Christian Vocation and Fulfillment
Outline
I. Introduction
II. Christian Vocation in General
A. Meaning of Vocation
B. Elements of Vocation:
1. The Caller: God
2. The One Being Called: Human Being
3. The Means of the Call
4. The Call
III. Human Sexuality
A. Condition of Sexuality in the Philippines
B. Meaning of Human Sexuality
C. Christian View of Human Sexuality
D. Biblical Perspective
E. Basic Principles of Human Sexuality
F. A Schema of Psycho-Sexual Growth
IV. Christian Lifestyle
A. Blessed Single Life
1. Forms of Single Life
2. Loneliness: Challenge of Single Life
3. Freedom: A Reward of Single Life
4. Models for Single Life
5. Faith Dimension of the Single Life
B. Consecrated Celibacy
1. Religious Life
1.a. Meaning of Religious Life
1.b. Religious Life in History
1.c. Religious Life in the Midst of the World
1.d. Religious Life Today
1.e.Religious Life as Vocation
1.f. The Effect of Religious Vocation on the Recipient
1.g. The Vows of Religious Life
1.h. Religious Life and Mission: Passion for Justice
2. Priesthood
1.a. Meaning of Priesthood
1.b. Root of Priesthood
C. Conjugal Relationship: Married Life
V. The Christian Marriage
a. Marriage in the Sacred Scripture
b. The Marriage in Christ
c. Christian Family
d. Some Practical Concerns
Focus: Seven Habits of Highly Effective Family
2. Conclusions
I. Introduction
A. Recapturing the HCDC Vision-Mission Goal Statement
B. Flashback of the ReEd Courses
C. Orientation to the Course: ReEd 6 as the culmination of the Christian Formation Program as Holy Crossian
II. Christian Vocation in General
A. Etymology
Vocation comes from a Latin word “VOCARE” which means “to call.” To call somebody means the caller has something in mind for the one who is being called. The caller has a purpose therefore it evokes a response.
B. Meaning of Vocation
As a call, vocation can be viewed in different perspective. It can be always associated with commitment, mission, task, principles, decisions or discernment; however, these views may point to one thing and that is the Spiritual purpose of living. Dictionary defines vocation as referring to any profession or singular direction in life as in the vocations to education, medicine, law, and ministry or to any consecrated life, etc. Harper’s Bible Dictionary gives the meaning of a call as an invitation from God to an individual to become a part of His eternal plan for salvation for humanity, world or history. Reginald Fowler viewed Vocation as the response a person makes with hi/her total self to the address of God and to the calling of partnership.
These definitions can lead us to view that vocation can only be understood in relationship with God and His purpose for everything in this life. Therefore, vocation refers to a Spiritual Purpose of living or of everything be it leisure, work, private life or the basic orientation or commitment in life.
C. Characteristics of Vocation
We would say that it is our vocation when
1. It rids us of a competitive outlook in life
2. It frees us from anxieties of life
3. It rejoices over our talents or giftedness
4. It free ourselves from coping expectations of others
5. It gives us gracious balance of time and energy
6. It frees us from the tyranny of time
7. It follows the contours of history and of human development.
D. Elements of Vocation
Vocation is a process. One realizes that he/she is called only at a certain moment or in a certain time of their life. As a process it has four elements or aspects.
1) The Caller: GOD
Our God is a God who calls. He always calls the person who has been an outflow of His being. The reality of God is unquestionable; there is God according to our faith. Our Faith relationship tells us that “Is there God?” is not the question, but “Who is God and what is God?” is the most fundamental and basic that everything one search for an answer. This question allows that believer to develop the understanding of God. Believers looked at God according to the level of experiences in history and realities of life. There was a gradual development of understanding of God.
a)God is a force in Nature. This is the most primitive understanding developed about who is God and what is God. Believer of God experienced the natural phenomenon as force which was beyond his control. He experienced the sun, the moon and everything in nature that has force. Human then began to wonder and bowed down this force as God.
b) God is Supernatural Being. As the minds of the human person grow, he discovered that the nature and everything in nature has force that flowed out from God himself, nature is not God. He came into a realization that God is above natural phenomenon. He is a Supernatural Being.
c)God is a Supreme Being. Human person realized that God is not just a Supernatural Being but essentially, He is a Supreme Being who has the command of the existence of everything in Heaven, on earth and under the earth. As Supreme Being, God has the power to save the person, world and history from all forms of evil and oppressions. God is the Source of all life, all holiness comes from Him. He is everywhere. He is the one that provide the needs of the person. The source of all the existence of everything in this world. He is the Source of life, the Creator of Heaven and Earth and under the earth.
d) God is a Person. If God unfolded Himself in nature, in things above nature, then God can also be experienced in the Person. It is in the Person, being so intimate with God Himself, that God has fully been experienced by the believer. Biblical Faith testified that God has been experienced in the person of Jesus, the Christ. Jesus was the Son of the living God, the God who became human being. It was Jesus who perfectly concretized and actualized the fulfillment of the saving plans of God.
e)God is and Indwelling Spirit. Jesus said “when two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them.” God is in our midst as a Spirit that dwells among us. It is God who prompts the community to work for the good of humanity, world and history and participate in the work of salvation.
2) The One Being Called: Human Person
How splendid is the Truth that Human Person is very special in the eyes of God that God established this relationship with Him. That human being is connected with God. It is God who called human person into an intimate relationship with Him.
a. The Persons in Christ
The Catechism for Filipino Catholics (CFC #684-685) unfolds that the fullness of the understanding of human person is only in Jesus. Our faith upholds that Christ reveals how essential dignity of all persons is grounded directly on their origin, meaning and destiny. We believe all persons are created by God in His image and likeness (Cf. Genesis 1:26). We believe all are redeemed by the blood of Christ (cf. Eph. 1:7, Col 1:14), and are sanctified by the indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14-16; 1Cor. 6:19). We believe all persons are called to be Children of God (Cf. Jn. 3:1) destined for eternal life of blessed communion with the Father, His Risen Incarnate Son and their Holy Spirit.
b. The Persons in Experience
Despite this basic truth of our faith a number of Christians do not realize this in actual living that is why we need to look at the one being called (person) in concrete and actual experiences/relationship in the community. The person in experience may realize that:
i. Person is open and relational by nature.
Persons are created to be in relationship. We are social beings. We relate with ourselves, others, nature and God. This is the way we redeemed by Christ as a people. This is how the Holy Spirit works not only within but among us as the people of God, journeying toward the common destiny.
ii. Persons are conscious being.
Persons are aware of themselves in their commitment and tasks. Persons possess faculties, the intellect, the will, the imagination and memory that made them aware of their existence. Humans have self-awareness through the knowing and free-willing. We “image” in our small way the Creator’s infinite knowing and loving. This is the basis of our commitment.
iii. Persons are embodied spirits.
A person is one living being, this is the way Jesus perceive the human being. The body of the person is in unity with his spirit. In Biblical perspective the Spirit is the “Ruah” or “Breath of God” that made the person lives. The Spirit means Life. The Spirit cannot be without the body. This stresses the unity between the body and the spirit. Our body is essential part of our being human not merely an instrument we use according to our whims. Contrary to those who look down the body on the body and make it as the source of evil because it is a matter. Christian Faith regards the body as Good, Holy and Honorable since God created it good according to his image and likeness, He made it as the Temple of His Spirit and He will raise it up on the last day (GS 14). All human relationships with others and with God are expressed through our bodies, which are the natural sacrament of our spiritual depth.
iv. Persons are historical realities.
Humans live is time and space. Humans are pilgrims’ on-the-way, who through time, become our full selves. Persons develop as persons in discernible stages, described in great detail by the modern psychology. Biblical Faith revealed to us that God is a God of history, in every moment of our life is a moment of God. He is with the human person in the blessings of life (blessings), He is with them in the human weaknesses (fall). He is with them is the consequences of human weaknesses (punishment). He is with them is the realization of human weaknesses (repentance). He with them is the struggle to repair the damage (restoration). Humans cannot be without history.
v. Persons are unique yet fundamentally equal
Despite physical differences as well as differing intellectual and moral powers, we instinctively realized that as persons, in some basic way, we are all equal. This is what our faith explains: “all human being are endowed with a rational soul and are created in God’s image and likeness; they have the same nature and origin and being redeemed by Christ, they enjoyed the same calling and destiny, there is here a basic equality between all people.” (GS 29) Yet humans is unique, no one can replace his existence and take his part. This fundamental equality of all individual persons also grounds the participation and solidarity of all people.
3) The means of the Call
God’s call comes to us in many and diverse ways. Not all of these are dealt with here, but we have attempted to point out the principal avenues of ‘god’s communication so we can be aware of the presence of God in our lives.
a. God calls us through Creation
God expresses Himself through the masterpiece of His hand. God is the God of Creation. He is with all what He did. Humans should listen to what the nature is telling us because that is what God is saying to us. “The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). We begin to understand how all things in the universe are related, how we ourselves are part of an eco-system, linked in the deepest way to the environment. The balance and order in nature could only have come from a supremely intelligent and loving being of our God.
b. God calls us through History
God works in and through history. He is calling us in the ordinariness of our life’s experiences everyday. Concrete and ordinary it may be, experiences in history are telling us about what God wanted us to be. Events and experiences in history must be viewed in faith and should be given religious meaning in order to understand God’s calling. Human being has the capacity to read the signs of the times. This can only be done through “ob-audire” meaning to listen carefully through faith.
c. God calls us through People/Community/ Church
People, community and the Church are God’s sacred instruments of letting us know of our vocation in life. This is the great challenge to find God’s call among others. “Vox populi, Vox Dei” meaning, “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” Each person should strive to listen to God in the voices of the people. What do their lives tell us about our destiny.
d. God calls us through Jesus Christ
The greatest of all God’s means of Communication to us, the perfect and supreme revelation, the definitive Word of God spoken to us in history is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ speaks God’s Word to us in a language we can understand, a human language. Jesus Christ made clear to the people The Gospel show us how this Jesus concretize the Plan of the Father for all humanity and lived up concretely the design of God for the World.
4) The Call
If God calls, then He has no other purpose except to make the person happy and fulfilled in living this life. Happiness is the fundamental calling from God. This happiness must be understood in the perspective of fulfillment. “FULFILLMENT” can be viewed in two (2) ways:
1. Existential: Fulfillment in the existential level can be experienced in this material world, it is REAL, but it is TEMPORARY… Thus, it should not be understood as not wanting anymore for more.
2. Eschatological: Fulfillment in the eschatological level is viewed in the metaphysical level wherein it focuses on the idea of LIFE HEREAFTER or ETERNAL LIFE (man’s unification with God in eternity). This is what human person ultimately aspires. Thus, this gives a sense of direction to the fulfillment human being experiences in the existential level.
The challenge now is on how humans shall be able to put a connection of the fulfillment that we experience in the existential level to that of the fulfillment which would bring us unification with God in the eschatological time. That is why God created everything in this world and gifted the person with talents and capacities, knowledge and understanding for them to be happy. This was also the reason why the Father sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. In fact when Jesus started the ministry, His blazing proclamation started with, “Happy are… the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, the pure in heart, the persecuted…. (Mt. 5:3-12).
In order to be happy, human person is …
a. Called to Holiness
Holiness is the vocation of all the believers of God. Christian is called to be holy as God is holy; to lead a holy life in the full sense of the term. Vocation to Holiness is not something passive rather it is something active because it is a mission.
In the Sacred Scripture, holiness is the essential quality unique only to Yahweh. When the Bible say that God is Holy, it means that He is wholly, separate, different or set apart and completely incomparable to any. Yahweh is holy because He utterly different from ourselves. He wills and acts unlike human beings. Oftentimes, we have great difficulty in understanding and comprehending God’s ways. That is because Yahweh is Holy, as He reminds us through the prophet Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thought. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
The Bible tells us that human beings experienced Yahweh’s holiness through His words and especially in His deeds. Yahweh makes known His holiness by condemning evil through the words of the prophets or He directly intervenes and punishes the wrongdoers. In this instance humans perceive His holiness. He reveals it by establishing justice and peace among all people and creation.
What about holiness of God’s creatures? Holiness in Creatures is not a quality or characteristic which human being possessed. In other words, things, or people are not holy in themselves as Yahweh is. They became holy by the contact of the divine. In the Old Testament, the person would be considered Holy only after some rituals of holiness. They were brought into contact with the Divine. This means that person and objects were not holy in themselves, but were made holy through the ritual. The person and objects made holy in full term become separate, different from all others because they belong to Yahweh and functioned or used for equally holy, separate and different purposes. It is in this context that the people of Israel considered being a holy people and a holy nation because of their contact of the Divine in the ritual of holiness at Mt. Sinai. However, Israel’s holiness had to be maintained for her holiness was not once and for all. Her holiness had to be preserved through the various forms of worship and being faithful to the Commandments. Israel became holy because she was chosen, made separate by God to love and serve Him. And yet holiness is a continuous invitation to remain holy. For Israel could be preserved and maintained by her worship and by meeting the moral demands of Yahweh.
We can find in the New Testament that Jesus is calling everyone to holiness just as the Heavenly Father is holy. We also discover that Jesus referred Himself as holy just His Father is, “I and the Father are one,” “If you have seen the Son, you have seen the Father.” Furthermore, the term holy is being applied to the Church which is the New People of God. Jesus calls everyone in the Church into holiness. He is actually sending us to be holy. The Christians has been united with Christ has become holy for he become God’s own possession. Christians are called to be in contact with the Divine through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. By heeding the word of our Lord Jesus, the human person become separate, different, s changed and transformed into the likeness of Christ Himself. The believer of Christ maintains the holiness shared by Jesus to him in authentic worship and act lovingly toward others. He taught us that the love of God and the love of neighbor are inseparable. Therefore, the obedience to the commandment and worship God in the totality of our being is a way of maintaining the holiness shared upon us by Jesus.
b. Called to God’s Kingdom
The Kingdom has come. Kingdom of God or Reign of God among the Jews is a generic name used by Jesus to mean Salvation. This Kingdom of God is affair of God to make his people happy. This is a concrete experience of the life-giving blessings of the concrete person today and in the future. This kingdom of God or Salvation is both a task and a goal. While this is what we dreamed of this is also something that we have to do and participate.
