I wrote this brief article for this past week's parish bulletin. The readings for this past weekend are here.
Autumn is the time of waning: daylight ebbs; the growth and ripening of crops in field and garden has ended, and the food has been harvested; the leaves are turning brown and falling from the trees. All around us, things are coming to an end.
This time of year, as our liturgical year winds down, the church thinks about things coming to an end, too. Photos of our deceased family members are appearing in our Narthex this month, as we continue to lift up, in memory and prayer, our loved ones who have died. And although it’s not pleasant to think about, we know that our own lives here on earth will also come to an end, sooner or later.
Jesus speaks of these things in today’s Gospel. Not only our own lives, but everything, will end: our culture, our society – indeed all life and even all creation as we know it. Jesus foretells that even the Jerusalem Temple, that solid and ancient place of public worship, will be destroyed by enemies – a catastrophe which came to pass in the year 70 AD, not long after Jesus died and rose from the dead. That the Temple, which was thought of as God’s dwelling place, could be destroyed, must have shaken people’s faith to the core – it must have seemed that evil had triumphed over good. Yet even that disaster wasn’t the end for God: his children's lives have continued on, for century after century, and God still hasn’t forgotten his people.
Things end – even things that seem to us to be permanent. And as happened when the Temple was destroyed, endings often are accompanied by much suffering. Anyone who has been by a parent’s or grandparent’s hospital bed as he or she lies dying, understands this. But Jesus’s words today, as terrifying as they seem, also contain a kernel of hope: Jesus will not forget us, and even in our time of great suffering, will provide us with what we need. Our hope is not in health or buildings or weapons, but in the Lord.
Yes it's a time when we think of endings. We're kind of in a "four last things" mode right now, trying to put together a will, medical directives, and funeral plans. Should have done that a long time ago, but we didn't. Having a friend die who was younger than either of us is a motivator.
ReplyDeleteAt least you are doing the right thing by getting it all together now.
DeleteFWIW, we do have wills. My kids are still sufficiently young that I shudder to think of how they would deal with it if something happened to my wife and me. I hope my siblings would step in to help and advise.
I don't have any documented medical directives. I guess we should get on that.
My parents-in-law had prepaid for a funeral, and it did make it easy for my wife when they passed away.
In addition to a will, medical directives, and a funeral plan, I have a power of health care attorney and a general power of attorney to make financial decisions in case I am incapacitated.
DeleteOne of the most important things is an up-to-date list of assets. Those tend to change over the years, so sometimes it is hard to keep track of them.
My attorney said that a will is a very crude instrument mostly designed to take care of situations in which you end up dying when you do not expect to die. Once you get older a lot of assets are better passed by beneficiary provisions on your assets. In Ohio it is now possible to do this with your house.
I
have a very social science statistical way of thinking about death. At age sixty when I retired, I planned to live to be eighty since that was my life expectancy then. I did not plan to be ninety. It worked out well. Now that I am eighty, I have the same net worth as I had at age sixty.
My life expectancy now is that I will live to be ninety so I plan for that but take no concern about that I might live longer. It is best not to plan for unusual events such as living long or dying earlier than one is likely.
I usually have an episode of atrial fibrillation that hospitalizes me once every two years. So, I see surviving about five more of those is all I need to do since I will then likely die of something else. My cardiologist agrees. His whole purpose is to see that I die from something else.
That is good advice, Jack. Updating assets and other imp info every year or two is also a good idea.
DeleteI have always thought of late fall and winter as a time of contemplation and creative thinking. Here in the Upper Midwest, we get a bit frantic with getting things done in the "good weather." But when the weather gets cold, we have more breathing room.
ReplyDeleteI don't fear pain or death. I do fear Hell, but I try to trust in God's mercy and the intercession of the saints. In the late fall of my own life, I try to make room for more prayer and repentance. Part of putting my affairs in order.
I simply can't conceive of a just, merciful, loving God who would consign even the most reprehensible human being to eternal punishment. What would be the point? It makes no sense. I once knew a guy who said the idea of hell was so potent that as a child he feared he would go to "Catholic hell" . . . and he was Jewish! I would never claim to know more than an omniscient God, so what exists and what doesn't is beyond my ability to determine. But the idea of punishment without the ability to change in response to it makes no sense at all to me.
ReplyDeleteMany of the early theologians were universalists, who didn't believe that hell was unending, including Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Clement of Alexandria. More recently there is von. Balthasar, who I think said the hell exists, but there may not be anyone there in eternity.
DeleteI agree with David. But, Nobody knows. Sometimes t think that whatever purgatory or hell is experienced is experienced during our physical lives. I just try to do the best I can without worrying about what comes after death. Mostly I doubt that there is any existence after death, but if the soul or spirit lives on then whatever will be will be. If there is a God, and God is cruelty instead of love, then everyone is in a heap of trouble. A cruel God cannot be appeased.
DeleteWhat is the point of Hell if no one is in it?
DeleteIf Heaven is universally accessible, why does the Church have so many rules about sin? Why does Jesus talk about the narrow gate, the camel and the eye of the needle?
When you compare your own life to the people who are in Heaven, like Vatherine of Siena and St Francis, how can you imagine you will measure up?
