YOUCAT Lesson 265
YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic
youth
265 Are all people called to marriage?
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” (Matthew 19-12). [1618-1620]
…….Photo above: …..Pope Francis is
embraced by a child at a home for former street children in Manila, Philippines.
…..CNS photo,L Osservatore Romano via Reuters. …..265
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 (Matthew 25:6).
“Christ has no hands but ours to do his work today.” Anonymous, 14th century
“Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about
you.” 1 Peter 5:7
“Where you go, I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge;
your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die,
and there will I be buried. May the Lord
do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you.” Ruth 1:16-17
Virginity for the sake of the Kingdom
…….1618 Christ
is the center of all Christian life. The bond with him takes precedence over
all other bonds, familial or social.(Compare Luke 14:26; Mark 10:28-31.)113 From the very beginning of the Church
there have been men and women who have renounced the great good of marriage to
follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the things of the Lord, to
seek to please him, and to go out to meet the Bridegroom who is coming.(Compare Revelation 14:4; 1 Corinthians 7:32; Matthew 25:6.)114 Christ himself has invited certain
persons to follow him in this way of life, of which he remains the model:
"For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and
there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who
have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is
able to receive this, let him receive it."(Matthew 19:12.)115 –Catechism of the Catholic
Church, Second Edition
…….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.(Compare Mark 12:25; 1 Corinthians 7:31.)116 –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.(Compare Matthew 19:3-12.)117 Esteem of virginity for the sake of the
kingdom(Compare Lumen Gentium 42; Perfectae Caritatis 12; Optatam Totius 10.)118 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:Patrologia Graeca 48,540; compare
John Paul II, Familiaris
Consortio 16.)119 --CCC
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