Marriage And Virginity

 "With regard to those who remain virgins, I have no special commandment from the LORD, but I give some advice, hoping that I am worthy of trust by the mercy of the LORD.

I think this is good in these hard times in which we live.  It is good for someone to remain as he is.  If you are married, do not try to divorce your wife; if you are not married, do not marry.  He who marries does not sin, nor does the young girl sin who marries.  Yet they will face disturbing experiences, and I would like to spare you.

I say this, brothers and sisters: time is running out, and those who are married must live as if not married; those who weep as if not weeping; those who are happy as if they were not happy; those buying something as if they had not bought it, and those enjoying the present life as if they were not enjoying it.  For the order of this world is vanishing." - 1 Corinthians 7:25-31 

(A new question to which Paul must reply.  In Corinth, a city with a bad reputation where thousands of prostitutes lived in the vicinity of the temple of Aphrodite [as was the custom with pagans] the new community was discovering the way of virginity.

Choosing chastity "for the kingdom of GOD" is not a way of gaining time and freedom for apostolic work: it is taking a direction that opens to the love of GOD with new possibilities.  Paul defends this choice he himself made.  If CHRIST, to whom we are consecrated by Baptism, is a living person, present to us, if HE is the Spouse [Mark 2:19], the choice is valid, even if for most people it looks as strange as voluntary poverty.

Paul's response goes further than the question of the Corinthians when he adds: time is running out.  He points to much more than a prompt return of CHRIST, familiar to the first Christians.  The coming of JESUS has shortened time in a figurative way: we can no longer settle down in the present world as we did before when we could see no further than the present.  We are entirely turned towards what is to come.  A Christian lives in the present, but all that matters most for him comes in the "after."  Let us not argue with Paul as if he were reasoning on the consequences of the certain coming of JESUS CHRIST: he is not theologizing but speaks like someone already possessed by CHRIST.

Paul then points out that all Christian commitments are likely to cause division for those who wish to live according to the logic of their Baptism, seen as a total consecration to CHRIST.  Married life or family life can present many obstacles to spiritual freedom and apostolic desires: see the words of JESUS in Mark 10:29.)    

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