by John Pankratz
Making a life-long promise of celibacy in imitation of Jesus has always been radical, and it goes without saying that in our modern culture many see this promise as strange, unnatural, or even harmful. Yet even today there are still many reasons why someone might remain unmarried whether by unchosen circumstances or in order to pursue various temporal interests. However, as a man preparing to receive Holy Orders my decision to promise to live a celibate life is neither unchosen nor for the sake of worldly pursuits. Rather I choose to make this solemn promise as an act of entrustment and consecration of myself to God and to the Church. I would like to briefly reflect on the three primary reasons why I am choosing to make this promise.
First, I am choosing to be celibate in order to make a radical gift of myself to God and to others. By forsaking marriage for God’s kingdom, I will become a sign and witness that God is worth giving everything to. This is not to denounce marriage as bad or evil; on the contrary my promise affirms the goodness of marriage and family life because only good things can be sacrificed. Precisely by sacrificing such a great good as marriage, my celibate state becomes a testament that God is worth sacrificing even the best goods of this life in order to follow him. Through my promise of celibacy, I will belong to God in a new and exclusive way which is meant to leave my heart undivided and for him alone. However, this in no way severs me from others in our community, instead it gives me a greater freedom to make myself available to the needs of my Christian brothers and sisters in our diocese through the ministry of my priestly service. Being a celibate also does not automatically make me a saint, as I will continue to walk with you all on this earthly pilgrimage as a fellow sinner in need of God’s grace and mercy. Celibacy is simply a state of life that is a radical self-donation which allows me to love God and my neighbor in a manner of total availability within the life of the Church.
Secondly, I am choosing to be celibate in order to begin to live the life of heaven on earth. Like all Christians I am called to live in the world but not to be of the world. Particularly as a celibate my state of life will point to the ultimate reality that all men and women are not made for this earth but for heaven. Both marriage and celibacy are signs of our common heavenly destiny but in different and complementary ways. Married couples witness to the mystery of heaven by being a sign of the eternal marriage covenant between Christ and the Church. However, earthly marriage and family life are temporal; neither will continue once this life is finished. Instead in heaven we will all celebrate at the one marriage supper of the Lamb with the family of God for all eternity. Therefore, consecrated celibate persons complement the witness of married couples by being a sign and reminder to all Christians that we are not made for this earth but for the eternal bliss of heaven.
Finally, I am choosing to be celibate to more completely conform my life to Jesus’ earthly life. Jesus lived on this earth as a celibate, and his celibate life is the perfect model of the first two reasons I have already mentioned. This is because his celibacy was a sign of his total self-gift to God the Father and to the Church, as well as being a sign pointing to the eternal life of heaven. Therefore, the best reason to promise celibacy is because it is a special call to imitate Jesus’ earthly life and witness in our own day and age. Moreover, Jesus is not only the perfect model of celibacy, even more so he is the one who makes my faithful living out of celibacy possible through his grace. As his celibate priest by his grace I will become an alter Christus, another Christ, carrying out and furthering his saving mission in our diocese and beyond.
John Pankratz is a seminarian for the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings currently studying in Rome and is expected to be Ordained a Deacon in October 2020.
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