I recently had a very interesting conversation
with Dr. Baker after Mass about the closing hymn for that day, How Great Thou
Art. It is a Baptist oldie but goody and usually has a number of connotations
for Old Baptists, being as it is a conversion song and a funeral song. The
conversation with Dr. Baker led me to think about the important role that music
plays in our life of faith. It is interesting, particularly in hymnody how the
combination of words and music create a kind of artistic alchemy, allowing for
the exchange of emotions and thought, often unspoken, at times unspeakable.
In many ways this is true overall of our lives
of faith. We have experiences, we pursue a life of prayer day after day. We
come to understand things we cannot speak and to speak things that often we do
not fully understand. That is the life of faith. It makes for difficult work
for theologians, who really need to be more mystical and for mystics who should
at times be more theological.
It also makes interesting work for rectors and
their conferences. We are called upon to discuss things, to explain things, to
encourage things. This takes place because, hopefully, the rector is a man of
faith, a man thoroughly inundated in the life of prayer, the causes of the
Spirit. And yet, the more I pray, the more deeply that movement of the Spirit
of God takes root in me, the more often I find that words cannot express what I
believe.
We hear in the Scriptures: Be prepared to give
an account of the hope that is within you. Yet, if we are honest in prayer and
honest in the pursuit of our life of faith we must realize that the hope that
is within us cannot be compromised by the cold external light of examination.
Perhaps it is also that way with celibacy.
In my rector’s conferences for the rest of this
semester, I wish to focus on the life of celibacy, its spiritual charisms and
the meaning of celibacy in the life of the priest. In conjunction with these
talks, I have asked Fr. Peter and Fr. Bede to provide us with a book of essays
on celibacy that were part of a workshop given at Notre Dame a few years ago
hosted by Dr. John Cavadini. I know you will find the book interesting because in
it the tale of celibacy is told by some very reliable raconteurs. As we
approach the discipline of Lent, I hope the words I have to offer today may set
the stage for that encounter. I hope that the reflection on celibacy we
undertake as a community may also deepen the love of Christ in our community.
I must tell you that I have used this book
before in a very different context. In January I sent it to the members of our
Board of Overseers. The object of this
gift was to have a discussion on celibacy at our meeting in February, a couple
of weeks ago. We did this, and I will say two things happened:
First, some of the predictable happened. We
heard that celibacy can seem old fashioned. We heard that celibacy may be out
of date. We heard that celibates might be stilted in some way. I can tell you
this perspective offered nothing new. This is what we hear almost daily on the
streets of news and social media.
Second, I heard something else. I hear from
many members of our board a deep, renewed appreciation for the charism of
celibacy. Many in the Church today have not given a great deal of thought to
this charism that is at the core of our imagination. Our board, a board of
highly engaged men and women who are very spiritually sensitive had the
opportunity to gain some new insights. I think it was most productive. Perhaps that is something the whole of the
Church needs to undertake, not to mention the whole of the world. I hope that
these conferences offer us that opportunity.
I want to begin by offering a few of what I
consider to be myths regarding the charism of celibacy. The first is that
celibacy is un-natural. This supposed insight depends upon another myth and
that is that in order to be a truly happy human person, one must be sexually
active in the physical sense. Not to be sexually active is abnormal in this
view. Of course it is a myth and when we stand back from it and examine it more
closely we understand that. Celibacy is the mode of living among many, perhaps
most of the people of the world. Even married people very often find themselves
living celibate lives and living those lives productively. The myth is
perpetuated however in our media saturated culture that physical sexuality is
the norm and all other life choices or life situations are abnormal. If we are pastorally sensitive at all, we will acknowledge that many
in our parish share our celibate vocation, even if, unlike us, they did not
actively choose it.
Another myth we frequently encounter is the
idea that celibacy is a depravation. It is giving something up so as to create
in the priest a kind of rarified man, a man unaccustomed to the vicissitudes of
the world and its temptations. Well, I say, ironically, let’s create that
rarified man. Let’s create here that man that cannot be bothered with what is
passing him by on the streets below his perch high up in the rectory. Let’s
create that sterile, bloodless, lifeless effete priest and let’s watch him
destroy himself and the Church around him in the process. Celibacy is not a
depravation, it is a fullness. It does not proceed from giving away. It
proceeds from filling myself with human and divine compassion of using that
freedom of spirit to become one spirit in Christ.
Celibacy is insanity. I spend a bit of time on
the internet last week, doing some research on approaches to celibacy in the
popular imagination. Brothers, there is very little respect for this vocation
in the world. In past years the vocation of the priesthood was highly
respected. It is not the case today. Let’s be honest. If you are here to win
human favor you are in the wrong place. You should have spent more time
cultivating your athletic prowess. This is not the place for those whose egos
need a boost. This is the place for healthy martyrs. That is OK as long as we
know it. In the popular imagination, we are insane, and celibacy is a sign of that
insanity, but the real message sent by these antidisestablishmentarianists is
that celibacy is insane in the claiming of it, but a lie in the living of it.
