The Coiled Serpent by C. J. Van Vliet

Author:C. J. Van Vliet
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: C. J. Van Vliet, Publishers, The Coiled Sepent, DeVorss & Co.
Published: 1939-03-06T16:00:00+00:00

LII

SACERDOTAL CELIBACY

11 The lusts of the flesh . . . are particularly weakening to him who would give all his attention to the things of spirit”

— Papini, Life of Christ, si9.

Religion in any form, even when disguised almost beyond recognition, is essentially a means of spiritualizing man, of bringing him closer to spirit.

Where the individual is not capable of establishing a direct connection with spirit, some other person — from a medicine-man to an ecclesiastic — is depended on to aid and to act as mediator. It is presupposed, of course, that such an intermediary himself is already closely linked to spirit. Therefore he should be expected to show in his daily life that he has freed himself from the domination of matter and from sensuous appetites.

Recognizing that “perfect mortification of passions makes a true religious man” 1 , there has usually been a demand for sexual purity in those who minister to the people’s religious wants. This demand has been met even among native tribes*, quite independent of the great world-religions. Indeed, it seems to be but the expression of a universal principle that also in “the leading religions of cultured humanity of the more recent epoch, Buddhism and Christianity ”, “religious celibacy is enjoined . . . with a view to raising the spiritual nature by suppressing one of the strongest sensual appetites .” 4

In Buddhism this rule of celibacy has been successfully maintained, except in later sects on foreign soil. It is asserted of the Buddhist priest that “having put aside the habit and thought of sexual intercourse, his life is pure.”* In such old Buddhistic countries as Burma “popular opinion is inflexible and inexorable on the point of celibacy . . . The people can never be brought to look upon any person as a priest or minister of religion unless he live in that state. The law of celibacy is observed with a great scrupulosity, and a breach of it is a rare occasion.”*

In Christianity sacerdotal celibacy has been one of the most disputed problems . 7 It had already been a subject of stirring controversy long before Protestants so drastically turned against it in protest against abuses. Unfortunately, instead of attacking and correcting the abuses, they have repudiated the meritoriousness of celibacy itself. But abuses are no proof that the principle which is being abused is wrong. “Abuses and exaggerations . . . naturally accompany such a great and difficult attempt to elevate man above himself.”* “The more sublime a doctrine is, the more it is exposed to abuse at the hands of human nature.”*

Every part of this book tends to confirm that by sexual gratification one “renders himself unfit for spiritual things” 1 ® — unfit therefore to be another’s spiritual guide. Only perfect celibates can truly and effectively aid others in reaching up to spirit; and even then only if their celibacy is freely chosen, an outcome of their own inner conviction. Then, “strengthening their own spiritual element . . . their purity is the elevation on which human nature culminates .

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