This past Saturday (May 9) I ordained five men to the transitional diaconate. Next year, God willing, they will be ordained priests for our archdiocese. Their ordination this year, however, is very significant for the church and for them. The church “incardinates” them, which means that both the church and the cleric make a mutual commitment. He gives his life totally to the archdiocese as he places his hands in the hands of the bishop and promises obedience and respect. The bishop and the particular church likewise promise those incardinated that they will receive appropriate compensation and support. In the Western church, when unmarried men are ordained deacons, they also make a commitment to celibacy. Today, there is significant debate about the value of celibacy, and so I want to take this occasion to offer some reflections on this very important tradition in the life of the church. Celibacy is a law that could be changed. Yet, that is not all it is. Its importance resides not so much in its being a law, but in its being a powerful symbol and spiritual ideal, which many men, becoming priests, chose for themselves centuries before it was a law of the church. Celibacy demonstrates that all discipleship, if it is authentic, comes at a cost — the cost of imitating the example of Christ himself. And so, a celibate life lived in service to others becomes a powerful witness and a reminder to all disciples to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus looks on the rich young man with love because of his sincerity in embracing all that the law demanded of him. But Jesus also sees that “there is one more thing” the young man must do. He must overcome his attachment to his wealth — an attachment which perhaps even he did not know was so strong. For the priest, celibacy represents this “one more thing” that frees him to be totally dedicated to Christ and to others, after the example of Christ, who came, not to be served, but to serve. Celibacy is not asked of everyone, but it certainly is appropriately asked of those of us who want to surrender our lives in dedicated service to all. The simple, straightforward question asked of a man on the day of his ordination sums up all of this so well: “As a sign of interior dedication to Christ are you resolved to remain celibate for the sake of the kingdom and in lifelong service to God and mankind?” We live in an era when commitment is declining in our society. While some conclude from this that the church’s celibacy requirement is unrealistic, others counter that society can be enriched and ennobled by the witness of celibate commitment. Although celibacy can free someone for greater service to a larger number of people — and that is a good and holy thing — there is an even deeper symbolic resonance in the celibate commitment that goes beyond the mere witnessing to the human capacity to bind oneself in service for others. The deep symbolic and spiritual power of celibacy in the life of the priest lies in its capacity to remind us here and now that even before we ever made any commitment, it was God who first made a permanent commitment to us fulfilled in Christ, a total gift that continues in our time for the salvation of humanity. The priest who surrenders himself to serve God and others keeps fresh in the human consciousness and imagination God’s pledge to surrender himself in Jesus Christ for all of us. This gift of witnessing to God’s commitment in love to us, even though a costly one for the celibate priest, is worth giving in all ages. Such a God-like commitment cannot be made and kept by one’s own strength. History has shown through countless dedicated priests who have said “yes” to that “one more thing,” however, that everything is possible with God’s grace and love. Our local church here in Chicago is blessed to have these men make such a commitment, for they are making a commitment to serve us and to witness to God’s love for us. We also are blessed that some of these men come from other lands, which makes their sacrifice an even more compelling witness of God’s unbounded love for us. God gave the United States the privilege of being one of the great providers of missionaries throughout the world. Many American Catholic young men, with rudimentary foreign language skills and little background in the cultures they served, left home and family to serve in distant lands. Perhaps you had a family member or know someone who did. Their missionary efforts in other countries attracted men and women to the church through the ardor of their faith. They worked and sacrificed in ways known only to God. Today, we now reap the benefit of the work of these U.S. missionaries, for some of our priests serving now in the Archdiocese of Chicago have come from those lands to serve here. How appropriate that is, for we are members of the “Catholic” faith, which transcends all the boundaries that try to separate people on this earth. Let’s remember that as we welcome them with gratitude. They are brothers in Christ, not “foreigners."