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Another good argument for CELIBACY?
One of the scariest moments in my life I experienced when I was about 10 or 11 years old. Every summer when we were kids and still too young to help in their thriving restaurant business in Baguio, our parents would send us off to Sta. Rita, Pampanga in the summer to live with our uncle, Tatang Jek, my mother’s elder brother. In those days, indeed up to now, summertime in Baguio was a pagan holiday destination. While people in the lowlands were deep into the Lenten season and religious mood, holding nightly “pabasa, ” joining religious processions, doing the stations of the cross and even flagellations, those tens of thousands who trekked to Baguio ostensibly to escape the summer heat had nothing else in mind but to have a really good time.
One day while we were playing hide-and-seek in Tatang Jek’s big house, I thought I’d hide in one of the built-in cabinets downstairs. As I jerked open one of those cabinet doors, lo and behold, I stood face to face with a life-size statue of a Christ, his faced all bruised and bloodied, a crown of thorns on his bleeding head, wearing a velvet robe and hands bound together and looking meekly straight into my eyes. Holy Christ! It was the “ECCE HOMO” – “Behold the man.” (Jn. 19:5). Needless to say, I peeed in my pants. If I have a tendency to be religious, I can only blame it on that early baptism of fire. I also stopped playing hide-and-seek and made sure we installed sliding doors on our cabinets.
It turns out that Tatang Jek was one of the privileged few in our hometown traditionally assigned to build and maintain one of the so-called “carrosas” in the annual Holy Week processions portraying the various scenes in the passion of Christ. Tatang Jek’s carrosa involved the scene depicting Jesus Christ standing before Pilate and uttering what should now be one of the most famous declarations of Jesus Christ: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Jn.18:36. A few years ago, upon my suggestion and hoping to impress the crowd, we changed the sign on the carrosa into Latin to read: “Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo.” No one cared or dared to ask what the sign meant.
I think I can put it better in this way. This is no time for unintelligible Latin or Greek phrases. I think Jesus Christ in effect was saying: “Hindi po dito nagtatapos and mundong ito.” It was a great man’s dying declaration or testimony, if you will, of the existence of a hereafter. If you translate what he said in Hebrew or Aramaic, he was saying in effect “kung kayo po ay naniniwala na anak po ako ng Diyos, na galing po ako sa Diyos, makinig at maniwala na po kayo: hindi po dito nagtatapos ang mundong ito, mayroon pa pong kasunod, iyon po ang kaharian ng langit.”
So, alright, you might ask, since you seem to be all fired-up about this quotation, what’s it got to do with celibacy? To begin with, let’s not forget that the requirement of celibacy does not rest on clear doctrinal or evangelical arguments. Indeed, during the early Christian era, the debate on the celibate life centered around two vague references to the letters of Paul, 1 Cor.7:32 and 1 Tim.3:2-4. Truth to tell, up the this time, many priests and religious still continue to wrack their brains vainly trying to propose the best arguments in support of celibacy – other than a homely, termagant wife.
Well, I have found or I am convinced that Jn. 18:36 is as good an argument as any in support of those who have taken on the vow or embraced this religious practice or discipline as a way of life. We all need, nay we demand, evidence, whether physical, metaphysical, or whatever other kind there is, to convince us or to prove to us any worthwhile proposition. We, yes, especially us laymen, need witnesses, convincing and true, who are willing to die for the sake of truth. We need witnesses heroic and brave enough, who are willing to give up even the sexual drive if only to prove to us that there really is a hereafter, that there is life after death, that there is a heaven and hell, and that there is a reward that awaits those who have kept the faith, as promised by Jesus Christ himself. Prove to me: “Hindi po dito nagtatapos ang ating mundo.”
“James, please tell me, am I missing something?” a favorite priest-friend of mine will suddenly confront me in the middle of a drinking session. “In vino veritas – in wine there is truth,” you see. I can almost sense that it is the desperate cry of a good priest confronting the eternal question? All my life, I have tried to be good, I have obeyed the commandments, I have given up the ways of the world. Was it all worth it? It is the cry of a virile albeit middle-aging man of the cloth who really wants to know, who wants to be doubly sure. “Please, brother, tell me, before it’s too late, for goodness sake!”
I did not have the heart to tell him then. It was neither the right time nor the right place. We were in polite company, with ladies around. So, I’m telling him now. The truth, the painful, the heavenly truth. “But of course, Father, you are missing something! Stop kidding yourself. You are missing something that many people will give half a kingdom for. Many wars have been fought over a face like Helen’s. It’s also the reason we have a serious problem of overpopulation. Even the birds and the bees cannot help but do it.” But ask me the more important question, Father. Go ahead, ask me: “was it all worth it?”