Jesus proclaimed the time is fulfilled; the Reign of God has come. It meant that the expected time of God’s coming in history had already been accomplished. The time for the creation of One Kingdom and One People subjected to the Kingship of the One God, Yahweh had already arrived. This is the most awaited time for the Jews. When Jesus proclaimed this arrival of the Kingdom, he meant that the time had come when the creation of God’s Kingship over all humanity and the world begin, but the completion, the perfection of peace and communion with the One God was yet to come at a time known only to the Father (Mk. 14:32-33)
Jesus called each person to submit to the will of His Father and to accept His Kingship over them. Jesus wanted everyone to be radically obedient, radically submissive to God’s rule over all our affairs. It is not enough for Jesus to externally follow the commandments, not enough to understand completely the meaning of the Law but unconditionally observe the Law and make it part of our being as persons.
In this calling, Jesus invited the believer to
1) Transform one’s life: This is termed as conversion from the Greek word “Metanoia” which is also from the Hebrew word “Shub” which means self-transformation, total change of lifestyle, redirect basic life orientation and values, new being and radical sharing of one’s wealth. This simply means that to experience the Kingship of God, human beings must be converted and reached to the level of seeing God in all the events of their existence and becoming children of God.
2) Believe the Good News: It is a gracious invitation to believe. Jesus is the Good News. He is the Gospel, the “Dbr Yahweh.” The Good News is not a book, is not a doctrine, is not a moral demand but a Person, the Person of Jesus. Believing in Jesus means trusting His love and living His Words. This is to be permeated by the being of Jesus Himself and this is what called discipleship.
Heeding into the call to God’s Kingdom is to consider that it is always both a task and a reward. It is a life to be enjoyed in the future but it is a task to be done together with the Church.
c. Called to Serve the Christian Community
The Church is community. All her members shared something in common and are united in One Faith in the Risen Jesus and in the Salvation He has brough to all humanity and all Creation. All members of the Church professed that, in Jesus, God has saved all humanity world and history from the powers of evil. We believe that it is in Jesus that we find life, grace and meaning of our lives.
One Faith: Our Faith makes us one. We believe in One God, we received One Baptism. This is the meaning of being united. Our social standing, our looks, our color and our positions do not matter at all. We belong, we profess, we live in one community of faith. This is what binds us together into one
One Mission: There is still another thing that binds the Church together and makes her one. It is the common vocation and common mission. All are called to one mission: to remain in humble submission to God’s will to love and serve one- another. By remaining faithful and submissive to God Plan/design as made known by Jesus, we remain committed to His Kingship over us. Mere membership in he Church does not guarantee a place for us in the Kingdom to come. What determines a place for us in the Final and definitive Kingdom of God is our commitment to the demand of the Reign of God today: the demand to submit ourselves to Christ’s Word.
We are called to become a Community patterned to the Community of Disciples of Jesus (Act. 2:44-47), the ideal community. We are called to continue the work of the Christ, to be a servant Church for service and transformation of society.
III. HUMAN SEXUALITY (from the Catechism for the Filipino Catholics #1061-76)
The first question that a new mother asks after the birth of her child is: "Is it a boy or a girl?" Human life is marked essentially by sexuality. It is fitting, then, that after we discussed about Vocation in general and the view on the elements of vocation, there should come that which fosters holistic and proper understanding on human sexuality -even before treating the different lifestyles of social status (single or married, priesthood or religious)
A. Condition of Sexuality in the Philippines
Throughout the Philippine today, the Christian Filipino is caught up in a whirlwind of changing of man-woman relationships, and of the understanding of sexuality itself. The traditional chaste and modest "Maria Clara" ideal Filipino womanhood has quietly faded away. Highly praised in the past eras for being "mayumi, mahinhin, malinis ang puso at maganda," today's Filipina must face challenges posed by new career possibilities, new demands of family and community, and new economic and social situations. The direct influence of Christian faith on the sexual mores of Filipino daily life today is diluted by the growing impact of mass media: TV, the cinema, and magazines/ comics books with their blatant exploitation of sex.
The Filipino family is under tremendous moral strain. Economic pressures are breaking up family solidarity. Political trends tend to foster artificial means of birth-control, including such immoral means as sterilization and abortion. Social enticements from today's consumerist society promote the "good life" glorifying pleasure and sexual promiscuity. Together with all these changes, PCP II denounces the persistence of the "double-standard" of morality in Filipino sexual attitudes and relationships (PCP II 582).From a Christian perspective this is extremely harmful for both men and women. While the Filipina is expected to be a virgin before marriage, and faithful within marriage, the Filipino male youth is constantly bombarded by the opposite "macho" image of what is means to be "tunay na lalaki." The socially accepted "querida system" is likewise castigated by the Document of the Plenary Council (cf. PCP II 587-89).
In reaction, the current "women's liberation" movement aims to free women from this state of injustice and subjugation which denies their true dignity. But some feminists fall into the trap of seeking equality by demanding the same licentious sexual irresponsibility as the "macho" male. This, of course, leads to just another form of women's enslavement and manipulation, with social consequences clearly manifest in the rampant pornography and prostitution.
B. What is Human Sexuality?
Human Sexuality refers to the fundamental component of personality of the total person by which he/she enters into as relationship with others. As an essential dimension of the whole person, sexuality is identified in our maleness and femaleness or being a man and a woman. It is in this component that a person enters into communication, feelings, expression of ourselves and living in human love. It is our relational power through which we can show understanding, warmth, openness and compassion to others.
The fundamental basis of understanding Human sexuality is the Truth of God’s creation. That created human being in His image and likeness and that He created them male and female. Both female and male has equal in personal dignity which is the inalienable right and responsibility proper to every human being.
Human sexuality is God's gift to us. We are created according to God's image precisely as "male or female". It is not in lonely solitude but rather in relating to others through our sexual natures that we share in God's life of love and creativity. Despite all misuses and misunderstandings, our human sexuality is something good! It is a God-given power for love and generatively that we must learn to gradually integrate ever more fully within our total selves. To live and associate with others in interpersonal relationships, respecting their sexuality and proper bodily expressions, is the vocation of every disciple of Christ. This chapter will take up the specific Christian view of the basic nature and value of human sexuality and of sex, together with some of their related problems, in treating of the 6th and 9th Commandments.
Sexuality, therefore, is for both completeness and procreation. Thus while focusing on the specific relationship of marriage, the sixth commandment actually touches on the upon the very nature of human sexuality, the entire range of man-woman relationships, and our common vocation to love and communion (cf. CCC 2331)
C. Christian View of Human Sexuality
The first thing to be made clear to every Christian Filipino is the difference between sexuality in general, and the sex act. The NCDP makes this point very well. Sexuality is today understood in a more complete and integral sense than in the past when the focus was almost completely on the sex act. Today sexuality signifies an essential dimension of the whole person, by which he/she enters into relationship with others. It thus touches every aspect of personal life, and has to be developed by all men and women just as life itself must be (NCDP 287; cf. CCC 2332)
This wider meaning of sexuality is reaffirmed by the Sacred Congregation for Education: "Sexuality is a fundamental component of personality, one of its modes of being, of manifestation, of communicating with others, of feeling, of expressing and of living human love. Therefore it is an integral part of the development of the personality “(EGHL 4).”It is, in fact, from sex that the human person receives the characteristics which, on the biological, psychological and spiritual levels, make that person a man or a woman, and thereby largely condition his or her progress toward maturity and insertion into society" (DSCE1).
The basis for this wider understanding of human sexuality is, of course, creation. Man and woman constitute two modes of "imaging" God and they fully accomplish such vocation not only as single persons, but also as couples, which are communities of love (cf. EGHL 26). The first consequence of this fundamental truth of creation is that "in creating the human race" male and female God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity, endowing them with the inalienable rights and responsibilities proper to the human person" (FC 22 cf. CCC 2335).
PCP II forcefully opposed "all forms of discrimination and exploitation of women" and emphasized "the growing awareness of their dignity and equality with men" (PCP II 387). For the Filipino Christian, then, this basic equality of man and woman grounded on God's creation is the solid ground for an authentically Christian view of sexuality and of marriage. But this equality as persons does not entail any sex sameness that denies all distinctiveness of the sexes. On the contrary, the second consequence of God's creative action is that by their distinctive sexuality, man and woman are both different and complementary not only in their physical and biological being, but reaching down to the depth of their moral and spiritual being (cf. CCC 2333).
This complementarity is the ground for a third consequence: man and woman are called to mutual gift of self, to reciprocity (cf. EGHL 24). By and through our sexuality we are called to live in a positive complementary relationship with one another. "The partnership of man and woman constitutes the first form of communion between persons" (GS 12), and constitutes the basic form of our co-humanity.
Concretely, then, our sexuality is a relational power through which we can show understanding, warmth, openness and compassion to others. The fourth consequence, then, is simply that sexuality is for love- either married or celibate love (cf. NCDP 287). Sexuality orients every man and woman toward interpersonal dialogue, and contributes to their integral maturation by opening them up to the gift of self in love.
Sexuality, oriented, elevated and integrated by love, acquires truly human quality. Prepared by biological and psychological development, it grows harmoniously and is achieved in the full sense only with the realization of affective maturity, which manifests itself in unselfish love and in the total gift of self' (EGHL 6).
The late Pope John Paul II develops this in Familiaris Consortio by relating creation directly with love. For love is the key to 1) God, the personal loving Creator, 2) His creating act through love and 3) the human persons created in His likeness precisely as man and woman for love. God is love and in Himself He lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in His own image through love, and at the same time for love…God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion.
But the affective life proper to each sex expresses itself in many ways characteristics of the different states in life. They are:
1) conjugal union for married person;
2) consecrated celibacy chosen freely for the sake of the Kingdom of God;
3) Christian youths before choosing marriage or celibacy;
4) single blessedness chosen by lay faithful (cf. EGHL 33).
But in every case, each one of us, man or woman, called to a life of love which channels the gift of our sexuality and its energies into positive, supporting relationships. Such relationships build up a wholesome community wherein all are called and helped to express their personal uniqueness through their sexuality, integrated within their very person.
D. Biblical Perspective
This Christian view of sexuality is supported and developed by the biblical narrative of God's relationship with Israel, His "Chosen People," through salvation history. First there was the simple innocence of original creation when "the man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame" (Gn. 2:25). But sin entered and brought disorder into the couple's relationship to God and to each other. The sexual relationship, while remaining fundamentally good, often became a divisive force. Instead of feeling joy at the unique difference of the other sex, the partners experienced the selfish desire of possession (cf. Gn. 3:16). From a natural power of outward self-giving in genuine love, the human sex drive became open to the temptation of turning back on itself in self-centered hedonism.
Despite the Old Testament’s strong rejection of God as a sexual being, Yahweh’s covenant with Israel was surprisingly portrayed in a marriage image. The stress was on the strength, depth, and fidelity of Yahweh’s love for His chosen People. God. Moreover forgive Israel when she proved to an unfaithful spouse and promise to redeem her. (Is. 54:5-8)
In the New Testament Jesus bypassed all the detailed prescriptions and prohibitions of the Torah regarding sexuality. He focused rather on the essential dignity and value as created by God. Jesus Christ wished most of all to restore human relationships to what God had intended before original sin distorted and corrupted them. This restoration pertains not only to our relationship with God but especially to the mutual inter relationships between men and women within the community and in family life. Jesus revealed the true nature of our human sexuality. More importantly, through His resurrection, Jesus redeemed our whole person wit all our instincts, powers and relationships including our sexual nature.
E. Basic Principles of understanding Human Sexuality
Out from the Christian and Biblical perspective we can then draw some basic principle as basis of our authentic understanding of human sexuality:
1. Each person is created unique in God’s Image and likeness
Each person is a unique reflection of God. There are two ways of imaging God, our being a man and our being a woman. Both man and woman images God. Each male and each female possesses inestimable worth as creature of God. The uniqueness of each one is the fundamental norm for choosing life partner in marriage, in single life, in a consecrated and in ordained lifestyles. It is complementarity and not compatibility is the basis of intimacy and friendship.
2. Human Person is created fundamentally Good
Everything in the person is fundamentally good, physical, psychological spiritual including sex. This principle is against the erroneous notion that influence mentality that what is material is evil. Our body is good and holy. This body is a reflection of Yahweh’s. It is important that each person should have a 1) comprehensive knowledge of our biological and psysho-spiritual life. 2) Each person should have the mastery of he constitution and function of the human body. This intends to respond harmoniously as human person.
3. Human Person is created to love and to be loved
Sexuality is for love. Love is an interpersonal dialogue expression. Love is received and love is given. It is both a gift and a command. All human being is a product of love. This love is expressed in different states of life, in conjugal union of married person, in consecrated celibacy and in blessed single life.
4. Each Person is a Sexual Being
Based on the natural law each person is born with certain gender: male and female. We relate to others with this kind of Gender that is given to us be nature.
5. Human Sexuality implies responsibility
Being a man and a woman is indeed a tremendous responsibility. Man and woman are equal in dignity but not in capacity. There are things in this world that man can do but woman can do, and there are also things that man can do but woman cannot do also. Man and woman must be informed in this tremendous responsibility.
6. All Sexual relationships demand Fidelity and commitment
Sexuality is a mutual gift of self. Fidelity and commitment are great demands for our relationship with one another. Each person should be shaped by this pattern of loyalty and commitment in order to establish a better world and family living.
7. All Sexual union is for Loving and Procreating
When there is a union between man and woman, it must be for love and procreation. There it is for a holy purpose. God willed that humans will live forever that is why, He designed our capacity to procreate. There two aspects of sexual union:
1) Unitive: this refers to the union of love to one another as expression of their love and affection.
2) Procreative: this is for the procreation of new life for the propagation of the human race
These two aspects are inseparable from each other and therefore need commitment and loyalty as well as the living up of the purity of heart, the so-called chastity.
