Question:
I would like to know if it appears anywhere in any of the Gospels that Christ did not have a wife. Thank you very much.
Answer:
Jesus Christ was a virgin. It can be said that this truth appears in the four Gospels where, giving many details of the life of Christ (more than many suppose) there is never any mention or allusion that Jesus Christ was married.
More explicitly, tradition has always seen an allusion to his state of consecrated virginity in Mt 19:10-12 where Jesus Christ speaks of virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and affirms: whoever is capable of such a doctrine, let him follow it. Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus Christ propose anything to the free will of men without first setting an example himself. That is why St. Peter says: [he left] you an example, so that you should follow in his steps (1 Pet. 2:21).
It is also expressed in Revelation 14:4, when it says that those who follow the Lamb (Christ) wherever he goes are those who have not defiled themselves with women, because they are chaste. Those who are virgins have special merit and can follow the Virgin Lamb.
It is also a teaching of the Magisterium, never questioned at any time in the history of the Church. Curiously, no heresy has affirmed until our time that Jesus Christ was married (until our time, where it has appeared in the neo-Gnostic and radical feminist versions which invented the myth of the Magdalene being married to Christ; but we will talk about this elsewhere).[1] Some have denied that He was God (Arius), that He had two natures (monophysites), or that the Church founded by Him was the Catholic Church (reformers), etc…, but no one denied His virginity. So, it seems evident!
For this reason St. John Paul II says: “Christ lives his life as a virgin, even while affirming and defending the dignity and sanctity of married life. He thus reveals the sublime excellence and mysterious spiritual fruitfulness of virginity.”[2]
I provide you with two magnificent texts.
The first is from Pius XII in the Encyclical Sacra Virginitas: “ As for those men ‘who were not defiled with women, being virgins’, the Apostle John asserts that, ‘they follow the Lamb wherever he goes.’ Let us meditate, then, on the exhortation Augustine gives to all men of this class: ‘You follow the Lamb because the body of the Lamb is indeed virginal. . . Rightly do you follow Him in virginity of heart and body wherever He goes. For what does following mean but imitation? Christ has suffered for us, leaving us an example, as the Apostle Peter says ‘that we should follow in his footsteps’. Hence all these disciples and spouses of Christ embraced the state of virginity, as St. Bonaventure says, “in order to become like unto Christ the spouse, for that state makes virgins like unto Him.’ It would hardly satisfy their burning love for Christ to be united with Him by the bonds of affection, but this love had perforce to express itself by the imitation of His virtues, and especially by conformity to His way of life, which was lived completely for the benefit and salvation of the human race. If priests, religious men and women, and others who in any way have vowed themselves to the divine service, cultivate perfect chastity, it is certainly for the reason that their Divine Master remained all His life a virgin. St. Fulgentius exclaims: ‘This is the only-begotten Son of God, the only-begotten Son of a virgin also, the only spouse of all holy virgins, the fruit, the glory, the gift of holy virginity, whom holy virginity brought forth physically, to whom holy virginity is wedded spiritually, by whom holy virginity is made fruitful and kept inviolate, by whom she is adorned, to remain ever beautiful, by whom she is crowned, to reign forever glorious.’”[3]
The second text is from Paul VI in Sacerdotalis Caelibatus: “Christ remained throughout His whole life in the state of celibacy, which signified His total dedication to the service of God and men […] He promised a more than abundant recompense to anyone who should leave home, family, wife and children for the sake of the kingdom of God. More than this, in words filled with mystery and hope, He also commended an even more perfect consecration to the kingdom of heaven by means of celibacy, as a special gift. The motive of this response to the divine call is the kingdom of heaven; similarly, this very kingdom, the Gospel and the name of Christ motivate those called by Jesus to undertake the work of the apostolate, freely accepting its burdens, that they may participate the more closely in His lot. To them this is the mystery of the newness of Christ, of all that He is and stands for; it is the sum of the highest ideals of the Gospel and of the kingdom; it is a particular manifestation of grace, which springs from the Paschal mystery of the Savior. This is what makes the choice of celibacy desirable and worthwhile to those called by our Lord Jesus.Thus they intend not only to participate in His priestly office, but also to share with Him His very condition of living.”[4]
Fr. Miguel A. Fuentes, IVE
[1] Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code, (New York, Doubleday, 2003)
[2] St. John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, no. 22.
[3] St. Pius XII, Sacra Virginatas, no. 19.
[4] St. Paul VI, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, no. 21-23.
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