Yes, Father, I do sincerely believe that it’s all worth it. We, laymen, unbelievers, we of little faith, we do need constant and convincing reassurances and reminders that there really is a hereafter. We need people like you who have staked their claim not on this life but on the hereafter. We need living witnesses, heroes who are willing to live and die for what they believe, especially when it’s something that cannot be seen or touched. In every field of human endeavor, we need heroic examples, the quintessential evidence particularly in the area of the metaphysical. You are our hero in this regard. You are saying to us, it is good, brother, it is worthwhile to be good, to live for God. I have felt it, I have experienced it. I am staking my life and all that is dear about life to prove to you that there is life after death, a much better, sweeter life.
It is said that the measure of one’s love is what one is willing to give up for it. Yes, we do realize what you have given up for the sake of the kingdom, Father, no, not just sex or women (or men) but power, fame, fortune and everything else that goes with it. We are impressed, we are edified, Father. You are our inspiration. We need you. You are our hero. Stay as pure as you are. You are the wind beneath the wings of these weak, low-flying angels. JAMES L.
P.S. - I believe Jn.18:36 is also a good argument against priests seriously contemplating on running for public office or actively engaging in politics. But I’d better reserve that for another blog or until the end of our favorite Gov’s term.
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Hi Jey! That was a wonderful read! Not being a theologian or a well-read person (when it comes to the Bible) I have only one thing to say about celibacy... I think it is the highest form of dying to oneself. Saying NO to a basic urge of satisfying our worldly need for sexual pleasure is such great sacrifice... In my mind, I am thinking, wasn't this one of Jesus' challenges when He said "Come, follow me"?... Do tell...
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Apo James, I totally support your revived propensity for thought provoking articles. May you also be reminded that interest to read all the way to the last 4794th word requires utmost interest of the reader. Sa mga karamihang maiksi ang attention span, lalo na sa cerebral discourses mo, malamang hindi makuha ang mensaheng parating mo. I always look forward to the Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, homilies because nanunuot sa puso at sagad sa buto ang mensahe na nai-lalahad niya sa loob ng 300 segundo. Yun lang at patuloy kong babasahin ang mga sulat mo. Salamat Apo!
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WOW, tnx, kuya bob, for taking the time to read my blogs. as you know, mine is not to convince, to crusade nor to preach. mine is not to outshine nor to outdo, much less to show off or become famous. this is hardly the right medium for that.. it's simply that "the moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on ... " I realize of course that there are millions of blogs to read out there, millions of photos to view, tens of thousands of books to flip over ... and so little time. I am also only too aware of my limitations as a neophyte writer and blogger. But if I can get one like you to read some of my blogs some of the time, I believe it's well worth the effort. tnx agn and rgards.
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Ate, NAMASTE. Tnx for reading the blog. But pls.I hope you don't fail to catch the central message. Celibacy for celibacy's sake is meaningless. It could even be mistaken for a strange fetish. What is infinitely more important is why celibacy. I have suggestd one answer: for the sake of the hereafter. Jn.18:36. Manila Cafe. 1954-2000 (?).
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TNX, kuya lukas, I needed that. To be honest, I was challenged to write that piece after viewing the video you shared with us on that "Life after Life Panel Discussion." With all due respect, I thought those guys had really no clue what they were talking about. Call me bigoted but as far as I'm concerned, my faith tells me that the only people I should listen to when it comes to the hereafter are the prophets, angels, Bro. Jess and people who came from the dead. Indeed, had Bro. Jess not come around, we would still be worshipping golden calves, thunder and lightning, monkeys, cows, snakes and rats like they still do in India.. On our own, we simply don't know what's out there. I don't have one close relative come from the dead to tell me about it either. I found something disagreeably shallow about the panel's apparent reliance on purely clinical data. So, for now, I'll go by what the Son of Man who purportedly came from out there told us. I realize it's a leap of faith. But isn't that what it's all about, this business of the hereafter? But then agn, in this age of the cyberspace, it's too bad half of this world still hasn't heard of this man called Jesus, as told to us so vividly by your "tukayo" -Luke, the evangelist.
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Celibacy is not a doctrine of the Catholic Church. It is just a membership requirement, i.e., if you want to be a Catholic priest, you are required to be celibate. Second, celibacy is not forever - unllike priesthood, where once a priest, he is a priest forever.What I mean to say is that, you can give up celibacy without committing a sin by following the required process of the Catholic Church. (Maraming XVD who have passed this process - where they were once celibate and now no more.).In re life hereafter, there is no need to break our head as to whether celibacy is worth it. Just do the correct acts and believe in the life hereafter. In other words, play safe - just believe. You have nothing to lose.
(Jun Densing) |
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