It is all about the Eucharist. Catholic priesthood is entirely in service of the Love Encounter of Christ the Bridegroom with his Bridal Church in the Eucharist.
The priesthood is entirely deferential to the Eucharist, as Event, Covenant-Communion, Presence, Destiny.
The spousal love of Christ for his Church, so clear in St. Paul, is the core of Catholic life and belief. To minimize or dismiss this stark image is to eviscerate Catholicism of its heart and soul.
Everything...Everything...Everything in Catholic life flows out of and into that tiny, quiet, tasteless, humble host that is offered, sacrificed, transubstantiated, received and remains for us in the tabernacle as permanent presence.
In the mass, the personality of the particular priest disappears. He becomes an icon, a representative of Christ present, speaking the Gospel, delighting in his people, offering his life, giving us of his body and blood to consume. We can see how narcissism in a priest, specifically in the liturgy, is a detriment.
Consider Holy Thursday when we celebrate three gestures: the last supper as first Eucharist, the establishment of the priesthood, and the washing of the feet as expressive of love of each other. Of the three which is Prime? Without doubt: the Eucharist. Priesthood is here to give us Christ in the Eucharist. The love of the brethren flows intrinsically from Christ grasping us in this engagement. I have been annoyed by priests who have given primacy on this night to the priesthood; speaking about it; requiring that males have their feet washed to be clear on the male priesthood. The cart here is before the horse. I know also of Catholic communities who celebrate the washing, but not the Eucharist. This is a loss as well!
Everything in the life of the priest serves as icon, sacramental, manifestation of the bridal love: his education, erudition, masculinity, celibacy, holiness, demeanor, style, charm, gifts and deficits, failures and sufferings.
Celibacy is not absolutely necessary for the priesthood. Masculinity is. Erudition, intelligence, sobriety, emotional maturity, charm, temperance, chastity, temperance, prudence...are not absolutely necessary for the priesthood. But all those qualities are appropriate and enhance our cult of the Eucharist. Not cult of the priesthood, but cult of the Eucharist. A parish whose pastor lacks intelligence, charm, sobriety, chastity, prudence, celibacy, humor, maturity...will still have the Eucharist. But our engagement with it will be diminished, maybe entirely destroyed.
On the contrary, a priest who is virile, humble, chaste, temperate, prudent, charming, mature, light hearted, sober...enhances the love encounter of the Groom with the Bride.
It is not possible for the Church to ordain women. It is possible to ordain married men. But to do so, to dispense with celibacy as mandatory, would...I firmly believe...diminish our love of Christ in the Sacrament. Were we to emulate the two-tiered priesthood of the Eastern churches in making celibacy optional, pervasive social and personal pressures would marginalize the minority of celibate priests. We gain quantity, but lose quality. Our Eucharistic depth, intensity, and devotion will be diminished.
Analogously, we could ordain men without a college degree and training in theology. One can imagine a situation or culture where this could work, but not in our developed world. We could ordain men with low intelligence, emotional instability, immaturity, addictions, very bad hygiene, lack of common sense, incapacity for paternity, compulsive misogyny or homosexuality. Perhaps we could fill our empty rectories with such. This would entirely desecrate our sacred liturgy. We could automatically ordain all men at confirmation so that every household could technically confect the Eucharist. This would be a vile sacrilege.
In Holy Orders, the man surrenders his personality, intellect, will, virility, sexuality, longings, paternity to Christ who accepts the offering and transfigures him into an "alter Christus," another Christ. The urgency for intimacy so fundamental for each of us is captured by Christ who draws the man into his own heart and then sends him to bring that heart to the Bride. His natural, good urges, energies, defects, longings all are inflamed in the Holy Spirit.
Diocesan priests, unlike the religious orders, make the evangelical vow of celibacy, but technically not those of obedience and poverty. They do vow obedience to the bishop in regard to their ministry, but not technically beyond that. However, since their vocation is comprehensive of their entire person, unlike a job or even a career, this becomes in effect an exhaustive obedience. In practice equivalent of that of the religious and of the fidelity of the spouses in marriage.
Regarding poverty, some priests benefit from the affluence of their families and so become a source of resentment and envy with expensive cars or elite golf clubs. First of all, there is nothing wrong with those things in themselves: there is no vow broken, no injustice committed. Even, for example, if an generous, holy, humble priest splurges now and then on red shoes at his favorite lace shop, we do well to adopt a "live and let live" and "who am I to judge?" attitude. The financial scandals we hear about in the Vatican and local levels are garden variety greed and part of the flawed nature we all share from original sin. My own view is that "it is just money." Personally, I detest a single mortal sin against charity or chastity to theft of millions of dollars from some fund. (Is that an eccentricity of mine? Or a gospel viewpoint? I leave that judgement to you dear Reader!) But in fact most priests live in frugality, not only of spirit but actually. The salary of a priest is miniscule. On their day off they may have nowhere of their own for retreat. Many are generous with their resources. Their actual poverty may exceed that of the religious in a secure, tasteful monastery and rival that of the underclass family raising children while working for Uber or Walmart. Such is a quiet, anonymous poverty rarely recognized by a bourgeois laity prone to resentment and envy.
