YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 265
Ave Maria series
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]
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, 14thcentury
“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
[1618-1620]
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:–Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition
"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–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.(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.)118and 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
People Pope Francis and child
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