God loves…shouldn’t we??
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again ‘a point central to our faith is that God is ‘Love’, but this leads to a big problem in the way our Church works today. Where love is God is. This view strengthens our view of marriage as a sacred union where God is the love that unites both parties. What then of Gods representatives?
Many say that priestly celibacy is what makes the church truly holy….that it holds such vocations as an altogether unique way of life and service of God. To be perfectly honest I’m not so sure I agree. I know of many dedicated men and women who felt such a call to serve but then fell in love. How does it make sense that love is what blocks many Christians way to serve and represent God. Should one’s first task in learning to represent God not be learning how to love?
As sons and daughters of God we are called to live lives of love. A common misconception is that priestly celibacy is an ancient tradition central to the faith……it’s not. Much evidence exists to claim that St. Peter was married. In the 4th century priestly celibacy was introduced to canon law but there was this was in the midst of an ongoing argument on the matter. Since the foundation of the Church much debate had surrounded the words of St. Paul when he stated that that a bishop or deacon should be “the husband of one wife”. Some would later interpret the word ‘wife’ as a reference to God as the ‘bride’ in the wording of Jesus when He spoke of the Church as a ‘bridegroom’. Others held by the belief that Paul stated nothing more than that a priest should adhere to the rules of the Church and only take one wife.
The general belief until the 4th century though was that priests could marry and some chose to remain celibate. In a Christendom so soon after the belief systems of Rome and Greece virginity was hailed as sacred and so those clergymen who chose a life of celibacy were hailed as ‘good’ and ‘holy’ men. Yet the accepted was that it was up to the individual cleric and the majority did live as others did and marry.
With falling numbers in ordinations I could jump to the argument that this would help the numbers…and I’m sure it would. But that argument is secondary to the view that such a rule is contradictory to following a God who is Love. It not only
makes no sense but it just seems silly. God did not come down to us as fully divine without humanity. To follow Him is not to live as the Divine. He embraced humanity. Love is the link between humanity and the Divine. Love is the magic in our world which flows from God yet His Church denies it to its faithful servants.
We are all called to serve God. We are all called to love. How can those who are called to the priesthood,…those who are called to direct, us ignore the divine spark inside them? To live without love is to live in sin….how can we condemn sin and enshrine it in God’s Church at the same time???
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 and is filed under Love Thy Neighbour.
You can leave a comment.