F. A SCHEMA FOR PSYCHO-SEXUAL GROWTH
(adapted from Marlon Ramirez (2000), ed. Sex-Talk with Kids and Teens, ECFL pp. 58-68)
Sexual learning and sexual expression begin at the moment of birth and continue throughout the life cycle. This item here presents a Schema for Psycho-Sexual Growth of the Person as follows:
Stage I: Children Sexuality
Phase1: Sexual Unawareness (Ages 1-2)
Child’s sexual behavior | Parental support |
Infant and very young children are not yet attuned cognitively or emotionally to their sexuality or the sexuality of others. They may rub their genitals to experience pleasure, but they do not have the thoughts, feelings of an explicitly sexual nature. Their sexual identity is very weak. | Parents should not over react when they see their kids touch their genitals. Kids at this stage have no malice yet. Efforts must be taken to ensure that children are loved. |
Phase 2: Sexual Awakening (Ages 3 to 7)
child’s sexual behavior | Parental support |
At this phase, children like to look at their bodies in the mirror and run around naked. They attempt to inspect the bodies of others and discuss bodily functions. Soon they ask where babies come from, acquire sexual vocabulary and sexual jokes that they usually don’t understand. It is the time that sex play with same sexed and opposite-sexed sibling and peer begins. | It is the right time to explain how god made babies in the form of story, but parents must first feel at ease when children raise this question. Parents should take time to explain and talk to their children about their behavior, create an environment that allows the child to develop psychosexually and at the same time to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. This is the most fitting time when parents should give their kids more affection. |
Phase 3: Sexual Surreptitiousness ( Ages 8-10)
Child’s Sexual Behavior: | Parental support |
Children feign disinterest in sex in general and in the opposite sex in particular. This causes parents to relax and rest assured that their children have finally outgrown their silly stage. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. Sexual thoughts, feelings, and behavior are rapidly increasing. | Parents should encourage an honest sharing of feelings with their kids. They assure them that they should not be ashamed of their sexual thoughts and feelings, and articulating them honestly dispel fear and encourage confidence. Parents should nurture intimacy rather than rejection and distrust. |
Stage II: Adolescent Sexuality
Phase1: Sexual Fantasy (Ages 11-13)
Child’s Sexual behavior: | Parental Support |
In early adolescence, the random, generally disconnected sexual thoughts and feelings of childhood begin to weave themselves into thematic fantasies. They imagine themselves to be in sexual and romantic situations with real or imagined people. The purpose of sexual fantasies: - To integrate the intellect and emotions with genital sexuality. - To move the adolescent away from solitary sex toward socially oriented sexuality. - To provide an opportunity to rehearse sexual and romantic behaviors without having to appear foolish or rejected. | - Allow their kids to establish healthy interaction with the opposite sex - encourage them to be more sociable. - They must be creative in harnessing the energy of their kids by playing with them and support them when they engage in sports activities. |
Phase 2: Sexual Preoccupation ( Ages 14-16 )
Adolescent’s Behavior | Parental Support |
Middle Adolescent’s is a time of being highly distracted and absorbed by sexuality. They become increasingly preoccupied with sexually-related physical changes that are taking place and with sexual feelings that seem to appear from nowhere and for no reason. Peer pressure is very strong, and major influences mostly come from friends than family. | Parents must equip their kids with necessary skills to make responsible decisions. Provide moral and spiritual influence. Talks about dating and crushes should be encouraged in the family. Informed them that their bodies are God’s gift and therefore precious.. |
Phase 3: Superficial Sexual Relating ( Ages 17-19 )
Adolescent’s Behavior | Parental Support |
During late adolescence, boys and girls spend more time together, and group dating evolves into dating as couples, which can be dangerous and harmful. Teenagers seek each other company that can quickly grow into holding hand, kissing, light petting, heavy petting and possibly sexual intercourse. Sexual relating is primarily experimental, self-centered, and mixed with other needs and emotions. It is self-centered the focus is on one’s own sexual and emotional gratification. | Values of self- control and self-respect should be reinforced. Kids freedom must be given direction, and responsibilities must be imbued with values. Parents must strive to create an atmosphere of psychological, emotional and spiritual support in the home where understanding, acceptance, trust and reverence for everyone’s God-given dignity. |
Stage III: Adult Sexuality (20 years above)
This stage begins from twenty years and in healthy development continues until death. It is in this stage that person become psychosexually more confident, humane and integrated. It has two phases:
Phase 1: Psychosexual Mutuality
This phase marks the passage from viewing heterosexual relationship as instrument of attaining affirmation and gratification taking them as opportunities to express and share care, trust and affection. In healthy development young adults learn what they need and do not need in a relationship, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and what their negotiable and non-negotiable values. They learn to view interpersonal relationship honesty as a gift rather than a threat; to respect their individuality; to be sensitive, tender and compassionate; to be a source of support and joy.
This phase is important because whatever lifestyle a person may choose, the confidence and qualities that are acquired during this period are necessary for effective and mutually fulfilling interpersonal relationships.
The Adult people who are fixated at this phase may be capable of relating to others superficially but when it comes to deeper, more intimate, compassionate, warm, and affectionate levels they not relate well.
Phase 2: Psycho-sexual Integration (ages 30 and above)
This period begins at the end of young adulthood. During this time, psychosexual needs gradually assume their place among other, equally important values. Depending on a person’s life commitment, psychosexual needs share priorities with earning a living, and a career advancement, parenthood, friendships, vocations, apostolate, community, and spiritual pursuits. Whatever lifestyle people choose, their psychosexual dimension embroiders the total fabric of their life and significantly beautifies it. It is well balanced with the other dimensions; it is neither nor less important than any other.
IV. CHRISTIAN STATES OF LIFE
Sexuality, as the fundamental component of personality of the total person by which he/she enters into as relationship with others, is expressed in a unique way for each individual. As an essential dimension of the whole person, sexuality is the means wherein we enter into a relationship with ourselves, with others, with the circumstances and with God. In the search for happiness or fulfillment, human persons always bear in mind the basic principle that they are:
a) created unique in God’s image and likeness
b) fundamentally good
c) in need love and to be loved
d) created with gender
e) informed responsibility
f) with fidelity and commitment
g) having sex for unitive and procreative
All these are to be concretely experienced in human person’s individual decision of expression. It is understood by most of the Christians that there are only two states of life we live, single and married. However, Christians upheld that our sexuality is finely and uniquely expressed being a blessed single, being a consecrated celibate relationship in priesthood and religious life and being in a conjugal relationship of married life.
A. BLESSED SINGLE LIFE (Lay Vocation)
(Adapted from Finley’s “Your Future and You”, pp. 159-167)
This section helps examine single life by reflecting on the way of life followed by those who do not marry or who do not commit themselves to the priesthood or religious life. Perhaps, it would be helpful to consider at least two reference texts in order to understand that this lifestyle is also a vocation that comes from God:
ÞMt. 19: 11-12 : “He said, not everyone can accept this teaching, only those to whom it is given to do so. Some men are incapable of sexual activity from birth; some have been deliberately made so; and some there are those who have freely renounced sex for the sake of the God’s reign. Let him accept this teaching those who can.”
Þ1 Cor. 7: 32 : “The unmarried man is busy with the Lord’s affairs, concerned with what is pleasing to the Lord…”
1. Forms of Single Life
The single life covers an extremely wide range of situations and lifestyles. This is swinging from a playboy bachelor to an aging spinster, from a college student discerning to marry or to enter religious life after graduating to a woman with four children whose father suddenly died of a heart attack. It is proper to begin by discussing some of the most common forms of the single life.
a. The Young Adult:
Most young women and men live the single life on a temporary basis to give them time to be ready for the lifetime commitment of marriage. The young adult, for example, often goes through a period of higher education or special training after high school. There is also the need to grow socially by getting to know and dating a variety of members of the opposite sex in order to meet and finally commit oneself for life to one person.
Even without any direct reference to marriage, the single life of the young adult is an important time for personal growth and development. It is a time to explore life and new ideas, to learn about oneself and others. The young single adult is free to travel, to study, to try new kinds of work; in short, to choose one’s own path in life. It is in this freedom that motivates some young adults to postpone marriage. But the single young adult also feels the deep need to share one’s life path with a partner. And it is in this need for intimacy that contributes toward the eventual decision of most young adults to marry.
b. Single for Sake of a Career:
Some women and men choose to postpone marriage because they feel the obligations of marriage and family life would interfere with their dreams of succeeding in a career. A woman, for example, may want very much to become an executive in a large corporation. A man may want to become a surgeon. Or a person might be committed to some form of the arts, such as music or acting, which often does not pay enough money or offer enough stability to support marriage and family life.
c. The Widowed and Divorced:
Many people get married and perhaps live the married life for many years, only to lose their spouse through severe marital problems or tragic incident which brings their spouse to death. Many of course decided to remain single after such incidents in life. However, a number would also find a partner and remarry. Of course, in many ways, the situation of the divorced and separated and the widow and widower is quite different. The Church may view the divorced or separated Catholic as still married and he or she faces a different kind of loss and subsequent readjustment than do those who lose their spouse because of death.
d. Single for Life:
Some people never marry, but remain single all their lives. Usually, this is not due to any rejection or marriage, but to a series of events or circumstances over which the individual has little or no control. For example, some people who postponed even considering marriage during their twenties discover that in their thirties they have become attached to their privacy and independence.
Others simply do not find the right person at the right time, or break a long engagement and then never find anyone else they wish to marry. Still others remain single because they have a sick parent or other family commitments which they feel do not leave them free to marry.
Regardless of the reasons for not marrying, the permanently single adult, like everyone, must come to terms with the reality of his or her situation. That is, the single adult must learn to enhance the rewarding possibilities of being single, and at the same time, cope in a responsible way with the inevitably difficult moments which are part of going through life as a single adult.
2. Loneliness: A Challenge for the Single Adult
Being single is often seen as a lonely life. There is a considerable degree of truth in such a notion. The single adult who daily returns home from work to face an empty apartment, and who sleeps alone each night, will most likely experience more loneliness than the married person who comes home to a loving family. But, in acknowledging the loneliness that inevitably accompanies the single life, it is necessary to consider it in a proper perspective.
On this regard, please consider some areas for contextualization:
First, is to accept the fact that loneliness is an unpleasant and sometimes painful feeling of being alone even if we do not want it to be. While it may be primarily unpleasant, it can also be considered as a desirable opportunity or condition to give us a breathing space we need just to be ourselves.
Second, is also to consider the fact that loneliness is not an experience only of those who choose to live a single life. On the contrary, it is a universal human experience inseparable from life itself. Hence, a sort of consolation in the sense that all experience this.
Third, is to learn to live with loneliness; to understand and positively accept each one’s loneliness so as to be able to see a deeper understanding of oneself and others too.
Fourth, is to consider a distinction between “emotional loneliness” and “social loneliness” which a single adult may experience and hopefully overcome later. Emotional Loneliness for the single adult can be faced by an active and deliberate effort to be open to many different kinds of friendship. Social Loneliness , on the other hand, can be experienced by the single adult partly because he or she is often disregarded or excluded from social gatherings or events (since some of his or her friends have some misunderstandings of his or her chosen lifestyle).
3. Freedom: A Reward of the Single Life:
It is an undeniable fact, perhaps, that a single adult may have more freedom in comparison those people who are bound by their obligations being married, priest or religious. That is why; we consider freedom as one of the greatest rewards of choosing and living a single life. However, we have to slow down a bit on this issue because freedom as a reward may lead a person to live a “selfish life” – that is to live a "good" and very luxurious life, or a “selfless life” – that is to live with others in a community where he or she will exercise Christian service to others; thus, does not only focus his or her attention to himself or herself.
4. Models for Single Life
A Single person is one who has come to believe that solitude of being single is the true and right way to faithfully live their baptismal call. It is the person who lives Christian values with family and with others who are also single and lives a life of faith and prayer so as to grown in their relationship with God.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that there are a great number of single persons who are especially close to Jesus’ heart and therefore deserve the special affection and solitude of the Church, especially of pastors. Many remain without human family without human family, often due to conditions of poverty. Some live their situation in the spirit of the Beatitudes, serving God and neighbor in an exemplary fashion. The doors of home, the domestic Churches, and the great family, which is the Church, must be open to all of them.
a) Single life is a divine call. God calls certain courageous people to single life. It is just as much as a Vocation as any of the other states. It is not the “last resort” (a state where anyone who does not feel called to priesthood or religious life and who cannot find a suitable spouse for marriage). The Church needs lay Catholics who live in the world but who can dedicate themselves to their work and the spreading of the gospel without having to worry about supporting a family.
b) Single people can do great good in the Church. Since single people are not bound to rules of religious community and responsibility of attending to growing children, they have flexibility to do all kinds of work in order to proclaim the Gospel in a concrete and unique way that a single person alone can penetrate.
c) The vocation of a single person is to represent Christ whenever they are and whatever they do, whether they are in different realms of the world. The Single persons are lights shining out in the world pointing out the way to God as they silently witness a holy life.
d) Some single people take vows of chastity (single women can be consecrated virgins according to a new rite in the Church) or enter secular institutes or Catholic associations “in which the Christian faithful living in the world strive the perfection of charity and work for the sanctification of the world especially from within.”
e) Whatever reason one may have for choosing to live a single life, dedicate to God. One must take it a chance to serve fellow human being. It is always a stepping stone toward holiness, a participation of the Kingdom works and a service to the community.
f) As Models, there are famous persons who made a difference in their lives as single, to name some of them, Florence Nightingale who introduced modern nursing, the love to care for the sick and the dignity in dying, sir Isaac Newton who was a mathematician and physicist who introduced the concept of gravity, Ludwig van Beethoven, a deaf musician, St. Catherine of Sienna, an ambassador and peacemaker, a nurse and a healer, a powerful evangelist, a counselor to the pope, queens, priests, housewives and the first lay Doctor of the Church, St. Paul, a great Theologian of all time and Jesus Christ, our brother and Savior. And many more!
5. The Faith Dimension of the Single Life:
As far as Christian faith is concerned in this context, it is most likely to view single life this way. Just like choosing and living a married life, priesthood or religious life, faith dimension is always a vital or essential factor in living a single life. It is through this that a single adult may be able to see continuously a new depth of his or her life and therefore, eventually see also a new meaning and direction of his or her life.
Along this line, one must also be reminded that every vocation is ultimately a call to love God and others. Thus, in learning to see his or her life as a vocation, the single adult is inevitably set in the direction of learning to grow in love.
Prayer is an important dimension of this growth, for prayer essentially is the giving and receiving of love between humans and God. A close union with God through prayer can have a profound transforming effect on the single adult’s moments alone. By prayer, the single adult can find his or her hours of silence and solitude not simple loneliness, but A LOVING UNION WITH GOD.
