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Purity of heart allowed Adam and Eve to enjoy each other in fullness and simplicity. With sin came shame and lust. But hope is not lost. Through Christ’s redemptive power, the heart can gradually gain victory over lust. Victory is not only possible—it is necessary. This is the only path to purity.
fights lust and honors the body. Purity is rooted in respect for the person. It is a fruit of the Spirit—an expression of life in Christ. Seen in this light, purity is not simply a virtue that can be learned. It is a gift.
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor. 6:19). The body is not only honorable because of the human person’s dignity. It is also the temple of the Holy Spirit.
“You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Cor. 6:19–20).
purity is an experience of the love inscribed by God on the whole human person. Purity is reverence for the image of God in the body.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Mt. 5:8). Purity sees through the eyes of God, who called all of creation “very good.” This is why Paul writes, “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure” (Titus 1:15).
The age to come, the kingdom of God, is the eternal homeland of mankind. “Our citizenship is in heaven,” St. Paul writes (Phil. 3:20). The Father has prepared a place for his children in his own home (Jn. 14:2).
Instead, he speaks of man as a composite of body, spirit, and soul, with no distinct boundaries among the three. According to Paul, both body and soul are capable of being “spiritual.” Our earthly bodies are heavy with sin. But in the age to come, the body will be filled with light, entirely permeated by the spirit.
And we must not conceive of this harmony as a victory of spirit over body, but as a perfect participation of the body in the mystery of the spirit.
Divinization is an entirely new state for the body—humanity in perfect union with God, intimately connected to the Trinity in a perfect communion of persons. This intimacy will not efface the personality of individual human beings. In
But, as Christ reveals, we are ultimately made for union with God. Not just our souls, but our bodies, too, are ultimately destined for communion with him. This adds new depth to the body’s nuptial meaning.
In the life to come, God will give himself to humanity in the most personal way. He will enable us to see him as he is, revealing the mystery that has been hidden in God from eternity.
In the resurrection, God will give himself to his people in a way that exceeds any earthly experience of his grace. The only appropriate response to this overwhelming gift is to give ourselves completely to him. This blissful union between God and man will be at once spousal and virginal.
Our complete concentration on God will not negate human community; it will perfect it.
First, we can regain a measure of our original glory through Christ’s redeeming power. Second, our baptism into Christ’s death makes us partakers of the “new life” of the resurrection, to some extent, even in this life (Rom. 6:4–5).
Taken together, Christ’s teachings on the three dimensions of human existence—original, historical, and eschatological—comprise a total vision of man, a complete “revelation of the body.”
The ultimate expression of the nuptial meaning of the body is the life of the resurrection, where there is perfect communion with God and every other person. By participating in the life of the divine communion of Persons—the Trinity—the human body will fully express the image and likeness of God.
When our bodies are glorified, they will become what God intended them to be from the beginning—visible signs of the person, means of communication between persons, and tangible expressions of selfless love. The true meaning of the body—which has been weighed down and constricted by sin—will be revealed anew.
“Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1). Though we cannot see the future life, we can trust Christ’s words and, above all, his own triumph over death. This is why, when we recite the Nicene Creed, we boldly proclaim our faith in “the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”
Within the human heart, the heritage of sin can only be overcome by the power of the redemption.
Sexual abstinence is not an end in itself, but a means of fully devoting one’s self to God.
Celibate persons are called to become spiritual fathers and mothers, helping younger believers mature in the faith.
Marriage and celibacy rest on a single foundation: selfless love.
(The celibate person is “married” to God.)
Our ultimate destination, the kingdom of Heaven, is the fulfillment of all human aspirations. It is the fullness of all the good that the human heart desires—the maximum expression of God’s bounty poured out on man. It is a fullness unattainable in this earthly life.
The kingdom of Heaven also refers to the nuptial union between Christ and the Church.
Celibacy for the kingdom points to our ultimate destiny—total union with God. Celibacy reminds us that marriage, too, is a sign of the union between Christ and the Church. They are complementary vocations, each vital to the other.
I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. (1 Cor. 7:1–7)
Echoing Christ, Paul emphasizes that voluntary celibacy is a counsel, not a command. This path is meant only for those “who can accept it.”
Paul assures the engaged man that the choice between celibacy and marriage is not a choice between good and evil. It is not a question of sin. Marriage is good, Paul teaches; but, in the right circumstances, celibacy for the kingdom is “even better.”
Why does Paul say that celibacy for the kingdom is “even better” than marriage? Because it is grounded in the eternal, not the temporary.
In reality, married love is a difficult love. Along with the joy of union, couples will experience frustration, disappointment, and sorrow.
Paul suggests the sacramental nature of marriage when he says that it is a gift from God. “Each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that” (1 Cor. 7:7). While he takes a realistic view of sin and temptation, Paul, with no less conviction, also sees the action of grace in every Christian. Married or unmarried, we each have our own gift from God.
Our very bodies are habitations of the Spirit. “Do you not know,” Paul writes earlier in his First Letter to the Corinthians, “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? . . . Therefore honor God with your body”(1 Cor. 6:19–20). This applies to all Christians, married or unmarried, for each “has his own gift from God.”
It is significant that Paul refers to a “concession, not a command.” This
By living “the gift” that is their own, spouses can freely unite and, “for a time,” freely abstain in a way that maintains and strengthens their marital bond and respects their different make-ups.
In all of these fundamental questions, we must listen attentively to those key words of Christ about “the beginning,” “the heart” of fallen and redeemed man, and the resurrection.
The redemption of the body has already been accomplished in Christ, through his death and resurrection.
with good” (Rom. 12:21), clearing a path for the final redemption of the body.
He reveals two complementary vocations by which man makes a gift of himself: sacramental marriage and celibacy for the kingdom.
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