After being divorced and separated for several years, it came as a surprise to discover what a great thing The Church has in celibacy. If one is celibate, growing closer to God is much easier.
One is struck by the quiet contemplation celibacy provides.
For the last eight months, I have been practicing another kind of celibacy: I have not had a television. That, I think was also a great blessing. While visiting, sometimes I see brief interludes of TV. I shake my head, thankful that I no longer have to waste so much time.
Poverty
Those of us in business are forced to focus on our bottom line. It’s nice to be able to provide goods and services, but merely providing is not enough. No matter how hard we work, if we lose track of the bottom line, we will fail. When that happens, dreams turn to something worse than dust. So, we often focus on how well our earthly activities are doing, excluding God more than we should.
Just as celibacy frees one from from one set of distractions, poverty frees us from others. But, poverty is like Heaven. Everybody thinks it’s a wonderful state of being, but no one wants to go any sooner than necessary. In the same way, few of us are happy to be poor. Especially, if we’ve been prosperous in earlier times.
Obedience
Last week, our local Catholic School had “Vegas Night”. It was a combination of blackjack, dice, silent autions, and raffles. I had the good fortune to attend. The woman sitting across from me at dinner was once a Catholic. She had entered The Church, but left when she was pressured into an early marriage. A priest did not allow her to re-enter, (not sure if that was true, but it was what she believed) and she’d spent the following fifty years in theological limbo.
About five years ago, she began attending a local Mega-Church, in which she insisted she’d found joy without putting up with a lot of “mumbo-jumbo”. The minister (actually, Head Minister, with several “associate pastors” reporting to him), was also a lapsed Catholic. So were a great many of the congregation.
Tithing was encouraged. 10% of the attendees’ income was thought to be the “proper” amount to give.
Sometimes, in my small Catholic parish, I’m asked to help take up the collection. I’m always glad to see that about a fourth of those in attendance don’t put anything at all in the collection basket. Our priest never asks.
Living in a small, rural town, I know many of the parishioners, and understand how little many of them have. If our priest, both celibate and living in comparative poverty, were not obedient to Christ’s concern for the poor, and to a system that actually is the Body of Christ on earth, he would demand bigger contributions.
He does not do so. As a result, even the poorest are welcomed. Some of them may be coming from the local Mega-Church.
