Was Jesus chaste?

By chhotebhai

Kanpur, Nov 22, 2024: Please don’t make haste, or waste your breath on condemning me for even asking such an audacious question. It is not altogether irrelevant or irreverent.

Some years ago, there was a huge outcry in Kerala over the Malayalam drama “The Sixth Wound;” an adaptation from “The Last Temptation of Christ,” written in Greek in 1955 by Nikos Kazantzakis. It alleged that Jesus’ last temptation was a lustful longing for Mary Magdalene.

This should not surprise us. Dan Brown, that shrewd writer of the fictional “The da Vinci Code,” also made similar allegations that Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus and even had a child by him. Down the centuries there have been innumerable conspiracy theorists along these lines. So, we cannot dismiss the question as irrelevant or irreverent.

This reflection was inspired by the responses to my previous article “Playing on my Mind” that drew on the humanity of Jesus. I was pleasantly surprised to find, from the public responses, that several religious priests endorsed my line of thought.

So, I thought of expanding on Jesus’ humanity that naturally includes his chastity. We find Jesus expressing various human emotions. Jesus prays that his joy may be in his disciples (cf Jn 15:11). He gives them the peace that the world can’t give (Jn 14:27). He asks them to love one another as he has loved them (Jn 15:12). He had compassion on others (cf Mat 9:36).

He also had negative emotions. His anger was real, as in driving the traders out of the Temple (cf Jn 2:3-17). He felt frustrated when his disciples did not understand him (cf Jn 8:43). He experienced the ultimate negative emotion of despair in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he sweated blood.

Writing in Greek, Luke, a doctor, used the word thrombosis, meaning clot. Medically this condition is called haematidrosis, when there is dilation of the sub-coetaneous capillaries mixing with millions of sweat glands. We see that even Jesus’ physical sufferings were very real.

What then of his chastity? I have been inspired by St Joseph the Most Chaste Spouse. Joseph was human and would surely have had natural sexual desires. We are told that he was an “upright man” (Mat 1:19). He would have been in awe of the “non-biological” way in which Mary had become pregnant. Together with her, he too would have pondered the prophecy of Simeon at the presentation (cf Lk 2:33-35). These events would have been sufficient to sublimate his natural feelings.

Jesus, who learnt carpentry from Joseph, would also have learnt chastity. From the Shroud of Turin we know that Jesus was about 6 feet tall and well boned. Young maidens would have swooned at seeing him, and their parents would have sent marriage proposals for this handsome and virtuous man.

How would Jesus have handled such situations? From what he had learnt from Joseph. He would have told prospective parents that some become eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom (cf Mat 19:12).

As for temptations, they were poles apart from what novelists or film makers sensationalised. Jesus’ last temptation was déjà vu of his first recorded one. “If you are the Son of God throw yourself down” (Mat 4:6). “If you are the Son of God come down from the cross” (Mat 27:40).

Had Jesus descended (pun intended) into these traps he would have been derailed from his salvific mission. Even the demons that were cast out screamed, “You are the Son of God” (Lk 4:41). By a premature assertion of the Son of God they were trying to execute this plan; that they understood much better than the disciples.

What about us disciples? Have we too fallen between the two stools of Son of God and Son of Man? If so, how does it impact our discipleship?

In Hinduism there are three main paths (margs) to knowing God – Bhakti Marg (devotions), Karm Marg (actions) and Gyan Marg (knowledge). But in Christian discipleship I have observed 4 major Margs. They are: 1. Adulating the Son of God 2. Walking in the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth 3. Emulating the Son of Man 4. Being led by the Spirit of Christ. Let us reflect on them.

1. Adulation: Here the emphasis is on the Son of God up there (pedestallisation) while lesser mortals are down here, and ne’er the twain shall meet. Since this is beyond one’s comprehension, one compensates for it with excessive devotional practices, possibly laced with triumphalism. We have feasts of Christ the King, Corpus Christi processions, Holy Hours etc. Devotees feel so inferior as to receive communion on the tongue, because they are “unworthy”. Too much of a good thing becomes counter productive. Such obsessive/ excessive adulation can become an end in itself. There is then no desire to serve or to change. The adulator has already reached his destination, and is no longer a pilgrim.

These devotions are similar to the Bhakti Marg. But I believe that with minor tweaks in the liturgy, some innovation and inculturation, it can become a powerful tool for evangelisation.

2. Walking: Walking in the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth is an attractive option. The disciple takes the gospels literally, trying to match Jesus step by step. The one who came closest to this was St Francis of Assisi, known as the Alter Christi (another Christ). He even experienced the stigmata (five wounds of Jesus) in his own body. This was not a miracle. It was the fruit of total identification with the suffering servant of Yahweh. We earlier saw how sweating blood had a medical explanation. Here too I believe that the Pneuma (Spirit) and Psyche (mind and emotions) can leave an indelible mark on the Soma (body). We know that most lifestyle diseases are psychosomatic. So why not pneuma-psychosomatic effects?

As a young man I too had tried treading this path, going on gospel journeys barefoot and without any money. But I did not have the spiritual stamina to sustain this. Besides, many things have changed from the time of Jesus. His footprints, like on a beach, can get washed away, leaving the disciple directionless. This path requires heroic virtue that very few of us have.

3. Emulation: Adulating a God up there costs nothing. Emulating a man down here is the true cost of discipleship. If we experience Jesus as a man like us in all things, but sin (cf Heb 4:15) then we will understand that we too can do what he did. He even assures us that we “will perform even greater works” (Jn 14:12). This would involve identifying with Jesus and his attitude towards sinners, women, religious hypocrisy, as also the willingness to speak the truth and bear the consequences. It is then that we understand “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me” (Mat 10:38).

4. Led by the Spirit: We will now be walking on thin ice. I read a book “The Conspiracy of God” by Rev John Haughey SJ. The second chapter is titled “From following Jesus to being led by the Spirit of Jesus”. It transformed my relationship with Jesus and the answer to his personalised question, “Whom do you say that I am?” (Mat 16:16).

This is because Jesus didn’t do what he wanted. His entire mission was to do the will of the Father (cf Jn 14:10) as revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. In turn he now says “Receive the Holy Spirit (Jn 20:22). We too need to be open to the Holy Spirit and its promptings. Such a person cannot have pre-conceived notions of what to say, do, or even to write. There are no external supports like rituals to lean on.

This is known as discernment of spirits, difficult to elaborate here. It would have three foundations – sacred scripture, current Church teaching and the actual circumstances in which one is placed. St Ignatius of Loyola is considered the father of spiritual discernment. It is a gift acquired over years of spiritual discipline, hence needs to be handled with care. Going off on a tangent may not be immediately discerned, until the gap has widened beyond retrieval.

One needs to find a balance of the different paths of discipleship under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We can then say with St Paul that he is “all things to all men” (1 Cor 9:22), adding “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7).