CCW Episode 4 - Marriage and Celibacy

Well, I'm back from my honeymoon, and so I finally have some time to finish up this episode, which I recorded the day after I was married in St. Louis, MO.

In this episode, I look at the relationship of the Catholic Sacrament of Marriage and how it relates to the call to Celibacy that is requested of those who are called to the vocation of Holy Orders in our Church. I have a good idea of what both vocations/sacraments require of a man due to the fact that I was in the Seminary studying the call to celibacy for five years before getting married, so I thought I'd share a few observations.

As a Seminarian, I knew that I had a calling to embrace celibacy, for a very special reason: Instead of committing my love and devotion to one human person, and then a small family, I would commit my love and devotion to the entire Church, with Christ as the head of the Church. This would mean that I could have time to comfort the sick and dying, distribute the Sacraments, and help the Church in a special way, without ever neglecting family obligations. You give your human sexual desires over to the Church, and in return, you get to image the divine and sacrificial love Christ has for His Church in a very unique way.

As a married man, I now can 'feel' the love I have for my wife in a very different way than I felt my love for the Church as a seminarian. There is a physicality to this love—I can touch my wife, and see a very clear image of her (I can even snap a picture of her on my iPhone!). The same goes with the rest of my future family. The loving relationship is visibly present, and, while it mirrors the love Christ has for His Church, it's a different kind of love.

I don't mean to say that celibate love is a higher vocation than married love... but I can definitely see the meaning of Ephesians 5 in a whole new light!

More reading on Marriage and Celibacy

• Marriage and Celibacy: Love's Link [Catholic Online]
• Celibacy is a Gift [Catholic Answers]