B. CONSECRATED LIFE: RELIGIOUS LIFE AND PRIESTHOOD
The late Pope John Paul II in his apostolic exhortation “Vita Consecrata” (1996) stated, as quoted by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education in their “Consecrated Persons and their Mission in Schools” (2003):
“The Consecrated Life, deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the Lord, is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit. By the profession of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus – the chaste, poor and obedient one – are made constantly visible in the midst of the world and the eyes of the faithful are directed towards the mystery of the Kingdom of God already at work in history even as it awaits its full realization in heaven.” (no.1). The aim of consecrated Life is “conformity to the Lord Jesus in his total self-giving,” (no. 65) so that every consecrated person is called to assume his mind and his way of life his way of thinking and of acting, of being and of loving.
It is the direct reference to Christ and the intimate nature of a gift for the Church and the world that define the identity and scope of the consecrated life. Its point of departure is “GOD AND HIS LOVE” and it point of arrival, “THE HUMAN COMMUNITY AND ITS REQUIREMENTS.”
While the section above discusses the nobility of choosing to live a life as Blessed Singles, this section discusses the Consecrated Life lived by Religious people and priests who are also singles but consecrate themselves for the Kingdom.
1. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE
a. Meaning of Religious Life
The Catholic Catechism of the Church (# 914) cited Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium #44 defined Religious Life as a life lived by those faithful who bind themselves to Christ in a state of life consecrated to God by the profession of the Evangelical Counsels of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. The Religious is a woman or man who has responded to an invitation from the Holy Spirit to take vows of chastity, poverty and obedience by becoming a member of the community of women and men dedicated themselves to the common pursuit of personal union with God through a life of prayer and loving service to others. For most Religious communities, service takes the form of:
a. Active ministry, such as teaching, nursing, or serving the needs of elderly, orphans and the poor.
b. Cloistered life that is strictly isolated from the active involvement in the world. The ministry centered mainly as a praying church.
The Church recognizes these various forms for consecrated life:–monastic, eremitic, religious institutes, secular institutes including the different societies of apostolic life. The PCP II offers added features of living the Religious Life in terms of radical discipleship, witness value, revitalizing religious charisma, essential missionary character and above all the passion for justice.
- Religious Life in History
Origin of Religious Life
Religious Life modestly began in the second and third centuries when women and men went into the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Arabia and Persia to seek for meaning of life through a life of prayer and Penance. It graciously started in a kind of hermitage lifestyle. The most widely known of the monks and hermits was St. Anthony.
b. 1. St. Anthony of Egypt:
In the year 250 C.E., St. Anthony was born of wealthy parents near the town of Memphis, Egypt. His life was changed when he radically listen the most lonely passage of the Gospel when Jesus invited the Rich Young to go home, to sell the possessions, to give it to the poor, then to follow Jesus but the rich young man turned Jesus invitation down. Anthony felt the need to radically respond Jesus invitation by giving his money and possessions and went into the desert to seek God.
Approximately around 270 C.E. St. Anthony went into the desert and lived in an empty tomb at edge of the city. He soon went deeper into the desert, where he lived in a deserted fort. He stayed there for twenty years, devoting his life to prayer and self-denial. He rarely left his place of solitude, except to visit and console inmates in nearby prisons. Soon, his reputation as a man of God spread throughout the area. Other men came, asking if they could live near Anthony, imitating his way of life and turning to him for advice in the pursuit of God. The growing number of hermits eventually prompted Anthony to leave with only two companions to go even deeper into the desert. He eventually settled in a small, deserted oasis in Thebes where He lived until his death at the age of 105 in 355 C.E. He left behind him the first form of of religious community consisting of a small group of hermits who lived alone but near others who gathered around a master or spiritual guide.
b.2. Eastern Monasticism
A short time later in this same area, St. Pachomius and St. Basil initiated of bringing the groups of hermits together to live under a common rule in a monastery. The rule of St. Basil is still followed today in some monasteries in Eastern Rite Church. As the Church began to grow, it seemed that there was the lost of the original zeal of apostolic life in the Church. Because of this, the desert movements became stronger and hermits were called as the martyr’s little brother. It indicated that the life of hermit was considered to be the mystical death or total surrender of oneself to Christ.
The movement became successful through a) Edict of Milan (313 C.E) which was pronounced by Constantine, the Great. This ended the persecution of the Christians. Hence, the life of the hermits under its “new freedom” was considered to be a mystical death or total self-surrender to Christ. b) Neo-Platonism which emphasized the invisible, mystical aspects of human nature.
b.3 Western Monasticism:
ST. ATHANASIUS brought the word of St. Anthony of Egypt and his way of life to Rome, where it proved to be a stimulus to the rise of monastic life in the West. ST. BENEDICT (480 – 547 C.E. Approximate date) is the most significant figure in Western monasticism. After studying in Rome, he lived as a hermit on Mt. Subiaco in Italy. Soon, in a manner similar to Anthony, he began to be approached by men who wanted to imitate his way of life, live near him, and have him be their spiritual guide. As the numbers o f those who approached him grew, he gathered his followers into monasteries and wrote a rule of life. As the years went by, Benedictine monasteries spread throughout all of Europe.
In the Dark Ages following the fall of the Roman Empire, Benedictine monasteries became practically the sole surviving centers of culture and education in the West. It would be difficult to over estimate the importance and influence of monks and monastic life in the life of the Church during the entire period of Middle Ages.
From the brief history of religious life and monasticism, we can gather a unified setoff principles and ideals which formed as the basis for the first form of religious life namely:
i. The Vows : to live in imitation of Christ through voluntary poverty, chastity, and obedience.
ii. Interior Transformation : to seek holiness – a purifying of one’s deepest attitudes and thoughts through prayer, self- denial and charity toward others.
iii. Physical Separation from Secular Society: to live in isolation from the world and as a sign of renouncing the false values that are commonly found there.
iv. Life of Prayer: to give one’s whole life over to be in union with God in deep meditation and liturgical prayer, with the belief that there is power in prayer to touch and heal the sufferings of this world.
- Religious in the Midst of the World:
While monastic communities served many needs of the Church well, there arose the awareness of the need for religious to go beyond the monastic walls. This gave rise to the birth of both DOMINICAN and FRANCISCAN orders which are both founded on or in a sense built upon the principles of the monks living in monasteries.
c.1. ST. DOMINIC was born in Spain in the year 1170. As a youth, he chose a life of voluntary poverty. He was known primarily for his gift of preaching. He eventually settled in Rome, where he inspired others to lead a life of the vows and the preaching of the Gospel. By his death of 1221, the potential impact of his genius could already be seen. Within a few years, Dominican friars have established themselves as scholars in the great learning centers of Europe.
c.2. ST. FRANCIS OF ASISI was born in Italy in the year 1182. He had little formal education. In his youth, he was known for his ability to spend his father’s money – eating and drinking with his friends. Francis’ life was radically changed by a deep religious experience which moved him to sell all his belongings and to live in extreme poverty. Francis did not isolate himself in a monastery. Rather, he went about barefoot preaching a simple message: “Fear and honor God, praise Him and bless Him…………Repent…… ….for you know not how soon you will die…… Abstain from evil, persevere in the good.”
Francis was one of the great mystics of the Church. He often spent whole nights in prayer. On several occasions, he was seen lifted up off the ground in a state of deep meditation. On September 14, 1224, after a night spent in prayer, Francis received the STIGMATA – the wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side, which remained until his death in 1226. He left behind him a vast number of Franciscan friars who, inspired by his example, lived the religious life in the midst of the world.
The Franciscan and Dominican orders founded by St. Dominic and St. Francis were in a sense built upon the principles of the monks living in the monasteries. Franciscans and Dominicans lived the vows, sought interior transformation through prayer, self-denial and charity, and they emphasized the importance of new openness toward the world. Unlike the monks, the friars did not live in isolation. On the contrary, they roamed about towns and villages preaching God’s Word. As time went on, the Dominicans and Franciscans represented the two leading intellectual schools of thoughts in the Middles Ages.
d. Religious Life Today
It must be noted that there was an exodus of those in religious life in 1960's and 1970’s and there was also a decline of religious vocations (even up to the present). Because of these realities, The Second Vatican Council, in a decree, had been calling for the renewal of the religious life which is aimed at affecting changes in the religious life today. This decree of the Church in the Second Vatican Council consequently proposed certain areas for renewal (perhaps, for them to be guided accordingly in this challenge for renewal. From that decree, three (3) basic movements of renewal appeared namely:
a. Return to the Spirit of the Founder: to clarify the original spirit with which their founder first brought their community into existence.
Results: i. return to a simpler lifestyle.
ii. Give more attention to community and private prayer.
b. Movement toward Modernization: this is due to the fact that some monastic orders still:
i. wore medieval underwear/habits.
ii. performed public penances.
Note: Sometimes the changes went beyond externals and called for a prudent reinterpretation of the founder’s teachings in the light of contemporary needs and development,
c. A Concern for the personal fulfillment: this can be approached under the headings of the 3 vows: Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience:
- Religious Life as a Vocation
A particular word for vocation is a Choice. It is in the act of choosing that God’s call is responded. To choose or to elect implies a special love for the object of choice together with the idea that this choice imposes obligation. To choose is a word designating an action that belongs to God. It is only God who can choose, “You did not choose Me but I chose you that you should go and bear fruit.” (Ephesisans 15:18)
Rev. John Hardon, S.J. considers religious vocation as a special grace that God gives to certain person calling them to a life of the evangelical counsels. It is a gift and an opportunity that must be freely responded to if the grace is not to remain sterile and ineffective. How do we discover a true vocation? The expression true vocation is our causal. It is critically important in an age when so many once-promising vocations seem to have lost. The need for recognizing a vocation is so important that everything else is secondary.
There are three important features to emphasize:
1. a strong faith in the Catholic Church and her teaching and mission, shown by a firm loyalty to the Vicar of Christ.
2. a love of prayer, at least the capacity of developing a desire for prayer and
3. a readiness to give oneself to a life of sacrifice in the footsteps of Jesus Christ
Religious life is a triple gift from God and to God, a gift of that one consecrating himself or herself and a gift to the Church and from the Church. Just as Baptism presupposes the gift of faith, religious profession is the gift of a special call on God’s part. Vocation comes from our Heavenly Father. Every child is born with her/his own vocation, with her/his own identity and destiny, for the religious, they give themselves for a lifetime.
Religious life must be directed in the light provided by faith. By the fact religious life is a life-long donation to God, to the Church, and in the Church, it is God-centered, Christ-centered and Church-centered.
Þ Religious life is God-centered. It is necessary that the members of every religious community seek God solely before anything else. Love for God is to find its highest expression in such a profession. “Let all religious therefore, be rooted in faith and filled with love for God and neighbors, love of the cross and hope for the future glory.” (Perfectae Caritatis #5,25)
Þ Religious life is Christ-centered. This means following /Christ with greater freedom, imitating Him more closely through the practices of the evangelical counsels.” (Perfectae Caritatis #1). The more Christ-centered religious life is, the closer it is to be perfect.
Þ Religious life is Church-centered. It is because religious is labors in the Church. Religious has to labor in the Church because her/his life is essentially an ecclesial life. What is expected from the religious is not simply personal witnessing. The Religious should carefully keep before their minds the fact that the Church presents Christ to believers alike in a striking manner everyday through them
Finally, one should remember the fact that vocation does not establish the chosen one in a state of full security and privilege, like the talents of the Gospel, it is not merely a gift but also a responsibility. This seems to be God’s way of acting. Whatever He bestows on us becomes also a charge and this is without doubt the true meaning of liberty.
- The Effect of Religious Vocation on the Recipient
Vocation, like conversion, comes as a surprise. It came to Abraham amidst the comforts of his native country, his kindred and his father’s house; to the sons of Zebedee in their father’s boat; and to Saul as he journeyed, full of his own importance to Damascus. Vocation changes the whole pattern and fabrics of one’s life. The one being called should leave all things order to answer the call of our Lord. At the start of the new dream of the Call, the effect can be shattering. Saul lost his sight for three days and in those three days he neither ate nor drank anything (Acts.9:9). Vocation first breaks the person then rebuilds him/her into a newly transformed person.
- Stages of Religious Life
Religious Life follows simple stage:
Þ Postulancy. When someone enters one of the major orders of the Church, she or he is first called postulant which means “one who seeks admission.”
Þ Novitiate. After some few months, the postulant receives the religious habit of the order and becomes a novice. The novice in this stage studies about the life he/she is considering. The novitiate period lasts from one to two years and ends with the taking of temporary vows.
Þ Temporary vow: This may take in a form as first profession.
Þ Final vow or Perpetual vow: After 1-3 years or maximum of five years, the temporary vows expired, the individual either leaves the religious life and returns to the world or takes the final, solemn vows, which are binding until death.
Each stage of religious life has corresponding discipline uniquely designed out from the rule of life of each community.
There are three steps suggested for those who think they have a vocation to religious life.
- Inquire: It is necessary to gather information about religious life or priesthood. This is usually done by talking to a priest or nun or writing to vocation director of seminaries or religious communities. Learn many things about this kind of life through search-ins.
- Pray and reflect: It is indeed necessary to pray and reflect to ask God’s guidance in making a right decision in life. Religious life is a deep and lasting g commitment to give oneself to others in Christ. Such commitment can be made only in a spirit of openness to God and His design for one’s life.
- Act: entrance to religious life does not constitute any kind of final commitment. The time of formation and training to religious life are periods intended to give the individual the time and experience necessary to make an enlightened decision to leave or make at the time of ordination or vows.
- The Vows of Religious Life
Vows are ways of integrating the evangelical dimension into the struggle to convert society, ways of allowing the values of the kingdom to transform the world into a humane society and ultimately holy habitation for human beings. Vows are expressions of our faith in Jesus. Religious Life takes the vows to live the evangelical counsels, namely vow of poverty, vow of chastity and vow of obedience.
The Vow of Poverty:
The vow of poverty is made in imitation of Christ who during his life on earth was a poor man. His earthly father, Joseph, was a simple carpenter. During his ministry, Jesus did not have a dwelling he could call on his own. When he was buried, he did have his own tomb. Jesus invitation to the kingdom is always a call to live a simple life, to change lifestyle, to reorient the comfort and convenience that one lives.
