Tuesday, June 25, 2024

 Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

(II Kings 19:9b-11.14-21.31-35a.36; Matthew 7:6.12-14)

Bringing up priestly celibacy in a discussion often seems like throwing a pearl before swine.  Although most people do not understand it, they speak of it negatively.  They will say that it is an outdated rule that the pope may change at will.  And they offer the scandal of sexual abuse by priests as reason for change.

Unfortunately, people are unaware of the history of priestly celibacy and of its profound spirituality.  Celibacy is grounded in the experience of Jesus.  There is absolutely no evidence that he married.  Its Scriptural foundation rests on his statement that some people are eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  It is much more than a practical matter that allows more time for ministry or that avoids problems of inheritance of Church property.  Rather celibacy – the sacrifice of personal fulfilment in marriage -- witnesses to the Lord as the one who bestows ultimate value.

Priests are not “lone rangers.”  They need support.  Especially diocesan priests require affirmation from the people when they serve well.  Providing encouragement to priests fulfills the vision of solidarity to which God calls His people.

Wednesday, September 13, 2018

Wednesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

(I Corinthians 7:25-31; Luke 6:20-26)

A perennial question in the Church concerns priestly celibacy.  Should married men be ordained to the priesthood?  There are former Episcopalian priests with wives who are ordained Roman Catholic priests, but here we want to consider the rule and not the exception.  Some believe that celibacy is the right option for those who believe they would be happier without a wife.  St. Paul offers an interesting alternative to this position.

Paul admits that he is speaking on his own here; nevertheless, his words are authoritative.  Believing that Jesus is to return soon, he recommends that all people not marry.  Paul says that although married couples should not separate, the unmarried should not seek marriage.  Rather, he believes that they are wise to keep the Lord constantly in mind.  Paul is well aware of the human tendency to preoccupy itself with sex if that is at hand.

Most priest celibates experience some difficulty.  Like most men they long for intimacy with a woman and to raise a family.  However, married couples do not have life easy either.  Marriage is necessary to continue the human enterprise, and celibacy testifies to the Lord’s eventual return.  It is not likely that enough men would choose celibacy without a rule for this witness to be widespread.  Therefore, it may be said that although it requires deeply felt sacrifice, priestly celibacy is valuable for preaching the full gospel.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

(I Samuel 3:1-10.19-20; Mark 1:29-39)

Many people discern a call to serve the Church, but few believe that God may be asking them to remain unmarried.  They fear being left unfulfilled as human beings if they do not give themselves to another in sexual intimacy.  Entertainment conveys this message, and parents encourage their children to give them grandchildren.  Albeit in an oblique way, the first reading today addresses this question of vocational celibacy.

The biblical author indicates that a vocation is not easily discerned by commenting that “a revelation of the Lord was uncommon.”  Yet the Lord does not cease to knock at Samuel’s door.  The priest Eli provides the key to discernment of God’s call.  Samuel must converse with the Lord in deliberate prayer if he is to understand what God wants of him. 

We should understand that the Church does not hold virginity and celibacy high because sexual intimacy is suspect.  Quite the contrary, it recognizes the beauty and, indeed, the necessity of married love.  But it also is alarmed by the fascination of uncommitted sex today.  By holding its priests to celibacy and by encouraging women to consecrate their lives to Christ, it underscores the existence of the One who orders our lives.   God not pleasure gives us lasting happiness. Deep and continual prayer will tell whether God is calling us to testify to Him in this special way.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

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 a key figure in its theology, has insisted on celibacy for a clerical norm whereas Protestant communities of faith find in Paul, the attested bachelor, its theological hero.  Of course, Jesus too was a committed celibate and defended that state of life as summoned by God on behalf of His kingdom.  One 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 shortage of priests.  Few doubt that ordaining married men would not result in a spike of vocations to the priesthood.  Counterarguments have weight also.  There are the traditional problems of patrimony to the offspring of the priest.  More forceful is celibacy’s concrete testimony of the priority of God in a world that is obsessed with issues of sexuality.

As Catholics we need 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 His harvest field.”

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Tuesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(I Timothy 3:1-13; Luke 7:11-17)

The first reading today gives us a perspective on the early Church.  From what it says, we can tell that it is written in the latter part of the first century, at least fifty years after Jesus was crucified.  Churches are well developed with bishops and deacons.  But the situation is hardly the same as we have it today.  Insisting that bishops be married “only once,” the reading indicates ignorance of priestly celibacy which has held for bishops even longer than for priests.

