To a man who has not been theologically developed, this false belief will certainly take hold in his mind, because it adheres to his faulty logic, reason, and frames of thought. Yet the fairytale, ancient paganism that “the stork delivers the new child” is in some ways a better understanding.
Because as the Church teaches, there are several other ways in which life is created.
From nothing. God literally creates life from nothing. Genesis 1.
From a woman’s ‘yes’ to God. Mary’s ‘yes’ to God brought into the world a human being who was, moments beforehand, not in the world. This child’s Father was in the world in many respects through Judaism, and this child is consubstantial with the Father. Yet the physicality of the child was not in the world in one moment, and in the world the next moment—and the event which caused this was Mary’s “so be it,” her Fiat.
And from a man’s ‘yes’ to God. Abraham birthed an innumerable amount of children through his ‘yes’ to God. God says to Abraham’s ‘yes,’
I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. (Genesis 22:17)
Abraham’s children were not immediate, they were not birthed instantaneously after his ‘yes.’ His children were rather a ‘will be,’ a promise of God for the future, which to God is just as present as the present.
The celibacy of the priest is another physical manifestation of this spiritual, mystical, greatly mysterious world in which the immaterial, the non-physical creates the physical. If the priest were to administer any other bread or food, this mystery would disappear, the promise of the immaterial creating the material would disappear. Yet, because of the grace provided by God through the priesthood, the Bread the priest administers is something superstantial: it is the Bread of the Word, it is the Bread of Life. It is the promise of the uncovering of the ancient mystery of John 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4)
Priestly celibacy declares this immaterial, mysterious world without ceasing, of the immaterial creating the material, of the Word creating and forever multiplying life.
