The Holy Martyr Luppus; The Holy Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons.
Leave-taking of the Dormition.
1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Matthew 19:3-12.
Read Matthew 19:3-12
Christians, particularly in our time, wrestle with the words of Christ on marriage and celibacy. The Lord’s teaching in Matthew 19 is not a set of rigid prescriptions, but a call to discernment before God, a call to freedom that is both demanding and very much life-giving.
St. John Chrysostom taught: “Virginity is something superhuman, and the fruit of it is not in this life, but in that which is to come.” Yet he also stressed that marriage is a path of holiness no less real. In the Eastern tradition, we see both states as two sides of the one coin: the Crowning of spouses before the Lord and the community, and the hidden asceticism of the monk or nun, both manifest the same mystery: that human love finds its fulfillment when oriented towards God through self-gift. In both states, this love is meant to become an icon to the love of the Divine Bridegroom—Our Lord Jesus Christ—for His Church. One is more oriented towards present transformative, while the other is a more prophetic sign of the coming Kingdom.
The disciples were startled by Christ’s words: “Not all men can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given”(Mt 19:11). Our Lord states that the presence of the Kingdom makes new possibilities real. Virginity was not humanly possible before the coming of our Lord, but through God’s grace, the impossible becomes a radical sign of the nearness of the Kingdom. The honest embrace of marriage in fidelity, or celibacy for the sake of Christ, is a humble submission to the will of God.
St. Basil the Great reminds us: “The love of God is not divided, whether one lives in marriage or in virginity, but the one thing needful is to place everything in God.” These words continue to be a timeless reminder that every state of life becomes Eucharistic when offered in obedience and love.