What has caught the attention of many is the letter’s reference to women coming directly after its remarks about deacons.  Do these comments refer to female deacons or the wives of deacons?  It is very possible that the former is the case since there seems to have been need of female deacons to baptize adult women by submersion without causing scandal.  If it is true that women deacons assist the Church in biblical times, then we may see them again.  The Church is wary of innovation but has often renewed old traditions, like the catechumenate fifty years ago.

It is important that we remember that the institutions of the Church have evolved over time and also that these changes are based on principles found in Scripture.  Thus, a married clergy is also within the realm of possibility. Indeed, the Church has recently ordained many married, former Episcopalian priests who converted to Catholicism.  But the Church is hardly likely to betray the principles it has maintained through the ages – for example, that once ordained a priest may then marry (again).  All this is to assure, as the reading today recommends, that we may have much confidence in our faith in Jesus Christ.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor of the Church

(I Timothy 3:1-13; Luke 7:11-17)

Of all the qualities for a bishop named in the first reading today, the most striking for Catholics today is that he be a man who is “married only once.” Before one jumps to the conclusion that Scripture prescribes a married clergy, it must be remembered that the letter was written at a time when the offices of bishop, priest, and deacon were still coalescing. There were married clergy in the first Christian centuries, but they were expected, at least in the writings of the time, not to have sexual relations with their wives.

Evidently St. John Chrysostom never married. In fact, he lived for a while as a monk although could not permanently tolerate the harshness of desert life. As a bishop he distinguished himself for his rejection of the high life of his see, the patriarchy of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Allowing married men to become priests and bishops in masse would resolve the shortage of clergy in many countries today. However, it would no doubt open the door to other problems like the scandal of clergy divorces. A stronger reason to keep the current discipline of celibacy is the witness that it gives in a world supersaturated with sex. People need strong models of happy lives that don’t seek pleasure in viewing pornography or find sexual satisfaction an essential for personal fulfillment.

Homilette for Friday, August 14, 2009

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Joshua 24:1-13; Matthew 19:3-12)

In one sense there is no vocation crisis. Many men feel called to the permanent diaconate and many women, to church ministry. Far fewer people, however, wish to forego the possibility of marriage in order to serve the Church.

A simple way to resolve the current shortage of priests would be to ordain married men. This was done throughout the first millennium of Christianity, and exceptions to the rule of celibacy are made today as Episcopalian clergymen converting to Catholicism are usually ordained priests even though they have wives.

Of course, there are practical problems that the Church would have to face with married priests. More significant, however, is the question raised in the gospel today. Jesus says that whoever can renounce marriage for the sake of the Kingdom ought to do so. He obviously did, and those who desire to be completely conformed to him should be willing to make the same sacrifice.

Homilette for Friday, August 17, 2007

Friday, XIX Week of Ordinary Time

(Matthew 19)

A generation ago a Protestant theologian stirred up controversy by writing a book on the sexuality of Jesus. He said that Jesus likely had a wife because marriage has always been highly valued in Jewish culture and nowhere do the gospels say that he was not married. In fact, the theologian argued that since most Jews in the first century married, the gospel writers just assumed that readers understood that Jesus was also married. Of course, the best-selling The Da Vinci Code created a much greater uproar by supposing Mary Magdalene to be Jesus’ wife.

Careful scholars, however, point to today’s gospel as a powerful argument against the likelihood that Jesus had a wife. When he talks about men renouncing marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of God, he most likely has himself in mind. After all, no one was more committed to establishing that Kingdom than he. It is also telling that when Jesus is confronted by his mother and other family members, nothing is said about a wife being with them.

Of course, just because Jesus was celibate, not all workers of the Kingdom must be so. Priests, for example, might be allowed to marry. This seems to have been the general practice in the first millennium of Christianity and perhaps it will resume at some point in the third. We have all heard several reasonable arguments to change the practice. Yet celibacy is an invaluable counter-sign in a world that greatly exaggerates sexuality. Priests and religious vowing to forego a wife or husband and family tell the world that there is a value more important than personal satisfaction. Indeed, their living the vow with integrity and happiness indicates that God’s Kingdom will exceed all human desires.