“Star Trek and Virginal Divinization” © by Katrina J. Zeno, MTS

One of my favorite ways to refer to St. John Paul II is “the Star Trekkie of the Catholic World.” For many of us, the mission of the Starship Enterprise is etched into our minds: “To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Captain Kirk, Spock, and “beam-me-up Scotty” invited us to accompany them on their mission, taking us boldly where we’d never gone before. When it comes to his reflections on heaven, St. John Paul II throws his lot with the Enterprise: he boldly goes where no pope has gone before – and invites us to go with him.

In Blogs #13-15, we’ve been reflecting on our glorified bodies and the two-step process of spiritualization and divinization. While this may have been novel or mind-stretching for you, it wasn’t outside the realm of previous theological explorations. St. John Paul II stands in a long Scriptural and spiritual tradition devoted to exploring spiritualization and divinization.

St. JPII, however, is not done investigating the far reaches of our heavenly perfection. In TOB A67, every paragraph, even every sentence, explores new marvels of our eternal union and communion with the Trinity, which, he says, “seem also to unveil the new meaning of the body” (A67:4).

A new meaning of the body in heaven? What could that possibly be? And on what evidence is St. JPII basing his statement?

First of all, St. JPII returns to Christ’s words in the gospel, where Jesus declares we will take neither wife nor husband in the future resurrection (Mk 12:25). Marriage and procreation, St. JPII reminds us, are tied to this life only. These two central human realities lose their reason for being in eternity not because we become disembodied or transparently angelic, but because masculinity and femininity contain a deeper meaning than what our earthly existence and human reason alone can reveal. To adapt St. Paul’s quote from 1 Cor 15:19, “If for this life only we are masculine or feminine, then we are the most pitiable of all people!”

Are you feeling a bit like the crew of the Starship Enterprise at this moment, entering into uncharted territory? We reflexively assume being male or female is linked only with marriage and procreation and therefore has no meaning or reason to exist in heaven. Many people have mistakenly interpreted Galatian 3:28, which says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ,” to mean we are genderless in heaven.

This passage in Galatians is not referring to our sexuality disappearing in Christ. Rather, it refers to Baptism having no pre-qualifications. Jews, free citizens, and males were privileged categories in the cultures where the gospel first took root. St. Paul explicitly states that those categories of privileged and less-privileged no longer apply in the Church. To use a contemporary phase: “All are welcomed here” to the baptismal font, to the process of conversion and incorporation into the Body of Christ.

Well, then, if we will have our own bodies in heaven, and if they will be glorified as male or female, and if the purpose of masculinity and femininity as expressed in marriage and procreation is passé, then what is the new meaning of being male or female in eternity? In typical St. JPII fashion, here’s his answer: “Is it possible, in this case – on the level of biblical eschatology [i.e., at Christ’s Second Coming] – to think of the discovery of the ‘spousal meaning of the body’ above all as the ‘virginal’ meaning of being male and female in the body?” (A67:4)

Here’s my quick and easy translation: In our eternal perfection, we will all be virgins! Doesn’t that make you jump up and do a little heavenly jig? Ok, maybe not, because endless virginity doesn’t sound like heavenly happiness to us. It sounds like an eternal state of doing nothing. Why? Because our cultural definition of a virgin is precisely someone who hasn’t done something – a virgin is someone who hasn’t had sex.

If St. JPII claims we are perfected as virgins in heaven and a virgin is someone who hasn’t had sex, then logically in heaven we won’t be having sex eternally. Thanks for sharing St. JPII. This certainly doesn’t make anyone jump up and dance a jig or even a tango. It sounds eternally (yawn) BORING…

And yet, the text stares us in the face, demanding we somehow makes sense of it. In fact, St. JPII repeats himself in the next audience where he says, “…virginity, or rather the virginal state of the body, will manifest itself completely as the eschatological fulfillment of the ‘spousal’ meaning of the body…” (TOB A68:3). We can’t just sidestep St. JPII venturing “boldly where no pope has gone before.” We can’t label this statement as too baffling or obscure and therefore dismiss it. We must try to make sense of it because our eternal happiness and perfection ride on it. So, what do we do?

We change our understanding of virginity.

In the Jubilee Year 2000, the Holy Spirit granted me a life-changing grace. As I was mulling over virginity and badgering God for a new, more positive understanding of this reality, the Holy Spirit slipped an insight into my mind: a virgin is someone who is totally available for union. From this vantage point, virginity is not something we lose, but a capacity embedded in our human nature that makes possible perfect union through perfect receptivity.

This brings us full circle back to God’s original plan for human nature. In Adam and Eve’s original purity and innocence, John Paul II says they experienced the unitive power of their bodies as the foundation for their personal union and communion (A55:6). If taken by itself, we might assume the unitive power of the body refers only to the act of sexual union. But for St. JPII, the unitive power of the body is expressed through the spousal meaning of the body. Put simply, if the body has no objective power to unite, then the spousal meaning of the body has no objective meaning – and the body becomes merely a tool for each individual’s self-determined happiness and pleasure.

Let’s return to one of John Paul II’s favorite corners of the universe: his description of the spousal meaning of the body in our original state. As you read it, notice how he indicates that our embodiment as male or female can’t be explained fully by reference only to procreation, but is linked to the broader power to express love. Here’s the whole quote from TOB A15:1:

“The human body, with its sex – its masculinity and femininity – seen in the very mystery of creation is not only a source of fruitfulness and procreation, as in the whole natural order, but contains ‘from the beginning’ the ‘spousal’ attribute, that is, the power to express love: precisely that love in which the human person becomes a gift and – through this gift – fulfills the very meaning of his being and existence.”

The unitive power of the body is intricately linked with the spousal meaning of the body because they are both linked with the power to express love through being a gift. But notice the seemingly subtle phrase that’s easy to miss as we zoom by in the Enterprise – John Paul II refers to fruitfulness, procreation, masculinity, and femininity in relationship to the “whole natural order.” However, now that we’re “in heaven,” John Paul II is piloting us to explore the spousal meaning of the body connected to the unitive power of the glorified body in the whole supernatural order, which is revealed as virginal perfection.

With that thought, let’s dock the Enterprise for this week and allow this “strange new world” of glorified virginity, spousal meaning of the body, being totally available for union, and the unitive power of the body to settle in our interior before forging ahead. I encourage you this week, no matter what your age or state in life, to try to observe and experience the unitive power of your body that brings you into union and communion with others through a gift of self. This unitive power is why every blog I always end with…And remember, you are a gift!