The Heresy of Celibacy

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One of the greatest abuses in Church history is found in the heresy that celibacy is more spiritual than marriage. The foundation of this abuse is based on the teaching of the apostle Paul who taught that celibacy is the preferred state for serving Christ. His point was that someone who is married can’t empty out their bank accounts and move around the world to serve the Lord. His teaching had to do with utility, and it had nothing to do with spirituality. Unfortunately, his teaching continues to be distorted.

One of the greatest examples of distortion in Church history is found in how the Fathers understood the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon is a whole book dedicated to the sacred mystery of human love. Instead of seeing it this way, the fathers would allegorize it as a love story about Christ and his church. When they saw it for what it was, they would get in trouble. Theodore of Mopsuestia knew what this book was about, human love, and wanted to get it removed from the canon for this reason. His views were condemned. To see this book as a reflection of human love was condemned.  Married life was just not a spiritual state in the History of the Church, only celibacy.

I could go on with examples, but the fruit of this bigotry has been enshrined in the culture of the modern Catholic Church. For example, I just watched a female Byzantine Catholic monastic go on a Catholic show and tell people she gave up natural marriage for the supernatural call to celibacy. The Eastern Catholic churches have always called marriage a holy mystery, it’s a sacrament, so this was surprising to hear. Her words were an obvious sign of being indoctrinated to a view that thrives in Catholic culture.  

The traditional view of the Eastern Church on marriage is that it is supernatural. The man and the woman receive power to divinize their love through the Holy Mystery. The love is something that has the potential to last forever since it becomes God’s love. This is why remarriage is discouraged. This is why married men that are being ordained make a vow not to remarry after their spouse dies. It’s to honor that divinzed love. This is also why in the traditional Byzantine marriage rite there is no phrase “to death do us part”. The love becomes divine, eternal, this is the purpose of the sacramental reality.

What is sad is that in the culture of the Catholic Church the sacramental reality of Marriage just becomes a form of divine help.  It has no lasting value and consequently it becomes the lesser spiritual path. For this reason, it is for the most part reduced to just a divine contract that ends in death. Obviously, the inclusion of “to death do us part” is based on this. A phrase that oddly enough originates in the protestant tradition.  You won’t find it in the Catholic Church before the advent of Protestantism.

What Catholics need to learn is that the power behind celibacy and marriage, what makes them spiritual paths, is the same. It's our sexuality that makes these paths spiritual. Our sexuality is sacred and how we use it makes our calling spiritual. Basically, Chastity for the monk and the married person is our power. The monk uses their chastity to reveal the angelic state of the coming kingdom through celibacy. In contrast, the married practice chastity so that their sexual act can become divinized love.  The love in the sexual union is ultimately a revelation of God’s love in the world. Whenever this truth is devalued by someone in favor of celibacy, they are  following a false teaching.