Last week I discussed the doctrinal teachings of the Divine Law of God regarding contraception. Today I address the consequences the modern world now experiences due to an inordinate embrace of a contraceptive mentality which has led to a culture of death. Pope Paul VI was quite prophetic regarding the bad fruit of contraception. He rightly warned the Christian and the whole world what would happen if people of good will were to ignore, en masse, God's Divine Law regarding morality and the moral life.
The evil of contraception found its first expression when the Anglican Church caved by allowing the use of birth control in 1930. Soon, several of the other protestant sects followed. This weakening of the moral fabric of Christian teaching became a flood, but found no footing in the Holy Catholic Church.
In 1967, Pope Paul VI wrote his encyclical Humane Vitae which restated the traditional teaching about birth control emphasizing that no Catholic can contravene the Divine Law of God in this regard. A confluence of theologians, university teachers, bishops and priests, as well as a number of religious Sisters, did everything they could to rebel against this teaching through confusion, obfuscation and malicious intent. The consequences of this open disobedience bears itself out in the modern confusion regarding morality, family life, sexual perversion, and sexual libertarianism.
The manifest attacks against the culture of life are evidenced in the sexual free-far-all demonstrated both in married life and in the culture at large. We have acquiesced to the demonic influences affecting our society because too many of us stubbornly cling to a disobedient spirit regarding contraception and Christian sexual mores. We have been in a 40 year slow boil that has resulted in a lack of concern over the demolition of Catholic moral teaching and how we are to relate to each other as citizens of Heaven instead of sensualists who use each other. Once contraception was embraced as a choice without consequence, and uninformed consciences became authorities unto themselves requiring little responsibility, one could never doubt the negative and sinister fruits that would result. Too many Catholics have lived a contraceptive mentality and this bears itself out in multiple ways.
What are the consequences of arrogant, smug and cavalier hearts? A God who finds Himself unable to sustain a relationship, because He has been pushed away. When we continually offend God by disobedience, do we expect Him to say, "That's o.k., I understand. I really didn't mean what I said, and my Church isn't really free from error in the areas of Faith and morals; so carry on! There's no consequence to
intellectual pride and open rebellion"? Do you not think that God will withdraw Himself a little resulting in corruption, sexual perversion, and chaos?
God loves us, but doesn't force Himself on us. He desires that we not be lost, but saved. He proposes Christ as the solution and wills that true freedom be ours through obedience. He has gifted us with a heart for life and calls us to generosity in marital love and in the community at large.
People often say that God seems distant or uninvolved in the matters of man. If we are going to act without Him then we will reap what we sow. How we endeavor to embrace a culture of life is the call and responsibility of every Catholic.
So, the result of ignoring God's Commandments and teachings are these: Couples living together simulating the Sacrament of Marriage; sex outside of marriage (fornication); the embrace of homosexuality and "Iifestyles" as equal to marriage; sexualized sense of self (concern for impotence, testosterone levels and the such); increased divorce levels; viewing pornography and not seeing it as a sin; disrespect for life by seeking out mercy killings, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, in-vitro fertilizations, contraception (which usually includes them being abortifacients); child sexual abuse in and outside the Church; voyeurism (living through others in fantasy, T.V., games and the internet); adultery and many others.
We must be willing to stand up in the public square and in our homes and marriages. The anything goes mindset of today must be challenged with prayer, repentance, confession, conversion and obedience. Some will say, "the Church should stay out of the bedroom and stop telling us what to do!" As this is a stunningly adolescent comment all I'll say for you and me is this: A chastised heart is a pure
heart, a holy soul is a Christ-like soul, and obedience can change the world. Let's turn the corner, shy away from the cliff, and brace ourselves for the good fight, the one that makes Heaven the goal. Keep striving and keep the Faith!