Sunday, January 8, 2017

Amoris Laetitia - Par. 161



161.  The value of virginity lies in its symbolizing a love that has no need to possess the other; in this way it reflects the freedom of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Virginity encourages married couples to live their own conjugal love against the backdrop of Christ's definitive love, journeying together towards the fullness of the Kingdom.  For its part, conjugal love symbolizes other values.  On the one hand, it is a particular reflection of that full unity in distinction found in the Trinity.  The family is also a sign of Christ.  It manifests the closeness of God who is a part of every human life, since he became one with us through his incarnation, death and resurrection.  Each spouse becomes "one flesh" with the other as a sign of willingness to share everything with him or her until death.  Whereas virginity is an "eschatological" sign of the risen Christ, marriage is a "historical" sign for us living in this world, a sign of the earthly Christ who chose to become one with us and gave himself up for us even to shedding his blood.  Virginity and marriage are, and must be, different ways of loving.  For "man cannot live without love.  He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him".171

171 Id., Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979), 10: AAS 71 (1979), 274.

© LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA.


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