THE CHRISTIAN VOCATIONS

    Only by understanding who man is originally, historically, and eschatologically can we understand how man is to live. In other words, having outlined an "adequate anthropology," the door is now opened to a proper understanding of the Christian vocations of celibacy and marriage.

Those who are celibate "for the sake of the kingdom" (Mt 19:12) are choosing to live in the heavenly marriage on earth. In a way, they're "skipping" the sacrament in anticipation of the real thing. By doing so, they step beyond the dimension of history - within the dimension of history - and declare to the world that the kingdom of God is here (Mt 12:28). Authentic Christian celibacy, then, is not a rejection of sexuality or a devaluation of marriage. It's the expression on earth of its ultimate purpose and meaning!

As a vocation to holiness, marriage is meant to prepare men and women for heaven. But in order for it to be adequate heaven preparation, the model must accurately image the divine prototype. The sacramentality of marriage, then, consists in the manifesting of the eternal mystery of God in a "sign" that serves not only to proclaim that mystery, but also to accomplish it in the spouses (see Sep 8, 1982).

All of married life constitutes this sign. But nowhere is this sign more dramatically manifested than when husband and wife become "one flesh." Just as the body expresses the soul of a person, the "one body" that spouses become in conjugal intercourse expresses the "soul" of their married life. "Indeed the very words 'I take you to be my wife - my husband,'" the Pope says, "can be fulfilled only by means of conjugal intercourse" (Jan 5, 1983).