I have some dealings with middle school Catholic boys and I don't want to be overly inquisitive, but my understanding is that they believe once in heaven either their genitals will be nonfunctional or they simply won't have genitals at all. The smooth look. And they think that's a good thing. That's life in heaven and that's what they all want.
Really? Do they really believe that? Is the dream to have genitals that are dead or removed? If so that can be achieved right here on earth. So the question I have for all you former catholic school boys is what's up with these catholic kids. Do they really want to be sexually nullified?
That's one of the craziest thing I ever heard about Catholic schools. I attended Catholic grammar and high schools and never once heard anything close to that. I'm no longer a practicing Catholic and haven't been for decades but got a good education from the nuns in grammar school and especially the priests in my all boys high school. They had the attitude that our parents were paying good money to send us there rather than to a government school and we were going to get educated whether we wanted to or not. I graduated in '62 so many of the priests were WWII vets who had seen a lot. It would take more than a school full of 14-17 year old boys to push them around. There were kids with what today would be referred to as "ADD" but the cure wasn't a drug or kid glove handling. It was Fr. O'Neil, a large Irish priest with a booming voice who could definitely get-and hold-your attention. I didn't like a lot of it back then but I now have many fond memories of my high school years.
One more thing: None of the many guys I know who attended Catholic schools in those years ever even got a hint that any of those priests had the intention of molesting any of us. We think back to the personalities involved and laugh at the idea.
smoothie36 (imported) wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:17 am
I think those kids you had some dealings with were just pulling your leg.
Yes, I agree. I graduated from Catholic grammar school, high school and college and I never heard of such a teaching. The closest thing I can think of is debate in the bible about a married man whose wife dies and he remarries. Who will he be married to in heaven? I believe that the answer is that there will be no marriage in heaven. We will be spiritual beings. Perhaps that's what they were discussing.
Sounds like they are referring to Galations 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female...: KJV.
Obviously none of us was around when Paul penned his letter to the church at Galatia taking them to task about following a gospel different from what Paul preached. IIRC there was quite a debate at the time of whether you had to be a Jew before you could be a Christian. My limited understanding is that Paul was saying everyone was equal in heaven, Jews and Greeks, slaves and slave owners, men and women (women were little more than chattels in that day).
One of my research colleagues, Richard Wassersug, has written on the close connection between eunuchs and angels. My own interviews of the fresco painter at our local Eastern Orthodox Cathedral (he's been working on the interior for nearly 30 years) confirm what Richard has written. I asked him about his depiction of the archangels on either side of the altar. They each stand about 8 feet tall, are beardless, and have all the macroskeletal characteristics of a prepubertal eunuch. He was quite clear that angels are sexless and that earthly eunuchs are the appropriate model for depicting them. On a later visit he described the depiction of the prophet Daniel that he has just begun over the main door to the sanctuary. He will also be clearly shown as a eunuch.
Here are a couple of excerpts from Richard's article on the subject:
... I discovered the classicists hypothesis that the eunuchs of antiquity were the models for angels in the Bible (Ringrose 2003). The similarities are striking. Both eunuchs and angels have beardless faces. Both are nonreproductive. Both are depicted as taller than normal mortals. And when we say that someone has an angelic voice, we mean the higher-pitched voice of the Castrati. All the physical traits of angels characterize males castrated before puberty. God is perceived as surrounding himself with angels as advisers and emissaries. Kings and emperors in antiquity were similarly surrounded by eunuch advisers and emissaries.....
Angels show up early and often in the Torah. In Genesis we find them guarding the gates of Eden after Adam and Eves departure (chapter 3), informing Sarah that she will bear a child (chapter 18) and stopping Abraham from sacrificing that same offspring (chapter 22). By the time we are half way through Genesis their major social roles in relation to humans are clear. The angels of the Bible are guards and they are messengers.
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In Christian texts that explore the function of angels, it is said that their primary task is to sing the praises of the Lord. A similar role for angels in the Hebrew Bible is seen in Isaiah 6. Coincidentally, for much of history eunuchs have been singers. The strange voices of males castrated before puberty, which we know sounded different from the voices of both normal males and females, would immediately catch the attention of an audience (and, as an aside, drove the Castrati operatic movement in Europe for 300 years.)
A ruler surrounded by unnatural (i.e., eunuchoid) or preternatural (i.e., angelic) beings would have the awe and attention of anyone in the area. Visually they (either eunuchs or angels) would captivate the crowd. If they were also singing, the awe of the event would be overwhelming. With such grandeur, there would be no need for the members of these guardian classes to survey the surrounding masses for a treacherous intruder. The sheer pageantry of their exultation would be concurrently terrifying and magnificent, and would help mute any challenge to the rulers authority.
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Wassersug, Richard Joel. (2009). Passing Through the Wall: On Outings, Exodus, Angels, and the Ark. Journal of Religious Health 48 (3): 381-390.
Angels are not much into sex. (See Sodom and Gomorrah)
But if you decide to rape one they lay the place to waste. They are REAL GOOD fighters... and very beautiful, maybe in neither a masculine or feminine way...
I went to a convent and Catholic schools in the UK and we were definitely taught that in heaven there is neither male nor female. In my mind this always meant having noting down there and it is something I have always yearned for. Having been an altar boy etc, it was definitely in my mind. The nuns taught us this!
