Celibacy for the Kingdom of Godby Father Joseph LoJacono IVE

Questions to Ponder

1. What is a “eunuch for the Kingdom”?

2. Why does the world generally scorn celibacy?

3. Why is Christian celibacy (properly understood and lived) not as a rejection of sexuality, but a living out of the deepest meaning of sexuality?

4. Why does the world see marriage as a legitimate outlet for lust? What are the ramifications of this?

5. How does an understanding of “redeemed sexuality” (where our way of seeing the world is actually changed towards that which is true, good, and beautiful) affect your view of celibacy?

6. How can someone commit “adultery in the heart” with his or her own spouse?

Matthew 19:12

►"For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it."

What does it mean to be a eunuch for the kingdom of God?

The World says Celibacy is missing some part of humanity

and must be bad

Celibacy is a sign that sex is not the ultimate fulfillment

Ecstasy of Saint TeresaBy Gian Lorenzo Bernini

The two central sculptural figures of the swooning nun

and the angel with the spear derive from an episode

described by St. Theresa of Avila, a mystical cloistered

Discalced Carmelite reformer and nun, in her

autobiography, „The Life of Teresa of Jesus‟ (1515–1582).

Her experience of religious ecstasy in her encounter with

the angel is described as follows:

“I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's

point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to

be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my

very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw

them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love

of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and

yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain,

that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied

now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but

spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a

caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between

the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make

him experience it who may think that I am lying.”

From Chapter XXIX; Part 17, St. Teresa's Autobiography

The World cannot understand divine love. It is a mockery to them

The Lie (Bernini's St Theresa)

LyricsArtist: Peter Hammill

Album: The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage

The Joy of religious Life

Celibacy points to the reality that there is a greater fulfillment in heaven than anything we can experience on earth

King Arthur's Tomb - The Last Meeting of Lancelot and Guinevere. Artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

What does mean to say a religious sister is a bride of Christ?

Marriage is only a sacrament pointing toward the union in heaven

Beatrice Meeting Dante at a Marriage Feast, Denies Him Her Salutation (1855)

Dante uses Beatrice as his ideal of love who helps give him a tour of the heavenly realities, but must leave him when he encounters the true Love of heaven.

Beatrice leading Dante into the heavenly realms

Pope-Hennessy, John. Paradiso. The Illuminations of Dante's Divine Comedy by Giovanni di Paolo. NY: Random, 1993. p. 74

Dante’s Circle 3 of heaven Venus showing her two sons cupid and amor

Pope-Hennessy, John. Paradiso. The Illuminations of Dante's Divine Comedy by Giovanni di Paolo. NY: Random, 1993. p. 97

The highest seat of God the Empyrean Heaven in Dante’s Paradiso

Beatrice Disappears for human love must make way for that which is beyond it

There will be no sacraments in heaven for we will know the communion in love to which they point us

Pope-Hennessy, John. Paradiso. The Illuminations of Dante's Divine Comedy by Giovanni di Paolo. NY: Random, 1993. p. 177