Homily 28th Sun. Yr B: Priestly Celibacy
In today’s Gospel, St. Mark tells us of this well-known encounter between Jesus and the young man who asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus recounts for him the commandments, and the young man responds that he has observed all of these from his youth. Jesus then tells him: “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then, come and follow me.” St. Mark tells us that at this invitation of Jesus, the young man’s “face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.”
What is truly sad is that this young man rejected the opportunity to become a disciple of Jesus because he was too attached to his wealth.
Jesus then explains how hard it is for those who have wealth and riches to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,using hyperbole, an exaggeration: it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven.
Here Jesus does not teach that the wealthy are excluded from heaven, but rather that wealth, and the power and prestige that often accompanies it, become an obstacle to following Jesus, as we see with the rich young man.
St. Peter then says to Jesus, “We have given up everything and followed you,” to which Jesus responds, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age . . . and eternal life in the age to come.”
The Church has always looked to these words of Our Lord as one of the foundations for priestly celibacy.
This past week I was on a priest retreat. By canon law, priests must make a retreat at least once a year. Cardinal Raymond Burke, the former Bishop of La Crosse Wisconsin – who built the beautiful shrine in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe which many of our parishioners just recently visited, and who went on to become the head Catholic Church’s highest legal court – was our retreat master.
In one of Cardinal Burke’s retreat talks he spoke on the topic of priestly celibacy. He stressed how this rule of the Church for priests must not be looked at as a burden, but as a great gift. In renouncing marriage and a family for the sake of the Kingdom, priests imitate Christ, the High Priest and Victim, who Himself was celibate, and free themselves to be able to serve God, and Christ’s flock, with a single and undivided heart.
Speaking to about 40 priests, he said, “Our priestly identity with Christ, Shepherd and Head of the Father’s flock, includes celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Participation in the priestly ministry of Christ, the High Priest, in His pastoral charity finds a most fitting and eloquent expression in the offering of all our affections and inclinations to sexual union to God for love of Him and of His people. When offered with true joy, God’s people cannot fail to see in celibate love the reflection of Christ’s faithful and enduring love for them. At the same time too, when offered with joy, it fills the heart of the priest with pure and chaste love for his people, and with the desire to give himself more fully in the service of his people.”
I think that priestly celibacy as willed by Christ for his priests is a great gift particularly for our present age: in our sex-saturated society which so much stresses pleasures of the flesh, celibate priests give a powerful witness that in the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus tells us, there will be no giving and taking in marriage; therefore, the celibate priesthood is a sign of the Kingdom to come.
As the CCC teaches: “Virginity [or celibacy] for the sake of the kingdom of heaven is . . . a powerful sign of the supremacy of the bond with Christ and of the ardent expectation of his return, a sign which also recalls that marriage is a reality of this present age which is passing away” (no. 1619).
Moreover, as Cardinal Burke stressed, priestly celibacy and consecrated virginity for the sake of the Kingdom is a source of spiritual fruitfulness for the world. He pointed out that in the Gospels, Christ gives His teaching on celibacy immediately after His teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.
This is significant. Why? I believe that priests, when they are faithful in following Christ in their celibacy, and filled with joy in serving Christ’s flock, give inspiration to married couples to remain faithful to their spouses.
Similarly, married couples, and their children, offer a wonderful support to priests. Jesus in the Gospel alludes to this when He says that those who leave all to follow him will have “a hundred times more brothers and sister and mothers and children now, in the present age.”
Yes, priestly celibacy requires sacrifice, but so does the married life. And, as Cardinal Burke stressed to us priests, God always gives persons the graces they need to fulfill their respective vocations in life.
But priests, as well as husbands and wives, must always pray to receive those graces. I would have to say, sadly, that in almost all the cases where a priest that has abandoned his priestly ministry and his celibacy, he has first abandoned his life of prayer.
In regard to persevering in a life of priestly celibacy or consecrated virginity, I’ll share this little anecdote I heard years ago about Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. When Mother Teresa was in her 70’s, a reporter in an interview asked her what her greatest struggle was as a Missionary of Charity. He expected her to say something like, “the extreme poverty I encounter daily among the poor.” But without any hesitation or second thought, Mother Teresa responded, “My biggest struggle is with maintaining my vow of virginity.” That about knock the socks off the reporter questioning her!“She still struggles to keep her vow of virginity?!” Yes, for while there may be snow on the roof, in the hearth the fire still burns.
Cardinal Burke ended his talk on celibacy with these beautiful and inspiring words: “If Christ is our all, and we give all our affections to Him, we will find all of what we desire.”
Let us pray on this Sunday, as Pope Francis and bishops from around the world meet in Rome for the Synod for the Family, that the Holy Spirit will strengthen family life, and that thus strengthened, families will be sources of many priestly and religious vocations.
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