In the Catholic economy, spousal fidelity and celibacy/virginity complementarily enrich each other. Marriage cannot itself endure or fructify without infusion of the heavenly, eschatological elements of sacrifice and transcendence so manifest in the priest and religious. The happy, wholesome Catholic family is absolutely under the influence of humble, holy priests. The marginalization of priestly celibacy will further weaken the family.
Let us consider the involuntary celibacy suffered passively by (I dare to say) most of us: the disabled emotionally or physically, divorced, married but alienated, widowed, homosexual, and those who randomly fail to meet the right person. These share, mystically if not canonically, (in my view) in the virginal/celibate state of life. Lacking spousal intimacy, they are thrown more desperately into the life of prayer. Bereft of their own family, they find themselves serving the children of other families. They share mystically in the charism, vocation, joy and suffering of celibacy and virginity. To marginalize priestly celibacy will add insult to injury for these who pray, suffer, and serve humbly and heroically.
It is not widely discussed among the laity that the priest makes another vow along with celibacy: to daily practice of the "prayer of the Church," formerly know as the "office" (not the TV show) or the "breviary." Such has been called "the wife of the priest." This is not a sweet sentiment. Rather, it is a deeply spousal reality: along with the entire Church (especially the monastic and increasingly much of the laity) the priest surrenders himself into the Word (psalms, gospels, mediations, songs) as the Bride receives the Groom. Here the priest and the Church are bridal as they receive the seed of life from the Bridegroom, as they receive the fleshly seed of life in communion. The priest here is receptive, hyper-feminine, in reception of Christ. This prepares him to act in the person of Christ in the liturgy and the apostolate.
Celibacy is a moral act, a vow of heroic dimensions as it is lived out in a long drama of quiet humility. But this human agency, as with all things creaturely, is respective of and responsive to the greater, primal agency of Divine Freedom: it is Christ, in the Trinity, who elects this specific man, with his inadequacies and sins; inflicts upon him a lifelong deprivation of emotional intimacy; and gradually configures him to himself. He missions him a spiritual father, spouse, servant of his bridal/maternal Church.
Celibacy is unnatural. It is not normal or itself wholesome as such. It is supernatural: a communion with Christ in heaven. It is, like virginity, already a privileged participation in heaven on earth. It is a foretaste of where we are all going, where there will be no giving and taking in marriage.
Rare, graced is the man capable of this life. It is, first of all, a call from heaven. Miraculous. Defying of the laws of nature. But grace builds on nature so every good priest is a unique synthesis of standard dynamics: a deep prayer life; an indefinable interior, if imperfect, psychological integrity; a congeniality with solitude; a gift for friendship; a humility in his failings; a delight in the challenges and ;fruits of the apostolate, a joy in being SO loved, and an tender urgency to respond in praise of the Lover and service of those He loves.
Christ loves us, in the Eucharist, intimately and reverently, celibately. This love encounter is manifest in the priest himself...his own holiness, chastity, humility, tenderness, intelligence, generosity, sacrifice, and joy. The union with Christ is mediated in the sacrament, in the proclamation of the Gospel...and also in the purified, sanctified personality of the priest.
The intuitive reception of the priest by the Catholic is sensitive to the two defining dynamics of his life and celibacy: he belongs to Christ alone; and he belongs to us. As in our reception of a consecrated religious, we stand in awe: this one is set apart, sacred, belongs to heaven. We address "father" or "sister" or "brother" or "mother." At the same time, however, we ourselves make a claim upon this person: he is my, our father, mother, brother, sister. As a Catholic, I own every single priest, sister, brother and vowed person. The married person belongs first and foremost exclusively to the spouse, children and family. The celibate and virgin does not. He/she belongs first to Christ. And then to us.
For example, if I am in desperate need of the sacraments, for example close to death or worse, the death of mortal sin, I do not hesitate to call the priest. He belongs to me. He is mine. He belongs to no other, except Christ, who has designated him as mine, as ours. If he is on his day off on his way to the mountains, I do not care because he is my father, my brother, my spouse. I cannot make that claim upon a married person, even if ordained. He belongs to his spouse and children primarily.
I speak for my own family and so many others.
We have known and loved, been loved by, so many fine priests...gifted, generous, delightful, heroic, chaste, humble, persevering, holy.
The vicious, demonic, slander, disparagement, and assault upon the priesthood is to be renounced by our loyalty, affection, esteem and prayer.
Yes they are flawed, imperfect and vulnerable before these attacks from hell. All the more do we pledge our allegiance and love.
May our Lord, his Mother, and the saints protect them from evil, bless their work, and give them the "hundredfold" promised.
Grant us more vocations...to priesthood and evangelical life.
Inflame us with Eucharist hearts in love with our priests!
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