Made Themselves Eunuchs

Follow us on the web

Subscribe to the Diocese's Email List

Join to receive messages from His Grace and event reminders or update your information.

home › resources › literature › Made Themselves Eunuchs

Keraza Magazine issue 7-8 February 13, 2015

"For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake" (Matthew 19:12).

Eunuch comes from a Greek origin meaning "bed keeper." Perhaps this meaning reveals the duties undertaken by eunuchs in royal palaces, guarding and serving the bedchambers of the king and queen. Specialized for this duty, they are emasculated, and so are deprived of any sexual energy or virility. Since eunuchs are castrated, unable to build a family and reproduce, they have loyalties to no one, and so become personal confidants to the king.

Many, in explaining this verse, tend to restrict it to monks and ascetics, but the deeper meaning extends to include all the children of the kingdom whom God delights to entrust with the mysteries of His kingdom. All who are born of water and Spirit are required to become eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. Those eunuchs of the kingdom are not castrated forcefully, but they castrate themselves with a free will and firm determination.

This spiritual castration occurs on three hierarchal levels:

Castrating the mind: This is a demolition process, "casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). This is a process of keeping the mind sterile of the thoughts, notions, and futilities of the world. It is to "demolish his thoughts, pay attention to what befalls him, and attend to hidden prayer,"¹ as explained by St. Isaac the Syrian.
Castrating the heart: This is a process of cutting off all ties of human emotions and feelings. This is "circumcision of the heart, in the Spirit" (Romans 2:29). It is applying the words of the Lord: "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26).
Castrating the will: This is a process of disowning the self-will. This is giving up all desires and relinquishing personal wishes. It is establishing Christ as sovereign over the soul, Who says "to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it" (Luke 7:8).

St. Antony has a wonderful saying in his first letter: "And the Spirit teaches the mind how to heal all the wounds of the soul, and to rid itself of every one, those which are mingled in the members of the body, and other passions which are altogether outside the body, being mingled in the will."² This clever saying reveals the order of the castration process. The Holy Spirit teaches the mind, and castrates it, since the thoughts are the arena of all warfare. The mind, in its turn, heals the wounds of the heart. As for purifying the will, this comes when the heart is purified of all strange desires.

Actually, this is the entire struggle of the eunuchs of the kingdom, who learned and understood that they are the friends of the bridegroom, and did not dare try to steal the bride and the glory of the wedding for themselves. As a result, they were considered trustworthy and were put into the ministry (1 Timothy 1:12), and were brought into the King’s chamber (Song 1:4).

Bishop Youssef
Bishop, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States

¹ Miller, Dana, trans. The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian. Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1984, Homily 65, 321.

² Chitty, Derwas, trans. The Letters Of Saint Antony The Great. Oxford: SLG Press, 1995, 3.