Note: This article is part of an ongoing series on Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body” (TOB).

Responding to the Sadducees, Jesus said, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Lk. 20:34-36). Reflecting on these words, Pope St. John Paul II taught that in the resurrection of the body, we will retain our maleness or femaleness, but earthly marriage will be no more. He gave two reasons for this. The first is that there will be no further procreation since the human race will be complete and immortal. The second, more profound answer has to do with the definitive fulfillment of the spousal meaning of the human body.

By creating us male and female, God imprinted in our bodies the call and capacity for communion of persons. Our male and female bodies show us that we are made for communion. Marriage, in which man and woman freely and completely give themselves to each other in an exclusive way for the whole of life, is the primordial “place” where we enter into this communion of persons. However, earthly marriage—as wonderful and awesome a gift as it is—is only a foreshadowing of our ultimate destiny.

God is Love and exists for all eternity as a divine Communion of Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He freely created us so that, by the gift of His grace, we could come to participate in His own infinite, eternal exchange of love. Those who attain the resurrection of the body and the new creation will enter into God’s own inner life—the very embrace of the Blessed Trinity’s love. We will be fully permeated by infinite love and experience a greater sense of union and intimacy than any earthly experience could ever provide.

Furthermore, this transformative union with God will enable us to experience perfect and profound communion with one another. We will be united not only with God Himself but with all other created persons participating in union with God (i.e., the communion of saints). This communion with God and with one another will be so intense and so fulfilling, that there will be no place left in our hearts for the kind of exclusive relationship entailed by earthly marriage. As we saw previously, this absence of earthly marriage will not be experienced as any form of loss as our hearts will overflow with the joy and fulfillment of infinite, eternal, divine Love and our union with one another will be more perfect and complete than it could ever be in this life—even in marriage.

These reflections led Pope St. John Paul II to a somewhat shocking conclusion: in the resurrection, “the virginal state of the body will manifest itself… as the fulfillment of the spousal meaning of the body” (TOB 68.3). What does this mean? How could virginity fulfill the spousal meaning of the body?

The late pope was alluding to the notion of virginity or celibacy for the kingdom of heaven through which a man or a woman makes “an exclusive gift of self to God” (73.1). By making such a choice (i.e., forgoing earthly marriage and living for God alone in a vowed state of virginity or celibacy), men and women anticipate the final state of our humanity in which we will be united definitively with God and all others in God. Men and women who choose virginity or celibacy for the kingdom of heaven remind us that earthly marriage will come to an end and our ultimate fulfillment will come through intimacy with God.

In future articles, we will reflect further on how virginity or celibacy for the kingdom fulfills the spousal meaning of the body and on the relationship between this vocation and that of earthly marriage.

Dr. Andrew Sodergren is a Catholic psychologist and director of psychological services for Ruah Woods. He speaks on the integration of psychology and the Catholic faith. He and his wife, Ellie, have five children.

This article appeared in the March 2025 edition of The Catholic Telegraph Magazine. For your complimentary subscription, click here