5 minute read
Living Celibacy
C eliba C y
Celibacy is not attractive. In a culture where sexuality is so consistently and vehemently glorified, a lifestyle that is determined by celibacy is not attractive. Many Catholics today are enthusiastic about promoting vocations. Thanks be to God! This interest is a wonderful response on the part of many faithful lay people. However, we face an uphill battle in promoting a culture of vocations. Much in contemporary society stifles the desire for religious life in young people. I would like to call attention to one particular negative influence: celibacy is not attractive. For most serious Catholics, I think we would pride ourselves on our resistance against the ideology of the secular world. And if we speak about how to approach one’s sexuality, indeed, many young people are waking up more and more to the fact that the secular dream of sexual freedom has not led to freedom at all.
However, I think the impact of the larger culture has another layer of influence: most young men and women have an unconscious, unarticulated, and un-chosen, aversion to celibacy as a serious life option. Even amongst serious young Catholics, a half-realized judgment seems to have been made: “Celibacy for the Kingdom really can’t give me satisfaction in this life like marriage can.” This proposition, resting in one’s interior, remains untested for the vast majority of Catholic young people. This is a strange phenomenon amidst the revitalization of the Church in the era of the New Evangelization, for celibacy has always been the counterpoise of the Church’s offerings to the human person in the twin vocational paths. The proposal is simple: commit your life to another person and you will find joy. Rather than spending your life seeking the next thing that your anxious heart proposes, walking past and leaving behind whoever happens to be inadequate to your fancy of the moment, settle down and commit to giving yourself away. It takes time and it takes work. But through it you gain your life back, trading the misery of selfishness for the peace and freedom of holiness. This fundamental tenant that committing to another person is good has always been envisaged in one of two paths: stable marriage or stable celibacy. Give yourself away one way or another. And this makes a lot of sense. The answer one makes to that question determines everything. If I give myself entirely to my wife and my kids, my life will be determined by that dynamic. If I give myself entirely to God in a commitment of celibate love, my life will be determined by Him. Saint John Paul II teaches us the same in his Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata: “The Church has always taught the preeminence of perfect chastity for the sake of the Kingdom, and rightly considers it the ‘door’ of the whole consecrated life.” The entryway, as it were, for the religious vocation is the commitment to celibacy, because it is a commitment to reserve for God alone what is so mysteriously vital and personal to one’s sense of identity. Poverty and obedience (the other two evangelical counsels) seem to stand back from one’s core, just a little bit. Celibacy issues from the heart and determines one’s life. So if we want, in the Church, to build a culture of vocations, perhaps an emphasis needs to be placed more on values that flow into the celibate option. Of course identifying joyful religious communities and proposing specific charisms are fine ways of “showing off” celibate living. But the deeper reality of reserving one’s innermost self for an encounter with God, in order to give oneself to God, requires much more than an attraction to ministry. After all, doing most types of ministry is no longer a privilege only of consecrated
by Br. Leven Harton Vocations Director • vocations@kansasmonks.org
Chastity is a difficult, long- term matter; one must wait patiently for it to bear fruit...But at the same time, chastity is the sure way to happiness.
- st. john paul ii
persons; in the twenty-first century lay people do almost every kind of service work that the Church accomplishes. And this is fitting. The consecrated life then, is not distinguished by ministry. Rather, it is distinctive in the primacy of encountering Christ as the orientation of one’s whole life. The determining impact of celibacy is what is most central to religious consecration. Thus, engendering a deep prayer life in young people is much more important for attracting vocations than getting involved in ministry. Do young people see Jesus Christ as person? Are they fascinated by the nearness of God in the Incarnation? Have they recognized the need for a Savior in their own lives? If Jesus really is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, if He answers our most basic and most urgent desires, then helping young people see the beauty of consecrated life should be an education in understanding their own hearts. Helping young people encounter the living God will generate more vocations. Let us all recommit to pursuing a deep prayer life so that we can help engender this same desire in others. This kind of work will help develop a culture that leads to religious vocations.
This article has been adapted from the latest issue of Obsculta, a discernment publication from St. Benedict’s Abbey. For more see monkvocations.org
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