Marital Aspects of Religious Life (original) (raw)

In religious life members live in community, permanently vowing the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. In marriage, a man and woman exchange vows and consent, permanently committing to both the ends of having and educating children, and supporting one another (Cahall 2014, 104-105). Both of these commitments are community-based and lifelong, yet while marriage is an "intimate partnership of life and love" (GS 48), religious life "derives from the mystery of the Church," that it may "show forth Christ and acknowledge herself to be the Savior's bride. Religious life in its various forms is called to signify the very charity of God in the language of our time" (CCC 926). It is therefore apparent that while religious life is not the same thing as holy matrimony, it nonetheless represents an equivalently allencompassing commitment, even a "marriage" in verisimilitude. What follows then offers context and reflection on different marital aspects of religious life, that it may be better understood as a marital commitment in its own right. First I refer to scripture, in which the bases for each commitment are rooted. In a Christian context, marriage is by far the elder, described in Genesis 2:21-25:

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