|
What does it mean to be married? Often in our
culture, marriage is viewed as nothing more than a temporary legal
contract between two people.
In fact, marriage is far more than
that. It is a lifelong union of love blessed by God. It is a
sacrament, an external sign of internal grace.
God made husbands and wives to give
themselves as gifts to one another — gifts in which we offer our
entire selves, all body and all soul, to our
beloved. It is through our sexuality that we are able to offer
this gift in its totality and truly achieve the “one-flesh” union
God desires for us to experience in marriage.
After all, God himself is a communion of
persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The love
between the Father and the Son is not only perfect, but it is
life-giving; from the Father and the Son proceeds a third
person — the Holy Spirit.
Men and women, made in the image and
likeness of God, are called emulate this life-giving love by
gifting themselves to one other and generously opening their
hearts to the gift of children.
In essence, we are made to give love
and to give life.
The Call to Generosity
Christ calls husbands and wives to be as
generous as their means allow when deciding to have a child. Why
is conceiving a child “generous?” Because as a parent, you must
often generously sacrifice your own desires and even needs to meet
the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of your child.
In addition, bringing a child into the world
gives the child the opportunity to experience the wonder and
beauty of life itself. For a child to experience the joys of
family and friendship, to feel God’s comforting presence in prayer
or witness his glory in the natural world, her mother and father
must be willing to generously give of themselves to bring her into
existence and nurture her on the way to adulthood.
But most importantly, choosing to bring a
child into existence is generous because it gives the child the
opportunity to love God and be loved by God forever. Not
even the most sublime happiness of our earthly lives can compare
to the joy of being with the most interesting, powerful, generous,
and loving person who has ever existed — forever! As parents,
generously opening our hearts to another child means we are giving
that child the most amazing opportunity of all — the opportunity to
go to heaven.
A family is nothing more than the process of
love begetting more love, as we selflessly give of our time,
talent, treasure, and heart for the good of our spouse and our
children.
It’s true that raising children requires
great sacrifice. But so does anything that turns us into better
people. Children challenge their parents as no one else ever will
to be selfless, loving, patient, kind, and generous. They are God’s invitation to sanctification on earth.
The Call to Responsibility
But what if our circumstances make it
necessary to postpone having another child? This may happen, and
the Church recognizes that we may face financial constraints,
health issues, or obligations to family that necessitate being
prudent about family planning temporarily and sometimes even
indefinitely.
In fact, we are seriously obligated to consider the
impact having another child will have on our health, marriage, or
family when deciding whether to welcome a new life. [See section #
10 in Pope Paul VI's Encyclical Letter,
Humanae
Vitae].
The good news is that our loving God has
given us the means to exercise this prudence in a way that enables
us to give our spouse the total gift of ourselves in the marital
embrace and still respect His design for our life-giving
fertility. The tool God has given us to achieve this is called
natural family planning.
For more information
about
NFP, click
here.
To obtain class information and a list of certified NFP instructors in our
diocese, click
here. |
