No Marriage in Heaven?!

Tonight I want to try and tackle a very difficult passage that sheds light on my theory and vice versa. It is from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 11: 7-10: “For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. (For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.) That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head, because of the angels.” What I want to focus on is that man is the glory of God and woman is the glory of man. The word for glory means, among other things, heavy and full; women have a certain ability to be heavy and full, and that is when they are pregnant, especially in the third trimester. Woman is the glory of man because she bears their fruit. Likewise, man and all mankind is the glory of God because we bear the fruit from God in our trusting heart.

Both men and women bear fruit for God in their hearts; it seems that the man is able to bear fruit for God in a special way, and so he is the glory of God. How are we to correctly understand this? God is pure being and action; He does not receive, but acts and is the Creator of all that is. As the Creator, He reveals many things about Himself in creation. The primary image in all of creation is the relationship between men and women in marriage; this image symbolizes God’s relationship to humanity. Certainly, men and woman have an equality, yet men do symbolize God in a unique manner. Man, in his body and psyche and soul, has a similitude to God, and he seeks to initiate and penetrate and actively give himself. Woman, in her body and psyche and soul, is receptive and nurturing and reciprocates the loving advance. As symbols, man is God and woman is humanity; symbolically man is greater, but not in actuality (the greatest human is a woman, after all). In relation to God, ever human is feminine, that is, receptive. In our relationship with God, it is He who initiates and acts and gives us Himself; we actively respond to His loving entreaty. This is reflected in John’s first letter: “We love, because he first loved us” (4:19). God loves us, and if we are receptive, He fills us with His life; as a result, we are His glory and grow full with good fruit.

A question remains: why do woman have to cover their head due to the angels? Paul is talking about a woman covering her head in church, at the Mass. Do angels really care if a woman’s head is uncovered? Paul says she can either cover her head or shave it; both accomplish the purpose. What is the point? Who are the angels? I do not think Paul is using the word “angel” here literally. Looking to how Jesus uses the word “angel” in the context of marriage sheds light on how Paul uses it here in Corinthians.

The synoptic gospels all have the account where Jesus is rebuking the Sadducees for not believing in the resurrection. Matthew 22:30 says: “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Mark 12:25 states in almost identical fashion: “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Luke 20:34-36 gives an expanded version of the first two: “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.”

In heaven there is no marriage of man to woman. We are not married anymore to our earthly spouse, for we are married only as long as our spouse is alive on earth. In heaven, we are not married, but we are like the angels. In heaven, we will not die, we will be equal to the angels, we will be sons of God and sons of the resurrection. Remember, marriage is a symbol of God’s relationship to man, so when the earthly symbol has served its purpose, then we enjoy the reality: marriage with God. The reason there is no marriage in heaven is that all of us are married to God. He is the one spouse, the one husband, and we are His bride. Sure we will still have a special relationship to all those close to us on earth and all those we helped get to heaven and all those who helped us, especially our favorite saints, but the primary relationship is my marriage to God, my True Spouse. In earthly marriage, each spouse is meant to assist his beloved to heaven, so a close relationship in heaven to our spouse makes sense; we will have a similar closeness to our guardian angel who has been appointed to lead us there, too.

I still haven’t answered the question about who the angels are in Paul’s prohibition of uncovered heads. Real angels are pure spirits in heaven who are united to God; when we get to heaven and are married to God we become like the angels (although we will never be pure spirit; we are embodied spirits); right now on earth the “sons of this age marry and are given in marriage” and so do not live like the angels. The angels, then, are those men who do not marry a human woman but the Church. We call them priests. The celibate life, the Church teaches, is living the heavenly life here on earth. Paul’s concern is quite simple: he doesn’t want the celibate priests to be distracted by the beauty of women in the congregation at Mass. A woman should either cover her beauty or shave her head so that she does not become a temptation to those who live celibate lives. I think that is the point of what Paul is saying. Today, I think Paul would be content that women dress modestly at Mass. It makes sense that everyone comes modestly to Mass so that we decrease the likelihood that we are a distraction to another. It is ironic to accentuate one’s attractiveness when we go to Mass because it is there that Our Husband gives us His Body: he is meant to be our focus and attraction.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.