Consecrated Life in Eden?

[onegirlinchrist]

Hi All,

If the Fall had not happened, would there have been consecrated life (priests and nuns) in the Garden of Eden?

Or would life in the Garden of Eden have involved human marriage for everyone?

If the latter is true, then is it fair to say that people called to the consecrated life are experiencing a “Plan B” of sorts since they were created originally for human marriage? Does this account for why people struggle discerning the call to religious life? In a way, consecrated life calls us to desire something we were not originally created to do? (i.e. forego human marriage)?

 

[Della]

Adam was the consecrated head of the human race. It was his “ministry” to be holy and to serve God as the example for his family and all who were to come after him.

God knew from all eternity that Adam would fall, so there is no “Plan B” for God to fall back on. Those consecrated as ministers of the sacraments are acting as second Adams, as Jesus is the Second Adam, for their ministry is in him.

Marriage has nothing to do with being consecrated or not consecrated. Remaining celibate is a discipline of the Church that in no way impedes a man’s call to ordination. Religious remain celibate so they can live in community and serve God only, not because they had to overcome the urge to get married in order to enter the religious life.

 

[Stephen_says]

Hi All,

If the Fall had not happened, would there have been consecrated life (priests and nuns) in the Garden of Eden?

Or would life in the Garden of Eden have involved human marriage for everyone?

If the latter is true, then is it fair to say that people called to the consecrated life are experiencing a “Plan B” of sorts since they were created originally for human marriage? Does this account for why people struggle discerning the call to religious life? In a way, consecrated life calls us to desire something we were not originally created to do? (i.e. forego human marriage)?

Hi!

I would say yesno. Everything I am about to say can be used in a perfect Eden and in today’s world

1. God made us in his image. What is his image? Love is his image. We are made IN love TO love God and each other.
2. Therefore, we each have a calling to love.
3. We are each made with individual talents (See 1 Corinthians 12). Our talents must be used to love most authentically (See 1 Corinthians 13). So how has God made someone to love most authentically? Do they love most authentically by service to one single other person and their mutual children for their whole life, or do they love most authentically by devoting their whole life to the service of others generally? This is discernment.
4. I believe that in Eden, not everyone would be married, and they would take to their ministries EASIER than we do now.
5. I do not think we would have Priest, because in a perfect Eden we would not need the sacraments. I think it would be more like Brothers and Monks and Nuns and Sisters.

Peace

 

[Mintaka]

If we had not fallen, Jesus would not have had to die in order to give us eternal life. He probably would have just given us fruit from the Tree of Life.

So yeah, we wouldn’t have needed a priest, per se. Jesus would probably still have been our mediator, though.

Not marrying in order to serve God is an imitation or foretaste of eternal life in Heaven, so it’s logical that some unfallen humans would have been called to that way of life.