To give up the right to private property, is just a shadow of the corresponding inner renunciation of self-centeredness, insecurities, comfort and convenience in life. The vow of poverty is a vow to live a life of healthy forgetfulness of oneself to allow the religious to be more concern of other people and their needs. Vow of Poverty expresses Faith in God who has loved the poor so much.
The Vow of Chastity
The vow of chastity is made in imitation of Christ who never married. This in no way implies that Christ was not capable of experiencing sexual feeling and desires. This also does mean that Jesus shunned away from women. Infact, the Gospels tell us that many of His followers were women. Jesus’ life and teaching had not any kind of anti-sexual or anti-marriage overtones. Jesus chose not to marry and he invited to those whom the gift was given to do the same. Not everyone can accept this teaching but only those to whom it was given can do so. St. Paul was unmarried for the sake of the kingdom and he was urging for those who did marry to remain so. The charism of consecrated celibacy became recognized as a sign of total dedication to Christ in the Community.
The Vow of Obedience:
Obedience means “to listen carefully” to the will of God in each situation. Christ is the perfect model of this listening to the will of God. Christ’s public ministry began after the 40 days prayer in the desert. The Gospels tells us too that Jesus often spent whole night alone in prayer and that he prayed before performing a miracle.
The vow of obedience is made in imitation of Christ who was always obedient to the will of his Father. The Apostles were the first to witness the charism of sharing in the obedience of Christ by obeying Him as the source of the father’s will in their lives. The religious seeks to imitate the same attentiveness to the will of the Father. In practical terms, this means making all major decisions in life always in dialogue with the will of the Father through one or more superiors in the community. In this way, the religious attempts to discern which course of action are the will of God.
Obedience expresses faith in the God of history. It is a continual willingness to go forth and discern and obey God’s word, so that one may entrust ourselves entirely to his will.
- Religious Life and Mission: Passion for Justice
The world demands people who would usher the real spirit of God’s reign that is Justice. Today, the religious are increasingly interpreting their cal to proclaim the Gospel, in “preferential option for the poor.” This has led to the reexamination of traditional works in order to better respond to emerging pastoral needs, particularly in the areas of social justice, building basic Ecclesial communities animated by communion and participation and the transformation of society.
Passion for Justice is what really makes up the life and mission of religious amidst oppressions and injustice in all aspects of life. This would concretize Jesus kingdom works, to clothe the naked, to give food for the hungry, to heal the sick, to give home for the homeless, and many others.
2. PRIESTHOOD
A. What is Priesthood?
Priesthood is an office of priests who are special people, set apart to perform religious duties. It is an office designed to the service of divinity and through which worship, prayer, sacrifice or other is offered to the object of worship, and pardon, blessing or deliverance is obtained by the worshipper. Priesthood is a life lived by those who received the Sacrament of Holy Orders and committed to live a life of celibacy.
Priest comes from a Latin word “PRESBYTER” which means “Elder.” Presbyter was given a religious meaning “SACERDOS” which refers to someone whose principal function is that of “Offering Sacrifice.” A priest is meant to offer sacrifice and who mediate God and human being by offering sacrifice in the name of human being. It refers to an ordained minister of the Church. Universally, priest can be a man or woman who received ordination and has the full exercise of the ministry and become a member of the hierarchy. In a specific sense, for the Catholic Church, priest is a man who, after enough formation and training, received the Sacrament of Holy Order. Priestly life can be lived as:
a. Religious, belonging to a religious order and lived the evangelical counsels. The priests who belong to a religious community have taken vows. Their priestly ministry takes the form of the ministry appropriate to their community. A Franciscan priest, for example, travels throughout the country to give retreats. A Jesuit is concerned with educational institutions. A Maryknoll goes to foreign mission.
b. Diocesan or Secular does not belong to any religious order but under the direction of local ordinary and lived celibacy and obedience. Diocesan priests are those who serve in most parishes. Although they are celibate by church law and though they have made a promise of obedience to the bishop at their ordination, they take no vows.
B. Priesthood and The Sacrament of Holy Orders
Holy Orders, in its specific nature, is “the sacrament of apostolic ministry.” Through it is the mission entrusted by Christ to His Apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time. “Orders” in the Church usage simply means the group or body of those who carry on certain functions, such as teaching, sanctifying, and governing. Ordination is the “sacramental act of deacons.” It goes beyond a simple designation, delegation, or institution by the community since it confers a gift of the Holy Spirit, enabling the exercise of a sacred power, which can only come from Christ Himself, through His Church. (CCC 1538)
C. The Roots of Priesthood
1. Why there is Priest?
Fr. Antonio Pernia, SVD, in one of his talks to the priests and religious, traced the emergence of the idea or concept of priesthood that was basically as a mediator of somebody who is beyond humans. Human Person experienced two strong opposing currents within as he/she exists, namely:
a) the need for relatedness with God which person believes will fulfill and complete the being as humans. This need is clearly articulated by St. Augustine especially during and after his conversion, “You have created us O Lord, and we will be restless until we find rest in you.” This shows the human’s inner longing for God because the being of human person is created by God and therefore it is for God.
b) the realization that human person is unworthy to relate with God.
While human feels the need for relatedness with God, on the contrary, he also feels unworthy to this relatedness because of his sinfulness against Him. Human being realizes that God is Holy, absolutely Good, Blameless, Clean, Undefiled. Humans find themselves SINFUL, unworthy to relate to God.
Consequently, these experiences (need for relatedness and feeling of unworthiness) created a DILEMMA in human being. This was a problem besetting people for the time of the realization. How was it solved? It was noted by many theologians that humanity explored different solutions presented by different groups and/or individuals to solve the dilemma. While there is no one or single solution which totally solved the dilemma, they have found out striking observation, with all the solutions being presented, there is a common element being mentioned….and that is on the idea of a MEDIATOR, who will do the duty or obligation for God in behalf of the people in the community.
One may cite the experience or practice of the South American people before. It was said that they used to elect a child (to be killed and be burnt) to be offered to represent or act as their mediator. They purposely chose a child because it signified innocence and purity of their offering. In other words, they just wanted to ensure that their offering (who was also their mediator) was blameless and worthy of God. Consequently, they called the child-mediator as their SHAMAN (medium). The idea of Shaman as their mediator is practically the same as our idea of a PRIEST. Hence, we consider our priest also as a mediator (between God and man).
2. The Biblical Roots of Priesthood:
a. Priesthood in the Old Testament
While humanity was in a dilemma to get away with the opposing current, the Biblical people in their ingenuity guided by faith were first one to introduce the solution to the problem through the concept of MEDIATORSHIP. Mediators are middle-men who would arrange something for two parties. The Book of Leviticus profoundly exposed the role of the priests to the life of the people of Israel to become a holy nation and a priestly people.The mediator or priests in the Old Testament were the Levites, the descendants Levi. This is the special calling for those belonging to the clan of LEVI. Priesthood in the Old Testament has different elements, namely:
a.1. Elements of O.T. Priesthood:
1. Calling : (from God)
From the Jewish concept, one can be called a "priest" if he receives a special calling from God (Exodus 28: 1). The vocation to priesthood in the Old Testament was tribal by nature. Hence, belongingness to the clan of Levi is a sign that God called them to be a priest.
2. Holiness:
This is another important sign that one was called by God (according to the Jewish concept or practice) to be a priest. But the question here is that, how could one be considered holy when in fact he is primarily sinful? Because of this problem, the Jews resorted to a solution of solving this by allowing the elected or selected person to undergo the process of RITUAL CLEANSING. The Book of Exodus (3: 1-12), presented how the process of ritual cleansing was done or performed during the Biblical times. It was done following the process as follows:
i. ritual bath : symbolizes that human dirt is taken away/wash away.
ii. anointing with oil : In the OT, anointing was a sign of holiness. This is practiced during the election of a king.
iii. special vestments : symbolizes that the person now is separated from the sinful people/community.
iv. stringent laws : These were meant to preserved the holiness which is “attained/achieved” by elected persons.
After following the process, the one who underwent the process was considered HOLY.
3. Solidarity:
Another element they considered is solidarity with the people. Literally, solidarity means “to be one with the people”. The elected person, though already separated from the people (by virtue of the fact that he wears now special vestments) is in solidarity with the people through PRAYER. The priest prayed for himself and for the people in the community. In the Old Testament the Tribe of Levi was not given a portion of the land of Canaan to own but they must live together with the people and whatever is the harvest of the people will also be the harvest of the priest. This was one of the contexts why must people give 10% of the harvest to the Temple. By such act, the priest has shown solidarity with the people.
4. Offer of Sacrifice:
(Since, this is a bit lengthy discussion, this will be discussed separately in a.2)
5. Blessings:
Based on their cultural understanding and practice, after the priest has offered a sacrifice, he can consequently BLESS the people. “Blessing” in the concept of the Biblical people, refers to the experience of God’s goodness in the concrete experiences of peoples lives. This refers to the fullness of life today in this age and the age to come. Priest is an agent of the blessings that come from the intimate relationship of the people with their God.
a.2 . Two main functions of the Old Testament Priest
a.2.1 to Offer of Sacrifice
The Offer of Sacrifice on behalf of the people is the main function of the Priest as mediator. It is to be done as a faithful action to the worship of the Divine.
a. Meaning of Sacrifice:
The word "sacrifice" derives from two Latin words “sacrum” which literally means "holy or sacred" and “facere” which literally means "to make". So, the word sacrifice means “to make holy.” Following its etymological derivations means basically good.
Today, sacrifice is often associated with the ideas like to give up, painful, uncomfortable, etc. This is one of the reasons why many people can not appreciate sacrifice because we always associate it with negative experiences. What one fails to see is the fact that even in those apparently negative situations have still some positive things that one can learn from. Perhaps, each one person should start to reflect on the message of God for all even in this undesirable situation. One should be reminded that the ways of God is not the same as human’s ways of doing things. In order words, for some people, the experience of holiness can be made possible only if one will transfer from the human to the divine; from the profane to the sacred. In other words, this is a way where one can be purified in the many negative aspects of our being. That through these negative experiences, we may become better persons we should be.
b. Structure of Sacrifice:
The whole structure of the Old Testament Worship follows the structure of a) Gathering of people b) Proclamation of the word c. Offering of Sacrifice d) the commissioning of the faithful. Within the offering of Sacrifice, it follows the following structure:
a. the laying on of hands of the victim
b. killing of the victim
c. sprinkling of the blood
d. cutting of the victim into quarter
e. the burning of the offering
c. Basic Elements of Sacrifice.
The Sacrifice has
i. Victim: (representative) It represents on behalf of the people. It must be something that is worthy of God. The Victim must be a Lamb (an animal but not just any kind), at a certain age, spotless, healthy.
ii. Place: (holy place): a prescribed place: Mountain or High Place that is away from dirt. In the OT, the most holy place they considered was the TEMPLE.
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Only the HIGH PRIEST can enter in the holy of holies, but only once a year during the Feast of YUM KIPPUR (Day of Atonement: on the 10th day of the 7th month wherein the ritual offering was done). The atonement was made by applying the blood of the sin-offering on the furniture of the sanctuary and the altar. AZAZEL (‘goat’) meaning “unknown”. The goat symbolizes the National Guilt. Hence, the word “scapegoat”…. From the practice of atoning the sin of the people, we can gather the two aspects of sacrifice of the Jews namely: (1) cultic: which was done by the 'high' priest by offering the sac+rifice in the Temple; and (2) meditative: which was 'done' through the smoke which resulted from the burning of the animal after it was offered by the priest.
Iii. Offerer: this refers to the people that gathered together to make a sacrifice.
iv. Mediator: This refers to the person who middles the affair between God and the offerer. This refers to the priest who is leading the worship sacrifice.
v. Mediative element: this refers to the smoke resulting from the burning of the sacrificial victim in the altar after it was offered by the priest. The Smoke believed to be the thing that would enter into the nature of God.
a. 2.1. To Mediate
The priest functions as mediator between God and His people. He gives answer in God’s name to the questions which could not be decided by the common person e.g. the right time to go to war. As a middle-man, the priest is a means by which harmony, peace, blessings will be restored, following the covenant will be maintained and celebrated among the people and with God.
b. Priesthood in the New Testament:
1. The Priesthood of Jesus
The role of priesthood was profoundly conceptualized the Old Testament but the full embodiment of priesthood is in the Priesthood of Jesus. In the New Testament is the newness of the priesthood. It is in Jesus that the authentic meaning of priesthood is radically and concretely reinterpreted. In using the different elements of priesthood in the Old Testament the table below shows the comparison of the Old Testament Priest and the Priesthood of Jesus:
Elements | OLD TESTAMENT | NEW TESTAMENT |
1. Calling/ Vocation | a. member of the clan of Levi | a. Hb 5:1-10 –“He was appointed and called by God Himself to be the priest.” |
2.Holiness | b. through ritual cleansing | b. Hb 1:1-4 - “He is holy thru and thru” |
3.Solidarity | c. prayer (people & self) | c. Hb 2:14—“Incarnation & His Public Ministry |
4. Offer of Sacrifice | d. thru an animal in a holy sacrfice | d. Hb 10:19 - Crucifixion which culminates His daily sacrifices. |
5. Blessing | e. after | e. Hb. 7: 25 - constant |
It is known that Jesus did not belong to the tribe of Levi but to the tribe of Judah. Therefore, He did not hail from the priestly tribe but from the kingly one. But He Himself declared “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, He has anointed me…” (Luke 4:18)… and “He was appointed and called by God Himself to be the priest.” The Letter to the Hebrews attested that Jesus is the same with us in all things except sin. Jesus is Holy and blameless. The mystery of Incarnation explains the solidarity of Jesus with His People, “though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not equality with God. . . but emptied himself taking on the nature of a servant made in human likeness.” (Phil. 2:4-11) As God, Jesus came to be in solidarity with the common people particularly the poor and the outcast.
In doing the offer of sacrifice, Jesus did not just do a simple sacrifice, but it was an extraordinary sacrifice because it was the offer of His own self, own blood. Above all, the blessing that Jesus brought to humanity world and history was indeed the goodness of God restoring of the original shape of human life, human world and human history. It was a concrete blessing of life for a concrete person as He worked for the Kingdom of God.
