Celibacy
Why is it superior

Fr. Thomas J. Loya, STB. MA

In order to understand what is truly meant by celibacy being "superior" we have to step out of literal thinking and enter into the mystical understanding of things which is actually stepping into the soul of Catholicism and into what is most real. The mystical means that which is most real, not unreal or surreal.

Celibacy is referred to as being “superior” to marriage in the sense that Heaven is superior to life on Earth. What we experience on earth, especially things that have to do with the order of love such as marriage and family are only foretastes of what we will experience in a complete way in Heaven. Marriage is a foretaste of the “Wedding Feast of the Lamb” in Heaven where by analogy, the “bride” will be united to the Bridegroom. Our ultimate “spouse” is God and total oneness with everyone and with all things in Christ is the eschatological destiny of the human person. In his theology of the body Pope John Paul II describes Heaven analogously as “Virginity.” This means total oneness with God. Celibacy is a way of making present or of anticipating in this life that total oneness with God that will be experienced for eternity by everyone in Heaven.

Celibacy, therefore is best defined not in the negative, in terms of what someone gives up, but rather as a positive choice to love as a mystical spouse. Celibacy and marriage are not diametrically opposed. They are actually two sides of the same coin. They are both ways to love spousally. Furthermore celibacy subsists in marriage and marriage subsists in celibacy. Marriage and celibacy are completely interdependent. The only difference is that one is a foretaste and the other (celibacy) is an anticipation or realization on earth of what actually will be in Heaven. A person who chooses celibacy is not superior to someone who chooses to be married. It is not celibacy itself that is “superior” but rather what it points to and makes real on this earth which is our total (virginal) oneness with God in Heaven.

The experience of this anticipation of Heaven (celibacy) actually occurs for everyone who receives the Eucharist. In that moment each person moves beyond just being the husband, wife, child, relative, etc of someone and they become “celibate”—one with the entire community of believers in Christ. Celibacy should not be seen only as something that is exclusively reserved for those who choose it. Celibacy is actually experienced in various ways by all believing Christians especially in the eschatological experience of Holy Eucharist. When we receive Eucharist we become in a sense “superior” (celibate) because we actually enter into a oneness and intimacy with God in a way that is the closest that we can get to oneness with God on this earth. In the Eucharist we all become “virginal” even if we are sacramentally married.

''Fr. Thomas J. Loya, STB., MA.
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