Wednesday of the
First Week in Ordinary Time
(I Samuel 3:1-10.19-20; Mark 1:29-39)
The reference in today’s gospel that Peter had a
mother-in-law is the only indication that he was married. Ironically, the Roman Catholic tradition,
which looks to Peter as the key figure in its theology of Church, has insisted
on celibacy for a clerical norm. In
contrast, Protestant traditions find in Paul, the attested bachelor, its ecclesiastical
model. Of course, Jesus too was a
committed celibate and defended that state of life as summoned by God on behalf
of His kingdom. At least one prominent
biblical theologian thinks it necessary that celibacy be maintained as a
discipline to preserve this insight of Jesus.
Still the argument for relaxing the discipline within the
Catholic Church is cogent. In both
countries with a long Christian heritage and those where the Church is still
getting started there is a need for more priests. Most people think that ordaining married men
would result in a spike of vocations to the priesthood. But counterarguments to ordaining married men
to the priesthood also have considerable force.
There are the traditional problems of patrimony to the offspring of the
priest. More critical is celibacy’s
concrete testimony of the priority of God in a world obsessed with sexual
curiosity.
We should be wary of simplistic ideas on either side of
the argument for a married clergy.
Certainly many married men can perform the duties of a priest. On the other hand, most married men will not
want to live in extremely deprived areas where the gospel needs to be
preached. What is paramount is that we
continue to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the field.