In other words, the world believes very strongly that we are hypocrites, that
we claim one thing and do another. We claim chastity and spend our lives
lusting after inappropriate objects. You know the tropes as well as I do. How
can these tropes be silenced? By our own authentic living, and by our openness,
by our willingness to share our struggles. Clear heads and holy hearts are
needed by today’s priest, but never expect to be respected by a sin-hardened
world.
We also hear that celibacy is a cynical choice.
Some will claim that celibacy is a selfish choice, that by choosing a celibate
life we are thinking only of ourselves and not of the others who may be the
product of our fecundity. I am thinking now of the words of Archbishop
Buechlien, words spoken at my ordination and all the ordinations he celebrated
as bishop and archbishop:
We choose to be alone so that others will not
have to be alone.
Far from being a depravation, far from
insanity, far from cynicism, a true commitment to the charism of celibacy may
be the agency that saves a world teetering on the brink of death and
annihilation.
The first essay in our Lenten book is by the
papal spiritual guru, Fr. Cantalamesa. It might be a bit controversial because
it claims, in fairly clear terms a pride of place for a specific celibate life.
He holds us the celibate way as one not only not to be ashamed of or apologetic for but one which, in its
authentic living may lead us to beatification. Note here I am not claiming de facto spiritual benefits, although I
might make that claim in a later conference, I am claiming that living the
celibate life, in its fullness, opens us to the wonder of this world’s
blessings and offers those blessings as something we are uniquely poised to
take advantage of.
Our charism of celibacy establishes a vision of
life within us.
Life that transcends the mania for choice that
inundates the culture of the most advanced civilization on earth with daily
death knells for those unborn seen as burdens to their so-called parents
Life that goes beyond the grueling grind of
poverty that robs our sisters and brothers of attending to higher calls
Life that touches the spirits of those undone
by abuse and shows them a spark of hope.
Life that plays with us, invites us into a
spirit of happiness and joy even as we face real issues in the world and in
ourselves.
Life that is the hope of our world, a world so
attuned to the death rattle that it mistakes that rattle for the music of the
age.
Let me go back for a moment now to Dr. Baker
and our conversation about the role of music. I was thinking as we were singing
the other day how much a particular song touches so readily on the themes I
want to bring out in this talk, this talk situated at the beginning the Lenten
season.
In Christ
alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ alone. This brothers and sisters is true for us. It is also true for every man, women and child that inhabits this earth. There is only one name in heaven and earth given by which we are to be saved.
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ alone. This brothers and sisters is true for us. It is also true for every man, women and child that inhabits this earth. There is only one name in heaven and earth given by which we are to be saved.
In Christ
alone, rejecting all false and empty gods, those prepared so delicately for us
and tantalizingly for us in the cuisine of our daily life
In Christ
alone, putting aside every temptation that could lead me to forget him, to
neglect him, to bracket him
He is my light
for how shall he see except in the stunning glow of his radiance?
He is my
strength, for how shall I have any strength whatsoever, except that he give it
me?
He is the
cornerstone, the very principle upon which each breath, each action, each word
tends.
He is the sold
ground, that planting place where alone growth and productivity can be
expected, but how often do we plant our hopes in unworthy fields?
We sin
We neglect
We fail
And yet, in
spite of our weakness, in our turning back endlessly to him we see those
heights of love
The heights of
love from which promontory we can survey the wreckage of this world but see
beyond its smoking remnants a bright horizon rising in the future.
What depths of
peace that gives us. But it is not a futile peace
What do we see
around us? What do we read in the news?
The world is
shaking itself apart. The lion of Islam rises in the east and we go out to meet
it not with the lamb’s gentleness but with weapons of war. Brothers and sisters
we cannot find peace for ourselves by merely annihilating our enemies. We will
find that ultimately that armament turns upon our worst enemy, myself.
Only in the
realization of who we really are, sinners in the hands of a loving God. Only
then can we find that place where fears are stilled, when striving will cease.
Celibacy is
that single-mindedness that understands, fully understands that he is the
comforter, the all in all
Celibacy is
that single-heartedness that reveals to my inner spirit that if I cannot love
Christ to the full, in devotion of heart, I have no love to give to the other.
Celibacy is
that firm conviction that here in the love of Christ and Christ alone I stand.
In Christ alone.
That charism
of celibacy applies to the human heart, whether we are priests, or married, or
religious or single, or whatever.
In these
Lenten conferences I want to explore deeply the meaning of celibacy, the real
meaning of celibacy, not the public act of isolation and rejection but the
open-armed, open-handed celibacy that finds in its embrace a world undergoing a
deep conversion, a world in which the vestiges of sin’s bestiality will fade
away, a world in which lies cannot endure, a world of peace and understanding.
Now let me go
back for a moment to the song. I find the last verse very beautiful and moving.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