2. The Offer of Sacrifice of Jesus
From the point of view of the elements of Sacrifice in the Old Testament, the sacrifice of Jesus is seen as:
a) The place/locus of the sacrifice of Jesus is His life on Earth. The Letter to the Hebrews (5: 7) says "on the day of his flesh". Biblical theologians believe that this phrase points to the place or locus of the sacrifice of Jesus is His human life here on earth where He encountered many trials and oppositions while preaching the Good News of salvation during His public ministry. Those sacrifices were culminated by His very shameful death on the cross. It is in this context that we can say that the priesthood of Jesus Christ was totally fulfilled through His death on the cross.
b) The victim of the sacrifice of Jesus is Jesus Himself. The victim of the sacrifice is not an animal but it was Jesus who was the victim of His own sacrifice. He is referred to as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” He was indeed the innocent victim for the atonement of sins.
c) The Mediator is also Jesus Himslef. Contrary to the Old Testament where they believed that mediator is a priest the sacrifice of Jesus was done again by Jesus himself through His total obedience and acceptance of the will of the Father for Him. Biblical theologians call it EULABES Jesus himself was the priest who offered this sacrifice.
d) The Mediative element is the Risen Jesus. Being Holy and blameless, Jesus did not need to have the smoke to enter into God. The Sacrifice was done not through a smoke but it was Jesus who entered into the nature of God. In the day of Resurrection, Jesus told Mary, “Do not touch me for I have not gone to my Father yet.” (John 20:17) At the end of forty days with his disciples “the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven and took his place at the right hand of God.” (Mark 16:19)
e) The Offerers were not only the Israelites but it was the whole human race.
Such act then was not and cannot be accepted by the Jews considering the fact that, in their offer of sacrifice during the Old Testament time, there was something to be offered (an animal); there was somebody who offered the sacrifice (the priest); and there was a holy place where the offering was offered (the Temple). This adds then to their non-acceptance of Jesus as the perfect mediator between God and man because all that Jesus did in offering His sacrifices were practically contrary to their cultural practices of the offer of sacrifice. (Take note that He was not accepted as a priest by the Jews because in the first place He did not belong to the clan of Levi).
3. Consequences of Christ’s Priesthood:
Jesus is the only Mediator between human person and God according to the Christian Faith. In this notion we may point three kinds of Priesthood then:
First, is on Christ's priesthood. This is the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Jesus was not accepted as priest in the Jewish Law because He did not belong to the tribe of Levi. He was rejected. This is a unique and exclusive priesthood of the only and divine Son of the Father. Hence, human person cannot share in this priesthood. On the basis that Jesus is the anointed one, and then we can also say that this priesthood is the priesthood of the Christ who is the sole and perfect mediator between God and human being through His very shameful but victorious death on the cross. This is also considered as the priesthood of the Head of the Church.
Second, is on Common Priesthood. As what we have already mentioned in the previous discussions, we have said that this is the priesthood of all baptized believers that we have shared in and from Jesus by virtue of our baptism. Thus, we cannot say that this is the priesthood only for and of the laity because the ministers and those who live a consecrated life also share in this priesthood. In other words, this is not to be considered as the priesthood of the "common tao" only. This is also considered as the priesthood of the Body of Christ since the Church is considered as the body of Christ.
The common priesthood is the priesthood of all believers. This is the priestly vocation of the community which is implicitly and explicitly seen to rest on the priestly work of Jesus. The community is called to offer itself as wholly and unreservedly as Jesus Christ offered Himself to God for all creation. This priesthood is what the believer shared by the virtue of Baptism.
The Common Priesthood is not the priesthood only for the laity (contrary to the common understanding of some or many people in our community), but rather it is a priesthood of every baptized believer. Thus, it includes priests and religious. This priesthood is a consequence of the priesthood of Jesus Christ by virtue of His death on the cross which consequently bridged the gap between God and man. Thus, one can assert that our need for relatedness with God is fulfilled or given to us by Jesus Christ.
In effect of this, the priesthood of Jesus Christ gives us
Ø access to God for he has bridged us back to the Father because of His death. Because of this, Jesus has also exercised his being the perfect mediator between God and man just as He showed also His ultimate and perfect priesthood.
Rom 5:1 - Now that we have been justified by faith, we are now at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph 2:18 - It is through Christ that we jews and gentiles can go to the Father.
Eph 3:12 - In union with Christ and through our faith in Him, we have the boldness to go into God’s presence with all confidence.
Hb 10:19 - We have, then, my brothers, complete freedom to go into the most holy place by means of the death of Jesus.
Hb 7:25 - And so He is able, now and always, to save those who come to God through Him, because He lives forever to plead with God for them.
Ø opportunity to offer our own sacrifice to God. That is, to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God in a form of dedicated service (Roman 12: 1) to and in the Christian community. In other words, we are asked to live a life of Christian witnessing – to bear witness of our faith and the Gospel values through our acts of genuine service to God through our fellowmen.
Rom 12:1 - “….. offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him.”
From the texts one can find that common priesthood primarily speaks of our relatedness to and with God. This relatedness is more concretized in and through the Church first through the reception of the sacrament of Baptism and then the other sacraments, most especially the Holy Eucharist. It is "common" because it is shared by and among all baptized believers who consequently share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ.
Third, is on the Ministerial Priesthood. This is a priesthood that was developed in the New Testament approximately between 150 – 200 A. D. which was consequently handed down to our priesthood today. Hence, we can say that this is a priesthood of the chosen and the ordained. And since the person receives the sacred ordination, the one who receives it exercises the priesthood of the altar and sacrifice. Ultimately, this is priesthood for service in the Christian community where the ordained person exercises Christian service in a particular ministry in and through the Church.
Christ's priesthood is "one and for all.” The Priesthood of Jesus was not bound on Himself alone. He was not exercising monopoly. He wanted to share it to those who believe in Him. Jesus’ priesthood implied to be shared by all the believers of Him.
One may ask, if we are all priests by virtue of our baptism, then why there is still a need for Ministerial Priesthood. The answer may point to following reasons as:
1. reason of its being a VOCATION. This is part of God’s plan to call people to live in this lifestyle. While other called to live a different vocation.
2. there is a SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER of ministerial priesthood.
- Can. 1008 speaks of “indelible likening to Christ….” This implies, therefore, that priest should represent Christ in the midst of the community. b.3. continuity of the preaching of the KINGDOM OF GOD.
- The universal character of the Kingdom of God implies also a ministerial need of a universal task of preaching it. Thus, we can now say that there is a desperate need to have priests to share in that task of preaching the good news to all the people till the end of time.
3. for STRUCTURAL ORDER of the CHURCH- The structure that we are talking here is very much related to the idea of the universal characteristic of the Kingdom of God. We can not deny the fact that there is really a need for unity of the universal Church, especially in relation to her teachings. This is precisely the reason why the pope needs people to share the task of preaching and teaching the people the doctrines of the Church. Perhaps, without this structural order, the tasks of teaching and preaching in the lower levels may be faced with the danger of distortion of the message the Church wants to preach and teach. Hence, affects also the need for universal unity in the Church.
In brief, we can say that a priest acts IN JESUS and THROUGH JESUS. Meaning, that Jesus is being symbolized by the priest and at the same time, by the power vested or conferred unto him, through the sacred ordination, he should consequently acts and/or performs things reflective of what Jesus did in His public ministry.
Priesthood in Salvation History
It is already realized that in the Old Testament, God called all the Israelites to “kingdom of priests, a holy nation through Moses (Ex. 19:6) while consecrating one of the twelve tribes, tribe of Levi together with Aaron’s descendants for priestly ministry (Lev. 8:1-12, Ex. 28:30) . As someone appointed to mediate people to God and offer sacrifice, the priest in the Old Testament is powerless to effect definitive salvation. For it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins (Heb 10:1-4).
It is only in the New Testament that the perfect sacrifice had ushered the final and definitive Salvation. It is in Jesus that the meaning of the priesthood had reached to its fullness. The New Testament offers four basic dimensions of Christian ministry that Catholic tradition embraced in priesthood.
1. The Priest is disciple called to follow Jesus in total commitment, undeterred even by family ties itself, hardship (the cross) or death –“let the dead bury their dead” (Mt. 8:22) and without looking back.
2. the priest is an apostle, sent to serve in the mission of Jesus and of the Church
3. the priest is called a presbyter, an elder responsible for the pastoral care of the Church members. As God’s steward, he must be blameless.
4. the priest is the presider of the Eucharist. Thus he gathers the community together for prayer and in particular, for the breaking of the bread, to proclaim the life, death and resurrection of Jesus until he comes in glory.
The Ministerial Priesthood in the Life of the Church
a) Models of Ministerial Priesthood
As the Church journeyed in history, different emphases have arisen as regards to the role of the ordained priesthood. Models are images or ideals of priesthood. The models might bring about transformation and other significant changes in the life of the Church.
1. Sacral and Cultic Model (Pre-Vatican II Era) The priest is viewed as separate from the Laity, with special powers to administer the sacraments, especially offering the Mass and hearing confessions. But this model tends to be an elitist view of the priest, with magical powers to confer the sacraments thus separating the priest from the people.
2. Ministerial or functional Model (Post Vatican II Era) Priesthood is a ministry of community leadership, which exercised in service (diakonia) rooted in Jesus’ own ministry. This broader understanding of priesthood in the Church is inspired by the rediscovery of the multiplicity of charisms and ministries present in the early Church.
3. Representational Model. The priests and Bishops, through ordination, are incorporated into the Church’s pastoral office, with new relationships to Christ and the Church. They are the authorized representative of Christ and Church – to speak in the name of the Church, and in particular circumstances, to act in Christ’s name. In non Sacramental actions the priest’s official ministry, the priest’s conformity to Christ is automatic. Priests are ordained to sacraments of Christ is such a way that they are able to act in the person of Christ the Head. (PO2) This does not mean that Christ is absent and the priest substitute Christ, on the contrary, in the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ Himself who is present and acting through the priest
b) The Role of the Priests
In the Philippine situation, Catholic Filipino priest are often challenged regarding the need of Church and priests. The late Pope John Paul II sketched the role of the ordained Priests as follows;
1. Priests are Sacraments representation of Jesus
2. The Priests are placed in the forefront of the Church
3. The Priest’s life must be marked by his fundamental attitude of service to the people of God
4. The priest must imitate Christ’s spousal love towards the Church
5. Priest performs radical communitarian commitment and is carried collectively involving triple relationship
a) hierarchical communion and necessary cooperation with the Bishop
b) with his fellow priests, because the Holy orders and common bonds of apostolic charity, ministry and charity
c) with the laity by promoting their baptismal priesthood in serving their faith, hope and charity
6. The Priest actually serves the Church as Mystery communion, and mission
a) Mystery by celebrating the sacramental presence of the Lord in the Church
b) Communion by building up the unity of the Church in the harmony of diverse vocations and charisms and services
c) Mission by making the community a herald and witnesses to the Gospel
c) The relationship of Priests and the Religious to Lay people
The Church does not assert that priest and the religious are called to be more holy than married or single persons. On the contrary, the Church today stresses that married and single lives are vocations calling for the highest possible degree of union with God and the love of others.
The Church, however, holds that priesthood and religious life are the two forms of total dedication to Christ, which serve to remind and encourage all Christians to deepen their own commitment. Priest hood and religious life are two ways of life that offer the challenge to embrace a total commitment to follow Christ and love others as Christ loves us all.
A man who decides to become a priest so because of a conviction that God has personally called him to serve other, just as Christ called the disciples. These appears to be some continuity between today’s priests and the first leaders chosen by the Apostles to serve the
d) Some Canonical Considerations:
Let us just choose those provisions which we think practical and necessary for our own purpose and level. Hence, we want to present the following provisions as follows:
a. Can. 1010 - Ordination must be on a Sunday or Holiday of Obligation.
b. Can. 1012 - The minister of the ordination is the bishop.
c. Can. 1015 - A lawful dismissorial letter granted by the bishop is a prerequisite for ordination.
d. Can. 1016 - The minister of the ordination is the bishop of his own diocese where the latter has domicile…as the former intends to devote himself.
e. Can. 1017 - A bishop may not confer ordination…outside his jurisdiction unless with the permission of the other bishop.
f. Can. 1024 - An ordained must be male baptized person.
g. Can.1025 - A candidate should be able to fulfill the following requirements: academic, physical and other qualities, and must be promoted.
h. Can.1042 - A person who has a wife, but destined to be permanently diaconate
Note: If the teacher deems it necessary, it is his/her prerogative to cite more provisions from the New Code of Canon Law (1983)
C. Conjugal Relationship: CHRISTIAN (CATHOLIC) MARRIAGE :
1. Introduction: Getting Married
Getting married is a big step which two people make in life. Ian Knox (2003) in his book “Theology for Teachers” outlines high points of human life and choosing a career or making a Life commitment as one of them. To get married is indeed to make a life commitment and majority of the citizens of the globe will choose this form of human commitment. Just as in any major stage in the course of one’s life, adequate preparation is necessary. If one takes the time and patience to prepare himself or herself for, say, an athletic competition or a simple school examination, what more preparation should one take for marriage. This calls for a serious treatment for a profound understanding of the conjugal relationship of Man and Woman in marriage.
Marriage is a life lived by a unique man and a unique woman living together in a legal and sacramental union of love. It is in this state of life that this unique man and a unique woman are bound together to perpetuate God’s design for a community.
2. Marriage and Family Life in the Philippines
Marriage and the family life in the Philippines today, as it is throughout the world, present a sharp contrast (CFC # 1876).
On the one hand, most Filipinos have a deep appreciation for personal freedom and the quality of interpersonal relationships within marriage.
a. There is a serious concern for upholding the dignity of women, the equality of spouses, and responsible family planning.
b. Filipino Christian families are brought greater awareness of their social and political responsibilities, and their mission within the Church.
c. Filipino family plays a pivotal role in the life of the individual and society – its influence is pervasive. For Filipinos, their families are their most referential group, the core of their alliance system, where they find security, strength and support. Loyalty to family and kin, family solidarity, togetherness, concern for family welfare and honor, rank high in their priorities. (NCDP # 12)
d. Marriage and family life are acknowledged as one of the highest cultural values. For Filipinos, marriage is an affair not only of two individuals nor only of two family group but also of a community or the Church.
