Brothers and Sisters in Christ, “And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him followed him, and they found him and said to him, ‘Every one is searching for you.’ “(Mark 1:35-37) All of mankind is searching for Christ. Our destiny from the beginning of time is God our Creator, and we do find him if, like Simon Peter and those who were with him, we stand ready to abandon our comforts, our plans and dreams, to follow him. The great witness of Peter and the other Apostles, the first priests of Jesus Christ, is that they followed the Lord heroically, going even with him into the “lonely place” of celibate life, and abandoning mother and father, sisters and brothers, wife and children, to follow the vocation to which Christ called them. Sacrificing the human companionship of marriage and family life is not a cold and empty place if there is found in it a marriage to Christ’s beautiful and radiant bride, the Church.
Celibacy in Christ is a sign and a motive of charity, a powerful witness of the command to “seek ye first the kingdom of God”. For two millennia men have followed Christ in the heroic life of the ministerial priesthood, not to reject the joys and consolations of human marriage, but to marry the Church and to be fathers, raising up sons and daughters who will live forever in the true marriage feast of the Lamb in heaven. The Faith has been preached to the remotest corners of the earth, from the Apostles to the missionaries of today, because of joyful and confident acceptance on the part of men and women religious, as well as priests, to share in Christ’s all-consuming mission to die to self in accomplishing the Father’s will. The unchaste cannot comprehend or appreciate the jewel of celibacy, which radiates within the Church of Christ.
For countless souls it is a magnificent source of attraction to Christ and his Gospel. Celibacy is holy because made holy by the example of the God-Man, and a gift which the Church preserves and protects as a grace which gives fruitfulness to the Bride of Christ in raising up new members. The gift of celibacy is an irreplaceable sign of God’s love, for by it the priest is freed to be radically available and open to every man and woman in generous service. The man or woman religious is prepared each day to follow Christ wholeheartedly, instruments of God’s compassion through free service of mankind. “All the ordained ministers of the Latin Church, with the exception of permanent deacons, are normally chosen from among men of faith who live a celibate life and who intend to remain celibate ‘for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.’ (Mt 19:12) Called to consecrate themselves with undivided heart to the Lord and to ‘the affairs of the Lord,’ (1 Cor 7:32) they give themselves entirely to God and to men.
Celibacy is a sign of this new life to the service of which the Church’s minister is consecrated; accepted with a joyous heart celibacy radiantly proclaims the Reign of God.” (CCC 1579) The priest of Jesus Christ is a man of God whose whole way of life proclaims that the Lord is his portion and his inheritance. The priest is an undeniable sign to the world of the calling of every creature to the eternal life with God that is threatened by man’s sinful rejection of God. In accepting the gift of celibacy the priest is better equipped to act in persona Christi, for by it he is freed, as was Christ, to dedicate himself more generously to the preaching of the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins and the worthy celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. St. Augustine describes a conflict we all face in The City of God between two loves: the love of God to the point of disregarding self, and the love of self to the point of disregarding God. Mankind is in constant danger of forgetting that this life and its joys, such as marriage, will end, and that we cannot be happy or fulfilled unless we look to the kingdom for the fullness of joy where we will behold the source of all beatitude, our heavenly Father, face to face. The celibate priest, and any man or woman who foregoes the earthly joys of marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, disregards himself for more perfect love of God.
He is a help to men as he walks the paths of this earth in solidarity with every child of God, married or single, religious or lay, young or old. His celibacy is not sterile but rather most fruitful. The priest is ordained to give the grace of the sacraments, but his celibacy plays a role as well. Radically available to everyone who calls upon him, the priest is an effective and credible witness who shows by his life that the aching for love in every restless human heart is satisfied when the heart rests in God. I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we “meet Christ in the liturgy”, Father Cusick