There's a really bad
Argument for priestly celibacy, and you could find it actually in the in the tradition here and there and even to this day some people
Espouse it, and it goes something like this:
Look, marriage, and the body, and sexuality are a little bit spiritually suspect;
Priests should be a spiritual athlete and so the priest should you know rise above all of that.
Bad argument, and you know, even though I reverence Saint Augustine,
It's hard to deny that at least elements of that have some sources in Augustine's more
problematic reflections on sexuality, when Augustine said that, you know, sex is a result of
Original sin, that sex even within marriage is at least venially sinful, and that sort of thing. Again, I love Augustine,
But I think that side of Augustine is a little problematic.
I say it's a bad argument because it runs counter to a
Good, healthy, biblical
metaphysics. What I mean here is
Creation is good in all of its aspects, both
Spiritual and physical. That's a basic intuition of the Bible: that God made all things,
the high more spiritual things, and the physical world including
insects that creep upon the earth
Right, and he finds it good and he finds the ensemble of it very good. From the beginning
That's an anti-dualist, sort of anti-
Gnostic, anti-Manichaean view, and those are very common in the ancient world.
You've got, you know, good bad spirits good matters bad...
The Bible stands clearly athwart then. Now think of my great intellectual hero,
St Thomas Aquinas, who said with typical of scholastic pithiness:
being and good are convertible terms. What he means is anything that is, in the
Measure that it is, is good. And so the body? Yes it's good matter. Matter? Yes, it's good. Sexuality?
Yes, good. Whatever is is a reflection of the goodness of God, and therefore is good,
The ensemble is very good. Therefore we stand against
Manichean, dualistic, more platonizing sort of arguments here. So I'd submit that's a very bad argument for celibacy.
But now let me just press the thing a little bit
having sung the praises of
Creation and its goodness. There's a there's a flipside to that doctrine of creation
to say that the entire universe
That we can see and measure
Has been created is to say that it's not God
Good. Yes
Reflective of God yes, a sacramental representation of God. Yes
but not God and
Therefore it go right back to the beginning of Genesis as these things come forth from God
The Sun and Moon and planets and the earth and mountains and so on all things that were worshipped
By some in the ancient world. The Bible is saying no no, no
That's not God.
Now from this comes
What I call the great anti idolatry principle that you can find in the Bible and in the great tradition
Don't make something less than God into God even as we say animals plants
Mountains bodies sexuality, it's all good, but none of it should be
worshipped. In other words there's a great 'yes' and
There's a great 'no'
that are at the heart of a of a Christian doctrine of creation.
Now from the anti idolatry principle comes
a spiritual principle that you can see right through the Bible and right through the great tradition up to the spiritual masters today
and I would call that the tradition of detachment,
right?
Doesn't mean I hate the world it means I'm detached from the goods of the world in the measure that I know they're not divine.
I'm not gonna find my ultimate joy, I'm not gonna find my perfect fulfilment in them so detached from material things
and from wealth and from honour and the beauty of the world, detach from those things, I can find now my true fulfilment
in the love of God.
So it's this great both/and, this both 'yes' and 'no'
that characterizes a healthy Christian spirituality.
Okay, so where does celibacy come in?
Well, you know we can argue for celibacy on practical grounds and there's something to that I get it
Having been a celibate priest now for 32 years I get there's a practical advantage to celibacy if you're not married
you don't have a family there's a
freedom there's a flexibility in your ministry.
I've been able to do things and go places I could never have done or gone if I'd been married with kids.
So I get that, I get that, but I don't think that's the deepest reason or the the best justification for celibacy.
I would say rather this:
celibacy is a powerful, lived examplification
of this anti idolatry principle.
And here is what I mean:
Sex? Marriage? Family? Good? Yes!
Sacramental? Yes!
Wonderful? Yes!
But not ultimate.
Do they represent the fullest expression of love possible?
Unh-uh. [no]
That's the love of God.
Is it therefore valuable that there be some people, again
not everybody, and not most, I agree. Most of the Christians should not be celibate.
We would disappear from the face of the earth if we were,
but that there be some people within the community of Christ
who by saying 'no' to sex, marriage, family
are witnessing to the detachment that allows us to see there's a higher love.
Putting out more explicitly biblical categories:
Is the celibate person witnessing to the way we will all love in heaven?
So the Lord says: "In heaven, we're not going to be married or given in marriage, right, marriage is an earthly phenomenon."
In heaven, we're gonna love in this higher way.
Is it good, therefore, that there be some people within the mystical body of Christ who witnessed by their life to this higher love.
Who say 'no'
to a proximate form of love
so as to witness to a higher form of love.
And I think that in the great spiritual masters has been the most significant argument in favor of celibacy.
Again, don't overdo it! You overdo it, we get into some kind of manichaean system where
wouldn't it be better if we were all celibate? No! In fact, it wouldn't be better.
I'm glad most Catholics and Christians aren't celibate.
But I'm also very glad that there are some, who are.
And I would be loath ever to see that witness disappear from the church.