Author: ks. MieczysЕ‚aw Piotrowski TChr,
"Love One Another!" 13/2009 → Family Life
As soon as God created the first human being, male and female, He established the institution of marriage: man and woman would become one body (Gen 2:24).
Why then do we separate our bodies with prophylactics? Why do we, by our contraceptive mentality, destroy marital love and our union with God?
Our “age of persuasion” constantly drums it into our heads that purchased articles are capable of solving our problems. Contraception is one such “article.” Its purveyors tout its ability to solve a problem. But the “problem” supposedly solved by contraception is marital love rooted in God.
Let us examine the matter soberly. Who thought up of sex? How did its Author imagine it? Everybody knows that God designed sexual intercourse as a total bodily union, which completes the spiritual. As Scripture tells us, “and Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived…” (Gen 4:1). The New American Bible renders this verse, “and Adam had relations with his wife Eve.” The marital act is intended to be an act in which the married couple become a
special unity in the love of Christ.
Contraception is a denial of this unity, of this mutual “knowing” and intimacy. Why this is so should be comprehensible to everybody. The marital act is a holy one. Tampering with its nature is a sacrilege. God is present in the marital union through the Sacrament of Matrimony. Let us not offend Him, then, by resorting to means that desecrate the holy union of two persons.
Contraception’s advocates hold a view of married life that will have nothing to do with holiness and the presence of the Creator; and they promote this view along with contraception. The strangest thing is that so many of us buy into it. We renounce what is truly good in favor of what creates the illusion of good but in fact destroys married unity and, consequently, ruins our happiness. Yes, our happiness! For, if God designed marital unity to make us happy, and sexual relations and the fertility, which is inseparably associated with it, are a part of this design, then only the realization of God’s design can make us happy. When we thwart God’s purpose, we do not achieve happiness. When we destroy what God created, we commit a serious sin. When we know we are committing a sin and continue in it, we have a serious problem on our hands.
Our sexuality, observed Pope John Paul II, is the means by which God calls us to “a love of betrothal,” which gives clear meaning “to our existence here on earth” (January 16, 1980). This “love of betrothal” includes fertility; and so when by our contraceptive mentality we say “no!” to fertility, we commit a sin. God wants to bring into the world a new human being, and we, married couples, who once pledged “to accept and raise children in the Catholic faith,” resort to chemical, hormonal, and mechanical means to prevent conception! By opposing God’s plans we commit a very serious sin. Let us not take the warning lightly: “If we sin deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins but a fearful prospect of judgment and a flaming fire that is going to consume the adversaries” (Heb 10:26-27).
God created us and affirmed that everything He made, He found very good (Gen 1:31). But our first parents desired to know “good and evil” — for they did not know evil and saw it to be as attractive as the good they already knew. In order to repair our parents’ mistake, Jesus had to die on the cross as a victim for our sins and thus enabled us to live in freedom and holiness. Let us then choose to live in freedom, holiness, love, and marital unity. It can do us no harm to begin to respect God’s plans and live in harmony with our nature. On the contrary, we gain greatly by it. Above all, we enable God to be present in our lives, for there is one thing the Almighty God cannot do. He cannot be where He is not wanted and where we knowingly destroy what He created in love.
Miroslaw Rucki
The Movement of Pure Hearts for Married Couples
Our Lord invites all those married couples who desire to discover more deeply the meaning and essence of their call to marriage to unite in a daily program of living by the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony in the Movement of Pure Hearts for Married Couples. To join this growing movement, discuss the matter among yourselves, renounce contraception and other worldly attitudes that strike at the heart of marital unity. Shrug off all sin, go to confession and, after receiving Jesus in the Holy Communion, say together the following Prayer of Consecration:
Lord Jesus, we consecrate our marriage to you: our minds, our memories, our bodies, and souls. Teach us to love each other and our children with that love which flows from Your Merciful Heart. Lord Jesus Christ, grant us a pure heart modeled upon yours, that together we may perfect a love that is wise, generous, faithful, and free from self-interest, a love that steadfastly upholds your laws and commandments. May daily family prayer, the rosary, the chaplet of divine mercy, Holy Mass, and frequent reception of the Eucharist assist us in this endeavor. May we confess at once every serious sin through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Grant that we may continually draw on the graces that you make available to us through the Sacrament of Marriage.
Lord Jesus, be master of our hearts. Teach us to control our sexual desires and feelings, that our love for each other and our children may not be subject to our moods and emotional states. Rather, may our love be a continual expression of our care and solicitude for each other. Grant us the gift of pure conjugal love, that we may give of ourselves generously. Cleanse our love of all selfishness, that we may always forgive and pray for each other without nursing grudges. To remain pure in heart, we vow never to read, buy, or look at pornographic materials. We pledge never to use contraceptives and always to be ready to accept every child that God may send us. Lord, help us to avoid everything that ensnares, enslaves, or incites to evil.
Mary, our Mother, guide us in our journey of faith. Lead us to the very Source of Love — to Jesus, that we may trust and believe in Him alone. After the example of Servant of God, John Paul II, we entrust ourselves to you: Totus Tuus, Mary! To your Immaculate Heart we confide ourselves totally, all that we are, every step we take, and every minute of our lives. Amen!”
Dear married couples! Please inform the editors of your decision to join the Movement of Pure Hearts. Send us your address, dates of birth, and the date you joined MPH. We in turn will inscribe your names in The Book of Pure Hearts, and then send you our special blessing. Keep heart and God bless!
Fr. M. Piotrowski
& the LOA editorial staff
The article was published with the permission from "Love One Another!" in May 2016.
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