The Christian celibacyThe celibate heart, whether of the laity, priests or religious, is a divine gift by which the human heart is embedded in the Heart of Christ. To the rhythm of the beating of its Beloved, the celibate heart is progressively enlarged until it incorporates within it all humanity without distinction of race, culture, age or language, thus announcing to the world the radiant love of the Kingdom of God.
The celibacy spiritual life is not properly an act of human choice, but the free acceptance of a divine invitation. The human person does not choose between getting married and being celibate, as he chooses, on the other hand, between getting married and remaining single.
What the celibate really does is to accept, with an unconditional yes, fruit of a loving and free discernment, a divine proposal of eternal spousal love.
Celibacy is accepted in the same way as the Son of God freely accepted his passion and death out of love for his Father, or the Virgin Mary, the divine design to be the Mother of the Redeemer. Yes was indispensable for the development of a plan lovingly designed by the Father from all eternity.
The celibacy contributes to the sanctification of the world and all creation in a different way than marriage. They are two complementary spousal modes: one sacramental, the other donational.
Marriage forms a family; celibacy cares for humanity as a family. Marriage divinizes human love. Celibacy humanizes divine love. Marriage begets carnal children; celibacy, spiritual children. Marriage propagates and educates the human species, celibacy the offering.
The celibate person must value marriage highly, but must also learn to transcend it. For this reason, celibacy exalts marriage. Without the institution of marriage, there is no celibacy, but pure singleness; and without celibacy, marriage is easily degraded and trivialized.
The celibate person loves all human beings, beginning with those to whom he owes the most: his parents, relatives and friends. But in the celibate heart there is no room for an exclusive love other than God himself.
In this sense, celibacy is a sort of falling in love with the divine. The celibate person directs all his or her erosthat is, his desire for possessive love, towards God, and from God, towards others, this time already in the form of agape. The married person loves God in his or her spouse; the celibate, on the other hand, loves everyone in God.
Celibacy as a gift
It is true that the celibacy is not only a gift but also a task that demands total continence. But this joyful duty does not imply the repression of the sexual impulse but rather its liberation through the education of the affections and the redemption of one's ego with the grace that flows from the gift received.
A celibacy not properly discerned or not nourished with the love of God day by day, like a burning bonfire, runs the risk of turning into a caricature of celibacywith disastrous consequences for the ecclesial and human community. I refer to the facts.
Celibacy and marriage
The person who has received the precious gift of celibacy admires and loves the institution of marriage, even if he or she realizes in the depths of his or her soul that it is only and exclusively for God.
The sacramentally married person, for his part, admires and loves the gift of celibacy in the world, also for his children, as a sign and a foretaste of the kingdom of Heaven. But let each traveler follow his own path, as the poet said, for there is no such a thing as too much, too little.
The celibate person should have in much the capacity of effort and sacrifice of the married person for her spouse and children; the married person, on the other hand, should admire the contemplative capacity of the celibate, her total detachment, even living in the midst of the world, and her desire to give herself to every human being, to every child of God, without distinction of race, color or religion.
Marriage and celibacy thus constitute two ways of living the same and unique Christian vocation in a holy way: the first emphasizes the union of Christ with his Church, the second the certain and actual presence of Christ's kingdom among us.
*The print magazine Omnes January 2024 delves into the topic of celibacy with competent authors, and notes on the teaching of the Popes and the Tradition of the Church.
