The question of human procreation, like every other question
which touches human life, involves more than the limited aspects specific to
such disciplines as biology, psychology, demography or sociology. It is the
whole man and the whole mission to which he is called that must be considered:
both its natural, earthly aspects and its supernatural, eternal aspects.
And
since in the attempt to justify artificial methods of birth control many appeal
to the demands of married love or of responsible parenthood, these two
important realities of married life must be accurately defined and analyzed.
This is what We mean to do, with special reference to what the Second Vatican
Council taught with the highest authority in its Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the World of Today.
Married
love particularly reveals its true nature and nobility when we realize that it
takes its origin from God, who "is love," the Father "from whom
every family in heaven and on earth is named."
Marriage,
then, is far from being the effect of chance or the result of the blind
evolution of natural forces. It is in reality the wise and provident
institution of God the Creator, whose purpose was to effect in man His loving
design. As a consequence, husband and wife, through that mutual gift of
themselves, which is specific and exclusive to them alone, develop that union
of two persons in which they perfect one another, cooperating with God in the
generation and rearing of new lives.
The
marriage of those who have been baptized is, in addition, invested with the
dignity of a sacramental sign of grace, for it represents the union of Christ
and His Church.
Pope
Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, 7-8
Reflection –
So, one more day on this
encyclical for this week, then on to other things, then back next Friday for a
few more installments—that’s the plan, and I’m sticking to it!
We dive here
right into the deep end of the pool, spiritually and theologically. What is
marriage? What is love within marriage? What is this vocation, this human
reality that is caught up in divine reality? The Church does not hesitate to
offer a vision of marriage which leads to a definition of it: “husband and
wife, through that mutual gift of themselves, which is specific and exclusive
to them alone, develop that union of two persons in which they perfect one
another, cooperating with God in the generation and rearing of new lives.”
This ‘wise and
provident institution of God’ which in Christ becomes a sacrament, with its
true nature and nobility coming from the heart of God who is love—I have done
enough spiritual direction with married couples in my years of priesthood to
know very well that it is one hard way of life. A tough slog, not without joy
and laughter, but real work, real sacrifice, real suffering.
I won’t say
too much about all of that—after all, the married people reading this blog know
all about it from the inside far better than I ever will, and the unmarried
people reading this don’t. Some things can only be learned from experience;
what I know is that marriage is a deep plunge into the paschal mystery of
Christ—love, death, resurrection, joy, sorrow, and love again, all wrapped up
in a single mystery. I don’t know any married couple (and I know many) for whom
that is not the simple truth of the matter.
So when we are
trying to talk about the most difficult and controverted questions around
marriage—its definition, permanence, and the proper expression of fertility
within it—we have to begin by acknowledging that this is not some simple human
reality that we can shape and fashion according to the latest ideas and
fashions or even what genuinely and most sincerly seems to us to be good and
true.
We can do that
with all sorts of things in this world, all the purely human realities. Systems
of government and education, economic structures and technological methods of
doing stuff—all of this has to be ordered according to justice and charity, but
within that basic human order it really can be an ‘anything goes’ kind of
approach. These are human realities, and we can shape them freely as we see
fit.
Marriage and
procreation cannot be so shaped. These are not human realities, in the end,
although we live them in an intensely earthy human way. But their origin is
divine, their end is divine, and their incarnate path in this world is divine.
This is why the Church Herself finds Her hands tied here, with all the constant
pressure brought to bear on us to Change Our Teachings. We can’t… we just,
simply cannot do it.
It’s not ours
to change—it’s God’s, it’s Jesus’, and the deep meaning of all the Church’s ‘laws’
on marriage derive entirely and necessarily from its theological, Christological,
cruciform and resurrection structure. That is the most essential and core
meaning of marriage, and everything else we say about it only makes sense in
light of that core reality. And we will pick up this subject again next Friday,
God willing.
A true culture of life recognizes that no matter how much we might wish otherwise, in the real World, sexual activity for many individuals starts in early childhood and stretches late into life, with much, even most of it outside of traditional marriage, involving multiple and same sex partners, frequent non consensual encounters, with likely outcomes of of unwanted pregnancy and like threatening, sexually transmitted disease. Jesus wants you to respect and protect yourself when chastity is not one of your options.
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