Recognizing our Limits and Choosing to be Faithful
Repost: Study of Humanae Vitae Part 3
Good Morning Friends,
I feel like I need to give a forewarning that these six paragraphs we are about to work through are very dense. They are packed full of clear, yet hard, answers to many of our current culture’s questions and problems, and honestly, they are likely not the answers our society wants to hear. The truth is hard, but when we choose faithfulness, it is freeing. My hope is that we all can find freedom in the answers the Church is giving us through this encyclical.
Today’s Reading: Numbers 12-17 (Union and Procreation-Limits to Man’s Power)
Opening Prayer: Father, thank you so much for the gift of free will, for the gift of an intellect, and for the gift of your bride, the Church, who gives us the Truth, your truth. Help us to use these gifts to love you better and to love others as you love us. Help us to be faithful to your truth, even when it is hard. Help us to use the gifts you have given us for good, and recognize the limits we have as imperfect beings. We ask you once again, Father, to heal our hearts and to turn the hearts of all people towards the willingness to be open to all life, from conception to natural death. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reflection Questions:
Why are the unitive and procreative aspects of marital love inseparable and inherent to the marriage act?
Take a moment to consider what Pope Paul VI compares unlawful birth control methods to. Why is this a just comparison?
Why is practicing NFP an act of true love while using contraceptives is not an act of love?
Notable Vocabulary:
Sterilization: Anything that stops the body (temporarily or permanently) of the power to beget and bear children. (therapeutic, contraceptive, eugenic, and penal)
Let’s just dive right in.
Paragraph 12 goes back to a lot of what we discussed last time, which is that the morality of being open to life can clearly be seen in natural law. It is inseparable from the married life, and part of what makes marriage so intimate is the power to co-create with God. It was created by God, and therefore, we cannot try to eliminate this integral piece of marital love.
It even says at the end of the paragraph, (and I absolutely love this because it is referring back to the commission where various members of the Church gave their differing opinions), that, We believe that our contemporaries are particularly capable of seeing that this teaching is in harmony with human reason. Pope Paul VI is taking the time to address and correct wrong beliefs that some members of the Faith may hold.
In Paragraph 13, “Faithfulness to God’s Design”, Pope Paul VI uses the example of nonconsensual intercourse to help us understand why sterilized sex is not an act of love.
I was hesitant to highlight that section, but I felt that it was important. To many of us, that may be a jarring comparison. It might even be shocking that he says sterilized sex is “equally repugnant” as the act of sex done against the will of another.
What Pope Paul VI is doing here is he is meeting us where we are at. He is using the example of something that we all agree is wrong to help us to understand why another act, that may not be as obviously wrong to the unformed conscience, is actually just as immoral.
I invite us all to go back and reread that paragraph carefully to more fully grasp and understand the message he is revealing.
Paragraph 14 goes on to explain in detail unlawful birth control methods. In my opinion, the most concise line that summarizes everything is, “it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it.” This is something the Catechism addresses many times, and it is a great rule of thumb for all of us when we are discerning whether any action (sexual or not) is a moral one.
Paragraph 15, “Lawful Therapeutic Means”, is short but definitely worth spending a moment touching on. It points out that the Church does not condemn the use of therapeutic means to cure bodily illnesses, even if the result is sterilization, as long as that is not the original intent.
Many people misunderstand this explanation, to mean that they can automatically use hormonal contraceptives simply because their doctor prescribed it. Our medical system prescribes these things under the term of “medically necessary” too often. Under very rare circumstances is this the actual answer for most people. It is always best to search alternative medical management first to ensure that you are getting the proper treatment for your symptoms. Using these therapeutic means should always be last case scenario, and the abortifacient side effects should always be considered.
Paragraph 16 reminds us of the questions addressed previously and makes sure to note that the Church commends the use of human intelligence, but we have to recognize that we are limited human beings, and therefore, there are limits to the morality of this application.
It then goes on to discuss the use of the absitenece period as a means of avoiding pregnancy, and it even goes as far as to say that this is an act of “true and authentic love”. Why is that? Because an act of true and authentic love is one in which one makes a sacrifice for the good of another. So when a couple discerns that they need to space children or avoid indefinitely for the mental, physical, or external well being of their family or their spouse and they then choose to practice abstinence, they are making a sacrifice, an often difficult sacrifice, for the well-being of the other without taking God and his natural design out of the picture.
Okay, Paragraph 17, “Consequences of Artificial Methods”. I get pretty fired up about this one, and thankfully am working on a whole article on this topic for Natural Womanhood, so I will try to spare you my rant (for now).
The Church is showing us the natural consequences to the use of contraceptives, and this is even being noticed by the secular world now!
What are the consequences?
It lowers moral standards
It quickly leads to spouses using one another.
If everyone is contracepting freely, who is going to stop the government from forcing it on people?
Wow. Just wow. We can see this happening so clearly in our day and age.
Finally, “Limits to Man’s Power”, I invite us all to go back and just pray through this whole paragraph. Honoring these limits are “in reverence to the whole human person.” The reason why all of this is so critical is because we are called to “love one another as God loves us” (see John 15:12). If we are not honoring our limits and honoring the human person, we are not living out that calling.
All right, I told you guys, it was a lot, super dense, but also so incredibly beautiful. Let us all pray for each other as we try to live this calling out in our daily lives.
God bless you, Friend.