CLERICAL CELIBACY WAS SOMETHING REMARKABLE IN THE EYES OF THE OF THE WORLD, A THING THAT MAKES A MAN ANGELIC.
1.0 INTRODUCTION.
Celibacy is represented in the Roman Catholic Church as having apostolic authority. Theologically, the Church desires to imitate the life of Jesus with regard to chastity and the sacrifice of married life for the "sake of the Kingdom" (Luke 18:28–30, Matthew 19:27–30; Mark 10:20–21), and to follow the example of Jesus Christ in being "married" to the Church, viewed by Catholicism and many Christian traditions as the "Bride of Christ". Also of importance are the teachings of St. Paul that chastity is the superior state of life, and his desire expressed in 1Corinthians 7:7–8, "I would that all men were even as myself [celibate],but everyone has his proper gift from God; one after this manner, and another after that. But I say to the unmarried and the widows. It is good for them if they so continue, even as I."
Practically speaking, the reasons for celibacy are given by the Apostle Paul in1Corinthians 7:7–8; 32–35: "But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife: and he is divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But she that is married thinketh on the things of this world how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your profit, not to cast a snare upon you, but for that which is decent and which may give you power to attend upon the Lord without impediment."
1Corinthians 9:5 is sometimes cited by those opposed to celibacy, as the verse is often rendered as referring to the Apostles carrying "wives" with them. However, the Greek word for "wife" is the same word for "woman". Some Early Church Fathers including Tertullian, Jerome, and Augustine state the Greek word is ambiguous and the women in I Corinthians 9:5 were women ministering to the Apostles as women ministered to Christ (cf. Luke 8:1–3), and were not wives. They even went as far as to assert they left their "offices of marriage" to follow Christ and to preach.
Celibacy for priests is a discipline in the Latin Catholic Church, not a doctrine: in other words, a church regulation, but not an integral part of Church teaching. St. Peter, seen as the first pope, as well as many subsequent popes, bishops, and priests during the church's first 270 years were in fact married men, and often fathers. The practice of clerical continence, along with a prohibition of marriage after ordination as a deacon, priest or bishop, is traceable from the time of the Council of Elvira. This law was reinforced in the Directa Decretal (385) and at the Council of Carthage in 390. The tradition of clerical continence developed into a practice of clerical celibacy (ordaining only unmarried men) from the 11th century onward among Latin Rite Catholics and became a formal part of canon law in 1917 and equally of the 1983 code.
2.0 THE TERM CELIBACY.
Celibacy is an act of renunciation. To renounce here, is from the Latin “renuntiare” meaning “to proclaim again”. It is the process of abstaining from conjugal sex and offering it up for the sake of God. Celibacy is liberating, it is a liberty gained from the renunciation of the activities of marriage for the sake of the Church. Celibacy is a vow to love, a way, a style of loving, of witnessing to God’s love. Celibacy is a process of proclaiming or affirming the Christian belief that man is called beyond self fulfillment to self transcendence. The next question is what makes it remarkable?
3.0 WHAT IS REMARKABLE ABOUT CELIBACY?
The priesthood is a sign of contradiction to the world, for it is a visible mark of the folly and the glory of the Cross. We see this especially in the vow of celibacy, for this is a charism the world rejects and outright attacks. Yet in looking at the priesthood with an understanding of who and what these men are called to be, celibacy is a considerable factor in how they can be most perfectly conformed to Christ and most perfectly lead the people through the Cross of Christ and into the Resurrection. It is the grace of celibacy that allows the priest to enter into the selflessness that especially conforms him to Jesus Christ. Celibacy, in fact, is a sign that the love of God overcomes all.
Yet, what is this motivation to renounce all, especially marriage and children, for the sake of the Kingdom? In a world such as ours, what causes men to be so willing to give up so much? Charles Cardinal Journet observes in Theology of the Church, “Only the love that moves one to renounce all can, in the Church, sustain that love which makes an instrument of all.” Those who, through marriage or other more temporal states in life must by necessity be engaged in the use of earthly things are hindered, in some ways, of achieving the ability to be focused primarily on the needs of the Church. They are, by necessity, divided. In being willing to give everything to Christ’s Church, the priest is renouncing something worldly in order to be free to allow grace to sustain him and make him completely in to an instrument of God.
The incomprehensibility of this state of life is what makes one to wonder. It makes people to think of its possibility and check how natural this can be. Not able to comprehend by human reason, they are amazed, looking at the priest in his freedom to love all and not particularly and in his ability to be selfless for God and Christ he has hitherto chosen to serve. This is then what makes clerical celibacy remarkable.
4.0 HOW CELIBACY MAKES A MAN ANGELIC
Celibacy is a higher calling, a more noble calling, and, one could argue in this context, a necessary component of the priesthood. It is a more perfect way to live, ordered to and justified through service for the general good of the Church. There is more perfection in happiness than in the married state, for those who are celibate are free to focus more completely on sanctifying work, while those who are married must, by necessity, be concerned for the cares of his family. How can a priest function so divided? How can he fully empty himself in order to live for Christ and His Church as a whole if he must also be especially devoted to a wife and children? How can he be concerned with the affairs of God if he is constantly halted by the roadblocks of the world? Angels worship God day and night unceasingly as the scripture tells us and are always in the presence and service of God. So is it with priests who are celibate. They perform the functions of angels, by being in the service of God, day and night with undivided attention, worshipping, adoring and doing the biddings of God. This in turn makes them angelic. Furthermore, virginity and Celibacy makes the body and soul more similar to God, conforming one more perfectly to Christ. It is more akin to the angelic state. Matthew 19:10-12 addresses the necessity of the celibate life for the sake of the kingdom, and in 1 Corinthians 7:25-26, Paul expounds on the fact that those who remain celibate also enjoy a freedom not available to those who are bound by marriage. Indeed, the vow of celibacy is also binding, as much as is marriage, but within those bonds, the priest is granted the ability to be more perfectly conformed to Christ in order to better lay down his life for His Church. During the Second Lateran Council, in 1139, it was eventually decreed that priestly ordination was a diriment impediment to marriage. Even Luther, in his first years as an Augustinian monk, declared: "Celibacy was something remarkable in the eyes of the world, a thing that makes a man angelic." At the time of his break with the Church (1517), he did not promote sacerdotal marriage and refused to encourage it.
5.0 CONCLUSION
In evaluation therefore, it is necessary that I put forward my own idea of the beautiful nature of clerical celibacy. It is true that the world today, are fighting and posing different ideas for its abrogation, but nevertheless, it is this celibacy that makes us different, it is this celibacy that makes us special and it is this celibacy that earns us our respect as Catholic priests and religious and above all our salvation. Finally, celibacy should never be seen as merely a precept to be fulfilled, it must also remain a cherished goal. Celibate priests and religious should see themselves as people who have given up their inheritance to God and should therefore hope and have consolation on the words of the psalmist, “Dominus pars hereditatis meae et calicis mei: Tu es qui restitues hereditatem meam mihi” (the Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup. It is you who will give back to me my inheritance).
References
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Presbyterorum Ordinis, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, 7th December, 1965.
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John F. Thornton & Susan B. Varenne; (ed), The Essential Pope Benedict XVI, His Central
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Sheil, J.E., Why I am a Priest, New York: Paulist Press, 1999.
