Published in the bulletin of Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Knoxville, TN, on the 24th Sunday of Ordinary time.
My dear Parishioners,
Peace! The sacrament of Holy Marriage is treated by the Catechism of the Catholic Church in eight (8) In Brief passages. The following is a reflection on article 1664.
Consideration of three essential properties help us to recall and appreciate the sacramental signification of Holy Marriage. These are and have been counter cultural. When lived they change lives and cultures. When something is ‘essential’ that is to say it is necessary, like water for fish.
Unity is essential to Marriage. Polygamy and polyandry are incompatible with the unity of Marriage. In this we are reminded that Holy Marriage is that union between one man and one woman only, not a many-wived man or a many-husbanded woman. Monogamy alone is compatible with the unity of Holy Marriage. Sacred Scripture shows some of the bad consequences of sins against the exclusive unity of Holy Marriage (cf. Genesis 21:11; 35:22-26; 37:28; 1 Kings 11:7-12).
Indissolubility is essential to Marriage. Divorce separates that which God has united. Jesus Himself identifies the re-marriage of a divorced person as an adulterous situation (cf. Matthew 5:31-32). The Lord further clarifies that it was due to the hardness of hearts that Moses permitted a bill of divorce to be written (cf. Matthew 19:6-12; Mark 10:4; Deuteronomy 24:1-4). Fecundity (fruitfulness) is essential to Marriage. Refusal of fecundity (fruitfulness) diverts the conjugal life of its ‘most excellent gift’ the child’ (GS, 50). God commanded our first parents to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth (cf. Genesis 1:28). Children, as a most excellent gift given in Holy Marriage, remind us that no one has a right to parenthood, although married couples have a right, naturally, to try. The child has the right to be born of the love and actual union of parents.
While the refusal of fecundity has taken on various forms, they are mostly united under the term contraception. Surgical (vasectomy, elective hysterectomy, tubal ligation), chemical (oral, injected), and barrier (diaphragm, condom) methods all contradict the meaning of the nuptial embrace and total gift of self. Neither Almighty God nor Mother Church require spouses to have 20+ children, nor are they restricted to 1.2 children (where does that .2 come from, a big toe?). Responsible parenthood recognizes the capabilities of the spouses and has recourse to natural family planning which utilizes the naturally occurring signs of fertility, and fosters growth in virtue.
Sometimes critiques are offered against Mother Church and her teachings concerning human sexuality: ‘those celibate guys…’ These always bring to mind my maternal grandfather who never personally suffering from cramps or the pains of childbirth, nevertheless, he helped many who did as an obstetrician and gynecologist and father of seven (7) daughters. We expect our oncologists and cardiologists to treat those conditions, not to have necessarily have suffered from them. Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae addresses in a deep way these matters as does Blessed John Paul II in his Theology of the Body.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr