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CELIBATE LOVE AS A TRANSFORMED AND RESURRECTED LIFE
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06-06-2012, 07:32 AM
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CELIBATE LOVE AS A TRANSFORMED AND RESURRECTED LIFE
Scripture Reflections
Wednesday, 06 June, 2012, 9th Week, Ordinary Time CELIBATE LOVE AS A TRANSFORMED AND RESURRECTED LIFE SCRIPTURE READINGS: 2 TM 1:1-3, 6-12; MK 12:18-27 Today the liturgy focuses on the new and resurrected life. This theme complements yesterday’s theme, which talked about the transformation of the universe, whereas today’s readings deal with the transformation of the individual. So what is this new life all about? This was the question of the Sadducees, who did not believe in the doctrine of the resurrection. Today, many Catholics who, although profess to believe in the resurrection of the body, do not really know what it means. This is demonstrated by the questions they commonly ask: “When we die, what kind of bodies do we have? Will we be able to recognize our loved ones in heaven? Will I see my departed wife or father in the next life? Will they be able to recognize us? Etc.” This begs the question “What do we believe about the resurrection of our body and what is the basis for this belief?” It must be said that resurrection is to be distinguished from resuscitation. The latter speaks of a continuation of an earthly life. Thus when we ask the above questions, we are no doubt thinking of the resurrected life as if it is a resuscitation, akin to the raising of Jairus’ daughter, or Lazarus, since it is a mere return to earthly life. However, resurrection is concerned with the transformation of the whole person. It is the raising of the entire person, body and soul to a spirited life, a life filled with the Spirit of God. Such a life is unimaginable, since it is a participation in the life of God. Nevertheless, this resurrected life has a fundamental continuity with the earthly life, albeit with a greater discontinuity with respect to both matter and the quality of life. For this life of God is nothing else but total communion and love. It is a life that is lived intensely in love and unity. Such a life presupposes that we will be able to recognize each other but certainly our love for each other would not be particular, or possessive, or exclusive. It would be an unconditional, inclusive and total love for all. For this reason, in the next life, we would not say for example, “he is my husband, she is my wife or she is my mother”, for there would be no distinctions between male and female nor would there be rank and status. All of us would be one. All of us would be in love with each other and share each other with everyone since all of us are in God and God in us. From this perspective, it would also imply that marital love, in spite of the beauty it has, is still an inadequate form of love, because it remains particular, exclusive and possessive. We do not share our wife or husband with others. Furthermore, we are protective of our family. We take care of our loved ones before we take care of others. This is only natural because our love is still discriminative. To some extent, we love others only because we also need their love and support. Nevertheless, marital love is still perhaps the closest most people can get to experience concretely the love of God. For only in that close intimacy of a marital relationship is the love of God made real. Of course, it is hoped that we who have accepted and experienced this love of God, albeit not completely, will now share this love with people outside our family circle. If not such a love would be egoistic and narcissistic; certainly not a sacrament of God’s love! In contrast there is the celibate love of the priests and religious. Celibacy is more than just abstinence from marital relationship. Celibacy means availability for God and for others. To live a celibate life is to be totally available for the love and service of God and His people. Celibacy therefore must not be seen as a cruel denial of sexual needs. Rather, it enables one to be in deep communion with everyone without any discrimination or exclusivity. If the Church requires priests and religious to observe a celibate life, it is because the Church wants her priests and religious to witness to the future life, which is promised to us all. It is a life of deep communion with God and with each other. Thus, only a life that is lived in total communion in love and service for others, a love that is not possessive, a love that does not expect to be repaid, a love that is not grasping, a love that is truly unconditional and inclusive, can be said to be truly a resurrected and transformed life. In the final analysis, it is immaterial which state of life we are in. What is ultimately important is that we strive towards living the life and love of God, which is total communion, unconditional love and selfless service. But how can this be possible? Humanly speaking it is impossible, since it is to love like God! That is why both scripture readings proclaim that the transformed life is the work of the power of God. Jesus replied to the Sadducees that if they thought in such a human way about the after life, it was because they “understand neither the scriptures not the power of God.” They failed to realize that in the next life, we would be like the angels, the saints and Mary, able to be in communion with all in an intense manner that abolishes all distinctions. Holiness, which is the living of God’s life, is not something to be achieved by our own effort. Nay, it is possible only by the grace of God, without which it would simply be impossible. The kind of life that we are called to live, that life of deep communion, is made possible only because of the grace of God at work in us, and not “because of anything we ourselves have done but for his own purpose.” What is more is that the basis for our faith in His grace is not simply a hope. The Good News is that “this grace has already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time, but it has only been revealed by the appearing of our saviour Christ Jesus.” For in Jesus, we see how His resurrection has “abolished death” and “he has proclaimed life and immortality.” Hence, for us Christians, this confidence in the reality of the future life of communion and unconditional and inclusive love is based on the resurrected life of Christ. It is this foundation of our faith that enables us to put our trust in Him. So like St Paul, we must “fan into a flame the gift”, that is the grace that God has given to us in virtue of our baptism, marriage or ordination. Like St Paul, we can then say that only on account of this, we are able to endure fresh hardships that come from our witness of the love for God to others. In this way, we truly become like Paul, the apostle of Christ to the Good News of the resurrected life, the life of God in us. |
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