unmarried person renounces a
sexual relationship but not love; full of longing he goes out to meet Christ
the bridegroom who is coming (Mt 25:6).
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 1619)
Virginity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven is an unfolding of baptismal
grace, a powerful sign of the supremacy of the bond with Christ and of the
ardent expectation of his return, a sign which also recalls that marriage is a
reality of this present age which is passing away (Cf. Mk 12:25; 1 Cor 7:31).
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