On the other hand, in contrast to such high esteem and expectations, many discern a growing weakening of the Filipino family and marriage today brought about by many causes.
a. the modernization and secularization of marriage bond
b. the growing loss of the Christian view of sexuality (sexual revolution)
c. the general weakening of Filipino moral and family values
(Broken families, purely civil marriages, the “scourge of abortion,” sterilization, contraceptive mentality, test tube babies, artificial insemination, human cloning and many others)
N.B. – Even Church weddings seemed marked more by social display of wealth or influence, with numerous and highly placed sponsors, than by deeply religious dimension. The common overstress on “romantic love” and personal sexual fulfillment in marriage, widely popularized in mass media, makes successful “marriage in the Lord” doubly difficult for Filipino young adults today.
At a deeper level, some are concerned with the apparent gap between the official Church teaching on marriage and the family and what appears to be the common mind and practice of many ordinary Catholic Filipinos on questions – such as sexuality, divorce, indissolubility of sacramental marriages, and responsible family planning.
3. HISTORICAL-THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE:
MARRIAGE AS COVENANT OF LOVE
One overarching Christian understanding on Marriage is Marriage is a Covenant of Love. Covenant as known is an agreement between two parties binding themselves in solemn promise or oath. This covenant is made in the presence of God therefore it is sacred.
Marriage is a unique Sacrament, in that, the vocation of marriage itself is a foundational human reality built into the much created nature of man and woman, with its own profound meaning, before the teaching of any specific religion. It is unique also because the external sign is not just material things like any other sacraments but, it is the love between spouses. Among all human love relationships, none rivals the life-long commitment of total conjugal intimacy and self-giving of the married person.
The Bible reveals this natural covenant of love as the image/symbol of God, the Creator’s absolute and unfailing love. God created humans male and female. Human persons are created through God’s loving design, in the image of God who is love, and called to love one another in sharing God’s own love.
A. Marriage in the Old Testament
The sacredness of marriage is rooted in the creation narratives in the Book of Genesis. There are two accounts, Yahwist and Priestly, in this book which tell what God designs about the union of man and woman. Here are the two accounts that tell us of what we are saying:
a. “The Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone… That is why a man lives his father and mother and clings to his wife and the two of them become one body.” -Genesis 2: 18-24 (Yahwist Tradition):
1) ONE “BODY” (or Flesh)
In the Yahwist tradition, (Gen. 2) the divine purpose of Marriage is made explicit in these words “It is not good for man to be alone…I will make a suitable partner for him who is like him.” (Gen. 2:18). Man and woman are partners. That is why a man lives his father and mother, man attaches himself to the woman and the two of them become one body (24). The Biblical authors, meant not just physical unity, but the unity of two persons in all their basic human levels- physical, psychological, and spiritual, or body, mind, heart or spirit. This unity does not mean losing one’s own identity by merging with another into one personality, nor yielding to domination by the other.
The CFC points this out as personal purpose of marriage as mutual love, support, and unity of the couple. It tells that fundamental basis of Marriage is partnership (Unitive).
2) “BECOME”
“To become” implies a life-long process (only begun on their wedding day) of the gradual transformation of an “I” and a “Thou” into a “WE.” The essential condition for this “becoming one body” is the basic equality of male and female, asserted in the creation account. The unity and equality does not mean ignoring the differences and diverse gifts and characteristics of the sexes. Rather it points to the basic human capacities for knowing, willing, and free self-giving in love that arise from being created in the image and likeness of God who is love.
b. “The Lord blesses their union and orders them to be fruitful and multiply…” - Genesis 1: 26-31 (Priestly Tradition):
The two inspired accounts of creation in Genesis end giving a firm basis for understanding man and woman and their conjugal union or the basis of the institution of Marriage. The Dictionary of Biblical Theology edited by Leon-Dofour outlines emphasis of these two traditions.
While the priestly account emphasized that human being was created last as the summit of creation with dominion over all creatures. “God created man in His image . . . male and female He created them,” and blessed them saying, “Be fertile and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.” Thus marriage has the social purpose of propagating the human race by sharing in God’s own creativity (procreative).
In the Old Testament, there are two (2) basic functions of marriage namely: Preservation of the husband’s clan and the symbol of the Covenant between Yahweh and Israel.
The preservation of the clan of the husband is important among the Old Testament people. Marriage serves as the vehicle of making the clan lasts from one generation to the other. The culture of patriarchy was so strong in the Old Testament. The man is superior to the woman. On the issue on divorce for example, it was only the husband who has the right to divorce from his wife, if she has committed “something indecent” (Dt. 24:14 - which is reflective of the Mosaic Law). Whenever the husband divorces his wife, the wife then has no right for remarry. There are two rabbinical interpretations of these words “something indecent” are reflecting the culture of patriarchy:
i. Rabbi Hillel: For him, “something indecent” refers to a commission of the wife of an immoral act (like an act of adultery, etc.)
ii. Rabbi Shamai: For him, it refers to the “failure to act of what is expected of her as a wife…” ; e.g. She does not know how to cook as expected by the husband, etc. So, this interpretation involves even those trivial matters that the wife can not perform.
In their culture, the children were considered blessings or gifts from God. In fact Children are part of their concrete experience of Salvation especially if it was a son… (Gen. 24:60; Ps. 127:3). If the couple has no child through out their married life, it was considered a disgrace or a curse from God. It is therefore a vision of a couple to have children “like vine around their table.” (Psalms)
While the above-mentioned ideas (of the first function of marriage in the OT) paint to us a practically negative image of their concepts and practices of marriage, this second basic function of marriage can be considered as a redeeming aspect of the OT Jewish concepts and practices of marriage, Symbol of the Covenant between Yahweh and Israel.
As a Symbol of the Covenant between Yahweh and Israel, marriage garnered prime concern in the life of the Israelites. Considering that they anchored themselves to the belief of Yahweh, which means “Someone who makes others live” or Source of Life. To enter into marriage is to hold the sacred cradle of life. Very significantly, this function of marriage in the Old Testament was considered as the highest honor given to marriage during this time. This is given emphasis in the experience of Hosea (a prophet) and Gomer (a harlot) who unite themselves in marriage. Translating how Hosea expressed his faithfulness to the Lord by taking the challenge of marrying a woman who will be unfaithful to him, as he said, “Just as Yahweh remains faithful to Israel despite their sinfulness to Him, I am also called and challenged to love my wife faithfully as Yahweh did to Israel.”
B. Failure in Conjugal Unity and Equality
The Sacred Scripture unfolds one long account of failing to live up to this creation ideal of “becoming one body.” Genesis 3 sketches the origin of evil and its basic consequences in human marriage. It is sin and not God’s plan that changes marriage from conjugal union of equal partners into mutual accusation and dominion of one by the other. “God said to the woman: “your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be you master’” (Gen 3:16). Thus we have the start of the sad history of infidelity, adultery, divorce, broken families and all kinds of sexual disorders that destroy human dignity. (cf. CCC 1606-8
C. Marriage in God’s Plan of Redemption
God’s faithfulness to His covenant of love was unsurpassable. He marriage and family in His redemptive plan. By using marriage as a symbol of God’s covenant with His people, the Old Testament prophets had already pictured marriage as a covenant which should imitate God’s own fidelity.(Hosea 2:21ff.; Isaiah 54:4-6). “You must not break faith with the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel.” (Mal. 2:15 ff.) But it was only through Jesus Christ that the covenant of human love, symbol of God’s love for his people in Creation, could be raised to become the sacrament of the new covenant of Christ’s redemptive love” with His people.
1. The New Covenant
God’s covenant of love with His people was brought into unsurpassable heights in Jesus, the Christ. God so love the world that He gave His only Son. (Jn 3:16)
Ø Jesus is God’s covenant with His people in person: God and man united in one person.
Ø Jesus is God’s perfect Self-gift to man, and man’s loving response to God.
Ø In Jesus, the new Adam, God has redeemed all of us, members of the first Adam’s race.
Ø In Jesus, we were all baptized into one body(1Cor. 12:13) and became “members of Christ who cleansed his people in the path of water by the power of the word” (Eph. 5:26)
Thus, Jesus is the Bridegroom of God’s new covenant People who are invited to share the wedding feast in God’s Kingdom.
2. Marriage the Image of the New Covenant
Christ’s work of salvation gives proper understanding of marriage I the new covenant. How Jesus loves his people, the Church, and gives Himself up for her shed lights the covenant established in marriage. Jesus’ own teaching on marriage in His ministry went back as far as God’s original creative ideal of man and woman becoming “one body.” God fulfilled what He had promised through the prophets of old in and with Jesus, “I will give you new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes.” (Ez. 36:26f)
The late Pope John Paul II, in His Familiaris Consortio (20), developed the basic truth in focusing on one effect of the Sacrament of Marriage:
“Christ renews the first paln that the Creator had inscribed in the hearts of man and woman, and in the celebration of the Sacrament of Matrimony offers “a new heart”: thus the couple not only able to overcome “hardness of heart”: but also and above all they are able to share the full and definitve love of Christ, the new and eternal Covenant made flesh”
This is similar to that of Vatican II’s description how Christian spouses “are fortified and received a kind of consecration in the duties and dignity of their state . . . as spouses fulfill their conjugal and family obligations, they are penetrated with the Sprit of Christ, who fills their whole lives with faith, hope and charity” (GS 48). Even our Liturgy strongly upheld this in the Preface of the Wedding Mass which prays to the Father: “This outpouring love in the new covenant of grace is symbolized in the marriage covenant that seals the love of husband and wife and reflects your divine plan of love.”
3. Marriage in the New Testament
In the New Testament, Jesus brings about the fulfillment of the Old Testament understandings and practices of ‘marriage.’ Jesus even went beyond the Hebrew understandings of marriage. There are significant assertions of Jesus on the union of man and woman in marriage as follows:
1. Jesus insisted on the oneness that exists between man and woman. | Mt. 5:31, 19:3-12 | Jesus speaks of the law against divorce. |
Mt. 5:32 : | Jesus speaks that “Lewd misconduct is a separate case”. | |
2. Jesus asserted that marriage state of life is only at this age. | Mt. 12:25 | “In the Age-to-come or eternal life, there will be no more marrying…” |
3. Jesus implied that all concerns of marriage must yield to the claims of the second coming. | Mt. 9:15 ; MT 2:9 Mt 25:1-13 ; Jn 3:29 | The messianic coming is compared to a wedding feast… |
In addition, St. Paul had entered into Jesus’ understanding on marriage in his preaching to the different Churches in his missionary journey. He also gave assertions about marriage.
1. Symbol of Christ’s union with His Church | Eph. 5:21-23 | “Wives should be submissive to their husbands as if the Lord because the husband is heard of his wife just as Christ is head of His body, the Church…” |
2.Renounce marriage in favor of virginity. | 1 Cor. 7:32-35 | “I should like you to be free of all worries……The unmarried man is busy with the Lord’s affairs; concerned with what is pleasing to the Lord…I have no desire to place restrictions on you; But I do want to promote what is good, what will help you to deviate yourselves entirely in To the Lord.” |
This understanding of Christ’s teaching on marriage as new “covenant of love” is confirmed in St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians “Christ is the head of His body, the Church”. The key message is: the covenant between man and woman is seen as the image of the covenant between Christ and the Church. Husband and wives, therefore, should love and act toward each other as Christ loves and treats us, his Church. Hence, reverence for Christ.” All domination by one partner over the other is thus directly rejected.
The mutual giving way to one another as husband and wife is supported, not denied contrary to a common misreading, “the husband is the head of his wife.” Why because he is the head “just as Christ is the head of the Church. Now Christ defines his headship as service: “The Son of man has not come to be served but to serve – to give his life the ransom for the many.” So Christ showed he is the head of the Church in that he “loved the Church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25)
The mutual giving way to one another is precisely out of reverence for Christ.” The profound basis for this mutual “giving way” is the incredible truth of Revelation that the marriage covenant between man and woman is “a great mystery foreshadowing of the covenant between Christ and the Church. Christ covenant is clearly one of pure love and self-sacrifice. Therefore, “out of reverence for Christ, whose covenant with the Church is symbolized in the marriage covenant of man and woman, “each of you should love his wife as himself, the wife for her part showing respect for her husband.”
THE THREE GOODS OF MARRIAGE
Grounded in the understanding that Marriage is a covenant, St. Augustine spoke of the three goods of marriage as OFFSPRING, MUTUAL LOVE/FIDELITY AND THE SACRAMENT. In the Church these are considered as values.
A. MARRIAGE AS SACRAMENT
The Catholic Tradition has recognized “marriage of the baptized as one of the seven ritual sacraments of the New Covenant” Marriage is seen as
a) an on-going saving symbolic action
b) grounded in the ministry of Christ and continued in and through the Church, which
c) when proclaimed, realized and celebrated in faith
d) makes present and actually shares in, God’s love and faithfulness in jesus Christ, in the pattern of his Paschal Mystery.
1.) Sacrament: Rite and On-going married Life
In speaking of Marriage as a Sacrament, we must be clear that it refers to two essential things: a) SACRAMENTAL CELEBRATION OF MARRIAGE and b) THE ON-GOING MARRIED LIFE. The Sacrament of Marriage begins when a man and a woman stand before God and their fellow men and women, and freely and publicly declare, in one for or another,
“to be of one heart and one soul, from this day forward for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”
This declaration does not start their love relationship – presumably they have been in love with each other for quite some time already. What they are doing is publicly vowing their exclusive and permanent love relationship, making it a sacrament, a public, efficacious sign of Christ’s redemptive love to each other, their offspring, and their community.
2.) Getting Married in the Church
There is an impression today that getting married in the Church is merely a social custom or personal preference or even of financial considerations. But real marriage in the Church is none of these. Rather, it is the solemn entry of the spouses into a binding commitment before God and the Christian community, declaring, “We love one another and want our love to last forever. We ask you to respect this commitment and help us keep it.”
This brings out sharply the fundamental “untruth” inherent in “trial marriages or “free unions” (living-in) which attack both the intrinsic dignity of the person, and the truth of their relationships in the community. The many religious, moral and social problems caused such unions present a major pastoral challenge to the Church in the Philippines today.
Why get married in the Church? The key answer is CHRIST. For truly believing Christians entry into and perduring in the most important relationship of their lives could not possibly succeed except through, with and in Christ their Lord and Savior. Christ’s presence and concern for Christian spouses is beautifully pictured in John‘s Gospel account of the Wedding at Cana (Jn 2:1-12) where he saved the married couple from embarrassment by changing water into wine. This was the first of his signs and so he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.
