LOVE STORY

© SAmado

Chastity is a call to some contemplative space where the heart can learn from God. The trouble is that I can shirk entering that space without anybody knowing. […] Celibacy becomes dangerous, I think, when it lacks prayerful listening; for then it loses touch with its main justification, which is mystical. Years ago I used to be more content with a functional view of celibacy – the claim that without family commitments, I can be free for people. But both my experience of myself and this contact with married friends have convinced me that the value of celibacy lies beyond this practical sphere. Absence of sexual intimacy, just for the sake of pastoral activity, would be too high a price to pay. Rather it must be “for the Kingdom” as the gospel says, in the sense of sharing in the heart of Christ. Only by entering that alternative love story, with its costs and its fulfilments, can one be liberated to care for people.

Michael Paul Gallagher in Where is Your God?