FROM THE HEART, NOT FROM THE LOINS

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 19:3-12

I wonder if there are still eunuchs today. Eunuchs used to be servants of the queen who are literally made incapable of impregnating the female species. Eunuchs, I suppose, even lose their sexual drive. It can be easily understood the reason why those servants were intentionally made eunuchs. If I were born during that period I would not even dream of serving in the queen’s court.

Of course, there were those who were not made eunuchs but were born already incapable of inseminating a woman. They were not serving in the queen’s court but they were born sterile, if not impotent. They were not called eunuchs but they practically suffer the same handicap. There are still men born this way today. I suppose I am not born this way but I do not have a way to find out because I decided to be a “eunuch” already.

I said earlier that I would not even dream of serving in the queen’s court but I did not say I would not decide to be a eunuch. I have decided to serve in the Lord’s court and I embraced the life of a celibate. For all practical purposes, I am a “eunuch” myself. I offered to the Lord everything, including my faculty to beget children in this world through marital union. I do so with a clear appreciation of the beauty and grace of the married life but also with the desire to be totally available to the Lord in the work of His ministry. I chose to be a celibate for the Kingdom.

It is not whether we are celibate or married that determines our greatness in the Kingdom of God. It is the quality of our service, for whether celibate or married, we are all His servants. Celibates and married people are called to holiness of life. Holiness of life is the perfection of charity. Celibates and married people are therefore called to serve with love. The more loving their service is the greater they are in the Lord’s court. That kind of love comes from the heart, not from the loins.