Besides the wedding ceremony, there is the second meaning of marriage in a sacrament: the on-going married life of the couple. Couples preparing for marriage are frequently reminded: “Marriage is a process, not a state, a beginning, not an end; a threshold, not a goal. The Marriage Certificate is a learner’s permit, not a diploma. When a couple entered into marriage it embraces the longest prayer that ever said in married life “I DO.” It is the I do of everything that will happen in married life. It must be clarified that the realism of what is affirmed of marriage as a sacrament. Marriage is not just a celebration that “points to”, “witnessed to” Christ’s love. Rather, Christ really gives himself to the married couple in and through their on-going mutual self-giving love.
3.) Marriage: the Sign of Christ
Christ as the primordial Sacrament, then, is doubly associated with marriage, as with other ritual Sacraments, He both grounds and provides the basis for Christian marriage, and is himself the fullest exemplification of the spiritual reality symbolized: God’s perfect covenant of Love of His people. Jesus himself is God’s covenant “in person” THE LOVER, just as we saw he is Baptized One, The Confirmed ONE, The Really Present One, the Reconciler, the Healer, and of course the Priest.
4.) The Sacrament of the Church
The Church is the Foundational Sacrament, making the Risen Christ concretely present in history through its ritual sacraments to the members of his Body. Christian marriage and family life are said to constitute the Church miniature, the “domestic Church,” the Christian family. There are specific similarities between the Christian family and the Church are instructive.
1) both the Church as People of God and the Christian family are communities united together in love through the power of the holy Spirit under the Lord Jesus Christ.
2) the members of both the Church an the family are called to constant growth in loving communion with one another and with Christ – a maturing process of constant conversion involving purification
3) Both Church and family worship and share, the mission of Jesus
4) Both family and the Church are pilgrim people
B. CONJUGAL LOVE AND FIDELITY
Marriage and family are founded and given life by love in order to live with fidelity and reality of communion. Without love the family cannot live grow and perfect itself as a community of persons. But the over-riding problem here is: what precisely is true love?
1) Love in Christian Marriage
Love in Christian Marriage refers not to any superficial, romanticized sentiment, but to the deepest, most fundamental reality of human life. As human persons we all strive for fulfillment through pursuit of material, psychological, and spiritual goods. But we find fulfillment only when accepted as person, only in personal love. Only Such love affirms us in our basic human dignity, anchors to the unity of the nature of our God as community because it accepts us in our very selves . . . allows us to be truest and fullest self.
2) Married Love as Friendship
Friendship is our most unselfish enduring mutual love, grounded on our free, unshakable commitment to the other’s sake, not for our own good. Conjugal love is friendship and married couples are friends. Friendship brings about the fundamental equality of the partners in sharing not just physically but on all levels of their mind and spirit.
3) Practical implication of Married Love
Conjugal love does not come about automatically, nor by chance. Partners have:
Ø To work at fostering unity between their real (not romantic idealized) Selves
Ø To grow in faith in each other not only by avoiding adultery. It is trust, love and believing in the worth of one’s partner and in the union of marriage that matters
Ø To respond maturely to the on-going changes that occur in the life of the person
Ø To develop the ability of community with each other on ever deepening personal levels.
4) The Graced Conjugal Love
Conjugal love has two aspects: First is the integration of their sexuality into the married couple’s personal bond of love. Second is that authentic conjugal love in integrated into the mutual social, economic, psychological and cultural conditions of the partners
5) Marriage Fidelity and Indissolubility
The very nature of authentic conjugal love of spouses is constant fidelity. Permanent conjugal love is indeed possible. This is the sacramental grace of marriage. Although it is recognized that fidelity and permanence are threatened with the currents of the times, but it is the
C. Serving Life: Offspring
1920 Today many authors emphasize how Vatican II offered a profoundly renewed and deepened exposition of marriage as “intimate partnership of life and love… rooted in the conjugal covenant of love of irrevocable personal consent” (GS 48). This stress on “Covenant” rather than merely “contract” and “personal” as well as “institutional”, “provided a helpful balance. This balance was also fostered by the Council’s careful avoidance of the common distinction between procreation and conjugal support as primary and secondary ends of marriage respectively.
1921. What unfortunately receives much less emphasis is the Council’s clear insistence on all the traditional aims of marriage. “For God Himself is the author of marriage and has endowed it with various benefits and with various ends in view: all these have very important bearing on:
- the continuation of the human race
- the personal development and eternal destiny of the individual members of a family, and
- the dignity, stability, peace, and prosperity of the family and of the whole human race” (GS 48)
The Council then immediately explicitates the focus on offspring: “By their very nature, the institution of marriage itself and conjugal love are ordained for the procreation and education of children, and find them their ultimate crown” (GS 48; cf. CCC 1652-54, 2366-67)
III. INTEGRATION OF MARRIAGE GOALS
1922. What the Council has done is to bring together the unitive and procreative goals of marriage: conjugal love and offspring. “Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward begetting and educating children. Indeed children are the supreme gift of marriage and greatly contribute to the good of the parents themselves” (GS 50; cf. CCC 2373, 2378). This union is based on nature of conjugal love, which
While leading the spouses to [become] “one flesh” does not end with the couple. It makes them capable of the greatest possible gift, the gift by which they become cooperators with God for giving life to a new human person … a living reflection of their love, a permanent sign of conjugal unity and a living and inseparable synthesis of their being a father and a mother.
A. Family Planning
1923. Many Filipino Catholics today are misled in thinking that the Church is against all family planning. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The CBCP issue a pastoral letter “Love is life” (1990), and clear “Guiding Principles on Population Control” (1990).
The Church teaches the need for responsible parenthood (cf. CC 2368-72, 2399). This means, among other things, that couples should bring into the world generously only the children whom they can raise up as good human beings. The decision on the number of children rests solely on the parents - no one can make that decision for them. But it is a decision they must make according to their formed Christian conscience, “ with a sense of their responsibility to each other, to their children already born and still to be born, to God,” and in view of Church teaching. The Church advocates only Natural Family Planning, rejecting all artificial means of contraception and the contraceptive mentality that selfishly avoids offspring because of refusing responsibility for children (cf. PCP II 584f).
1924. But marriage “fruitfulness” or the “service of life” extends beyond procreation and education of offspring.
Even when procreation is not possible, conjugal love does not for this reason lose its virtue. Physical sterility, in fact, can be for the spouses the occasion for other important services of the life of the human person, for example, adoption, various forms educational work, and assistance to other families and to poor or handicapped children.
The important truth here is that authentic personal love is never egotistical or turned in on itself. Even when the spouse’s immediate reason for conjugal love intercourse is to deepen their own life together and mutual love, there is indirect benefit to others in the family and the larger immediate community.
For Christians, marriage and family are not “ private” realities, but always involve the larger community and society.
B. Vocation of Married Life
1925. Beyond all that has already been said, we realize that marriage as authored by God is a vocation, a call to share in God’s own life of love, as revealed to us in Christ Jesus, and present among us in His Body, the Church. The most common human experience we have of God who is love is our human loves and friendships. Within all human friendships, the married love of spouses is recognized as the natural paradigm. The Bible reveals that this marriage friendship among Christians is the sacrament of that is, reveals and makes present – God’s love for His people, and Christ’s love for his Church. In this sense, Christian marriage can be sad to be the “basic sacrament” of God’s saving presence among us.
1926. Marriage, then, is a vocation to fuller life in Christ, in love that is sealed, purified, deepened and strengthened by the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of the Father and the Risen Christ. Vatican II stressed that “all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love, and by this holiness a more human manner of life is fostered also in earthly society” (LG 40). As a sacrament, marriage is the specific source and original means of sanctification for Christian married couples and families. It makes specific the sanctifying grace of Baptism” (FC 56).
IV. MARRIAGE SPIRITUALITY
1927. Married couples and parents have “their own proper path to holiness by faithful love, sustaining one another in grace all through their lives” and forming their children” in Christian truths and evangelical virtues (LG 41). This authentic and profound conjugal and family spirituality” (FC 56) is lived out in the quality of the marital and family relationships, marked by fidelity, a spirit of mutual respect and readiness to forgive, generous service and prayer. Fidelity in married life, for example, consists primarily not in the negation of adultery, but in the positive growth in deepening faith and trust in each another.
1928. Marriage spirituality needs to be specified more concretely in the essentials of living out the life of Faith in Jesus Christ today. PCP II decreed that diocesan family should be established to develop “the Filipino elements of a general spirituality of Christian marriage (PCP II Decrees, Art 46,2). In the family, “the spirituality of the Christian is nurtured and rooted in the Word of God and fins its Filipino expression (PCP II 421).
Numerous books and pamphlets on Christian married and family life, which draw mostly on current psychological and behavioral science insights, are very popular and helpful. But more local catechetical material solidly grounded in up-to-date Catholic Theology is needed to work towards “closing the gap” between the lofty theory of marriage proposed in Church teaching, and the ordinary, everyday family life of Filipino Catholics. One such approach, as developed from Christ’s life and ministry presented in the Gospels and carried on in the life of the Church, is sketched in the following paragraphs.
A. Marriage and the Kingdom of God
1929. Christ came preaching the Kingdom of God, a “Kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace” (Preface of Christ the King). Inheriting Christ’s own mission in fostering the Kingdom, the Church announces the “Good News” to draw the whole human family into personal communion with God through Jesus Christ. Christian marriage and family are the key factors in this mission. It is especially through the everyday give-and-take of family life that most Filipinos have some concrete experience of God’s Kingdom, already here but not yet fully.
1930. The Truth of God’s Kingdom is not just avoiding lies, but sharing one’s own ideas, feelings, hopes, and sorrows, as well as really listening to one another. Life in all its physical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions arises from married and family communion, as do all the concrete sanctifying acts that initiate the holiness of the family members and their experience of God’s grace-filled presence. Justice and peace are first imbibed within the love received and offered within the immediate family, and gradually extended to the community and society in general.
B. The Ministry of Marriage
1931. While focusing on the laity’s role and life in the church, PCP II stressed the “pivotal role the family plays in renewing the Christian life and in forming communities of the Lord’s disciples ….In the family the various ministries in the Church are awakened and cultivated” (PCP II 421). To emphasize the family as an “evangelizing agent”, the Council, following John Paul II, detailed four tasks of the Christians family to reveal and communicate the love of God.
1) forming a community of persons,
2) serving life through the procreation and education of offspring,
3) participating in the development of society and
4) sharing in the mission of the Church
1932. More specifically, Christians spouses minister to each other by strengthening each other’s faith, supporting, counseling, and easing each other’s burden in healing and comforting. They minister to their children , most of all by having a lasting loving relationship with each other that establishes a sound family atmosphere. In relating to their children, parents must not only take care of them physically, but also provide for their religious formation. “The Family is meant by God to be the first school of discipleship where the parents are the first catechists of their children and where all members mutually evangelize each other… and learn to share with others the grace and light of Christ” (PCP II 576). In everyday actions, this demands that the parents accept to be present to each of their children as unique persons, and throughout the various stages of their growth.
1933. Finally, the Christian family ministers to the wider community PCP II warns of “family unity based solely on ties of flesh and blood,” and consequently “insensitive to the greater demands of the common good” (PCP II 582). The truth is that, not only is the family the first and vital cell of society with basic social and political roles (FC 42ff), but “the Christian family is called upon to take part actively and responsibly in the mission of the Church in a way that is original and specific … and intimate community life and love’ at the service of the Church and society” (FC 50). The Christian family exercises this ministry through its relation to Jesus Christ as Prophet, Priest and King as
- a believing and evangelizing community
- a community of mutual sanctification in worshipful dialogue with God; and
- a community at the service of man through Christ’s new commandment of love (Ibid).
C. In the Pattern of the Paschal Mystery
1934. We have seen how married love is the “sacrament” of “Christ who loved the Church and gave himself up for her” (Eph 5:25). Christ solemnly proclaimed: “this is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life. Life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:12f). Actually, St. John tells us that “the way we must lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 Jn 3:16). Thus, for us Christians, all authentic love, and especially the primary model of conjugal and family love, follows the Paschal pattern of dying to rise to new life. The consequence of this Paschal nature of love is expressed in the Gospel’s will preserve it” (MK 8:35).
1935. This Paschal pattern of love is stressed by John Paul II: “by marriage the spouses are made part of the mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ in a new way” (FC 56). In the concrete, this means that the spouses relative to each other, and parents relative to their children, are called to die their own selfish egotism to rise being “for the other” in covenantal love. Daily they have to strive:
- to die to their own amor propio and over –sensitivity, to rise to mature communion in reaching out;
- to die romantic illusions and naïve dreams, to rise to open – hearted forgiveness and reconciliation
- to die to self –centered independence and intolerance, to rise to mature cooperation and self-sacrifice
D. Marriage and the Eucharist
1936 Vatican II directed that “marriage is normally to be celebrated within the Mass” (SC 78) since “in the Eucharist Sacrifice of the New and Eternal Covenant Christian spouses encounter the source from which their own marriage covenant flows and is continuously renewed” (FC 57). As the presentation of Christ’s sacrifice of love, the Eucharist provides the Christian family with the living foundation and soul of its “communion” and its “mission”. Sharing in the Eucharistic bread both draws the family members together “to become one body, which reveals and shares in the wider unity of the Church,…and becomes a never-ending source of missionary and apostolic dynamism for the Christian family” (Ibid).
1937 The Eucharist is a model for Christian marriage because it is the personal loving self-gift of Christ to his beloved disciples in the shared consecrated bread and wine, around the Table of the Lord. So marriage the mutual personal loving self-gift of the spouses to each other in two basic ways: at table through shared meals, and in the marriage act of sexual intercourse. Both the Eucharist and the married spouses’ sexual intercourse involve the giving and receiving of the human body in a life –giving way. Both are acts of union “already” in the present, but promising a fuller unity “not yet” achieved. In both the participants are drawn to God because ultimately they are “gifts” from the God not “duties” which one has to perform. In the authentic Catholic view, then, marital intercourse is a God – given means of drawing closer to God and to Christ- to real sanctity and holiness – not an obstacle to it.
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