Giving Birth to Sacrifice - An Ex-Seminarian's Thoughts on Priestly Celibacy

While I was still in seminary I remember overhearing a conversation between two students on the university campus. I didn't listen to much of it, but one part stuck out. One of them was arguing that the Eastern Catholic Church doesn't have a shortage of priests like the Roman Catholic Church, and therefore, since the East allows married priests, the West should too.

For reasons I could not explain, I was angry at hearing this. I knew little about the Eastern Catholic Church at the time but I knew that something was wrong with this kid's argument.

And now I know.

It's too shallow.

I don't know what the statistics say about priest shortages between the East and the West, but let's say the East is in good shape, just for the sake of the argument.

The growth of priestly vocations in the East isn't because of the rigorous extended fasts that our eastern brethren observe multiple times a year, compared to Rome's two fast days a year. 

The growth of vocations in the East isn't because their beautiful, virtually unchanged ancient liturgy uses many external signs, not for their own sake, but in order to point to deeper, more beautiful realities, compared to the watered down, often irreverently celebrated liturgy we find in many Roman Rite Parishes today.

It's definitely not any of these factors that determine vocations.  Vocations are determined by whether or not we can still be sexually active.

See what I mean by shallow?

I'm not a mind reader, and maybe this student didn't mean to reduce marriage to sex, but the way he disregarded the beauty and necessity of a celibate presence in the church implied that to me.

Before I go any further, I should state that some of these thoughts came from the podcast that I highly recommend; Catholic Stuff You Should Know. In the episode I just linked to, Fr. Nathan Goebel says;

"The question (people ask) isn't...'How do you deal with standing before God, in the person of Christ, offering this mere bread and wine on behalf of the church to be transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ as a mystical representation of Calvary?' That is not the question. The question is, how do you deal with not having (sex)?"  

Celibacy is far too deep to be argued for or against on such a shallow playing ground.

At the end of the day, do we really need more priests who are not willing to give up everything to follow Christ?

Do we really need priests who only showed up to ordination because they could still go home to a wife every night?

I met a priest who was happily (and validly) married with several children whom he loved. But he was so in love with the Priesthood of Jesus Christ that he told me he would choose the celibate priesthood over a wife and family if he had to go back and choose.

This is the kind of man that we need in the priesthood.  We need priests who love Christ and His Church enough to live this outward sign pointing toward the Kingdom of God and the fullness of unity we hope to enjoy in Heaven.

None of this is to say that the married clergy in the Eastern Church do not love and follow Christ with everything, but what is it about celibacy that drives the men who freely choose it?

One thing that I am in the process of learning, is that a shallow understanding of celibacy comes from a shallow understanding of marriage. The two vocations enrich and feed each other, and so a poor understanding of one usually indicates a poor understanding of the other.

Someone who truly appreciates the depth and beauty of marriage would have an even deeper appreciation for celibacy or virginity, and to reduce celibacy to the abnegation of sex is to reduce marriage to nothing but sex.

But this understanding of celibacy is the one we find in most of the faithful - laity and many clergy.

When I was applying to college seminary, I desired the priesthood in a very deep and real way.  I had little to no desire for celibacy, which I saw as a necessary  "side effect" to priesthood, but I knew it came with the job.  Although I also greatly desired a wife and children, I decided to embrace celibacy as the side effect of another calling.

There is tremendous sacrifice involved in the celibate state, but a candidate for celibacy should be willing to make that sacrifice, for the sake of the good of celibacy itself, not in the pursuit of another desired good.

And yet because of our over sexualized society all the lines are blurred and we cannot see celibacy apart from a negation, when it is in reality a beautiful gift -  simultaneously from man to God, and from God to man

Man's sexuality is one of God's greatest gifts.  A man and woman's total self-gift to each other in the sacramental bond of Marriage expresses the person in such a complete way that it is hard to imagine anything more beautiful.

And yet:

Celibacy is a unique way in which a man gifts his all, including his sexuality, directly to God, rather than giving himself to God by means of giving his sexuality to a woman.  This total self-gift of man to God expresses more fully, or at least in a radically different and sacred way, man's ultimate end, his telos, rather than merely the individual person. In a way, marriage gives expression to the meaning of the body of man as a relational being, while celibacy gives expression to the meaning of man's immortal soul, and its restless desire for total unity and relation with God.

Now marriage also gives expression to the meaning of man's soul, just as celibacy also gives expression to the meaning of the body.  But there is a certain sense in which the two distinct realities are emphasized more perfectly by these specific states.

The body is limited in its capacity to express the fullness of man's spirituality because it is a physical expression of the spiritual.  Celibacy, on the other hand, can more completely express the meaning of the body and the soul because it points directly at the meaning of the soul, which the body points at indirectly.

Furthest from my reflections on celibacy is the idea that the Eastern Churches should cease ordaining married men to the priesthood. In fact, the presence of a married clergy in the East bears witness to the truth that celibacy is a free gift to God. The fact that no priest, theologically speaking, is required to be celibate shows that it is freely chosen and accepted, even under the Law of celibacy in the West.

However, there is a very strong need, especially in the Roman Catholic Church, for celibate clergy who faithfully and joyfully live out their vocation.

While celibacy or consecrated virginity are not exclusive to the priesthood, there is a very real and deep sense in which celibacy is more profoundly fitting and proper when bound to Holy Orders.

The reason for this is The Blessed Virgin Mary.  Mary is the instrument through which God chose to come into the world as man.  Two thousand years ago it was through Mary, and through the Perpetual Virginity of Mary that Christ was made present and known in the world.

Similarly, it is through the Catholic Priest that Christ's Sacrifice on Calvary is made present on the Altar during every Catholic Mass and Divine Liturgy.  While not necessary, it is therefore profoundly fitting for the priest to be celibate in order to constantly be a living sign of and cooperator with Christ's Sacrifice Present today in the world, just as Mary's silent witness of perpetual virginity was a living sign of the messiah's presence in the world.