If you weren't raised an obedient Catholic child and misspent a lot of your youth, and if now, in old age and infirmity, all you have to give God are prayers of repentance, you might feel very differently about Heaven and mercy.
"Sometimes t think that whatever purgatory or hell is experienced is experienced during our physical lives. I just try to do the best I can without worrying about what comes after death. "
DeleteI think the idea of the suffering in Hell is, we deserve it for sins we have committed. I have a hard time ascribing much of the suffering here on earth to that. I guess there is sort of a general notion that sin is "baked in" to our fallen world. But a person suffering from an illness or injury, or a person claiming refugee or asylum status because of suffering in his/her native land - I don't think that's the same idea as Hell.
Jean, I’m not convinced that the Catholic Church knows a whole lot more about God, heaven, hell etc than anyone else. I can’t help but note that the rules you refer to are defined by a human institution. I’m not sure that the RCC’s laser focus on sin is much more than a way to exert control over people by instilling guilt and fear, as it seems to have done with you, as it did with my generation and the generations older than mine. It uses the confessional the same way - a tool to maintain control over people who have bought the falsehood that they can’t confess to God directly, but that a human being must mediate in order for the penitent to be absolved from sin. But God doesn’t need human assistance in order to absolve people from sin. If the Christian understanding of God is real, then God knows the true extent of our sins, more than we do ourselves, the influences on us from birth that might lead us to sin, and whether or not we are truly repentant. I am aware of many more sins in my life now than I realized when I was younger. And I do repent, now that I am aware and understand. A priest can’t do this. A priest knows only what we tell him.And, sadly, most priests are either full of self- importance because of “their” power to “absolve” us from our sins (which only God can do) and demand certain penances. Sadly, the Church teaches priests that they become in persona Christi when they are ordained, fueling egoistic power trips in too many priests. Some priests are simply indifferent when hearing confessions, and going through the motions. A priest can’t read our minds and souls. God, if there is one, can. Some priests can help people recognize their faults and sins and weaknesses, but so can many others who don’t wear a roman collar.
DeleteGod, if Catholic teaching is true, knew everything about us before we were created, including the sins we would commit. But the RCC has used sin, guilt, and fear of hellfire to control people throughout its history, as have many other Christian denominations. The RCC has been among the worst as far as this goes. The term “Catholic guilt” exists for a reason.
Some say that hell means that the soul or spirit exists away from the presence of God. The teachings say that this is due to rejecting God. But if God is love, and people actually experience God as love, then they won’t reject God. They will try not to sin, even if few live the heroic lives of people like Francis of Assisi.
If God is a vengeful, cruel power, then who wants to spend an eternity with such a God anyway?
I don't think God consigns us to Hell. We send ourselves there. Failing to accept that we might not be as good as we think we are, taking material success as a sign of God's favor (Catholics buy into that slightly less often than Prot's), pointing out the sins of others--all those are the first steps on the road to perdition.
DeleteSorry, I will keep Hell Talk to myself.
DeleteYeah, Jean. We build hells on earth for ourselves. Maybe it's not God who creates it. Maybe it wasn't His idea in the first place.
DeleteRe: Hell: here is the Catechism's treatment of the topic. I offer this as as a baseline for what the church officially teaches.
ReplyDeleteIt can be difficult to square this teaching with the merciful God of, say, the story of the Prodigal Son.
It's interesting that many of the scripture citations below are from Matthew; in the pre-reformed liturgy, the Gospel readings were taken from Matthew (there was no three-year synoptic cycle as there is now).
________________
IV. HELL
1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." [1 Jn 3:14-15.] Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. [Mt 25:31-46.] To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."
1034 Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. [Mt 5:22,29; 10:28; 13:42,50; Mk 9:43-48.] Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," [Mt 13:41-42] and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!" [25:41.]
1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire." [Denzinger-Schonmetzer 76; 409; 411; 801; 858; 1002; 1351; 1575; Paul VI, CPG § 12.] The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few." [Mt 7:13-14.]
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth." [Lumen Gentium 48 § 3; Mt 22:13; cf. Heb 9:27; Mt 25:13,26,30,31-46.]
1037 God predestines no one to go to hell; [Council of Orange II (529): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 397; Council of Trent (1547):1567;] for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance": [2 Pet 3:9]
Father, accept this offering
from your whole family.
Grant us your peace in this life,
save us from final damnation,
and count us among those you have chosen. [Roman Missal, EP I (Roman Canon) 88.]
Just a housecleaning note: in the passage above, I tried to spell out the non-scriptural sources cited in the footnotes, but looks like I missed one of them: CPG=Solemn Profession of faith: Credo of the People of God.
DeleteFrom what I can tell, the Solemn Profession of faith is the profession made by people making their final vow for entering religious orders.
Yup. Very familiar with the CCC's passages on Hell and various sins.
DeleteI don't worry too much about hell. Because what's the point? It's not a good motivator.
DeleteI liked what a nun I knew said she told school children about salvation: "Of course you're going to be in heaven. Because you're going to do everything you can to cooperate with grace, and you can trust God to do the rest."
About one's sufferings here on earth, I do believe the Catholic teaching that one can offer them up as a prayer, both for oneself and for others
Corrolary to above, if a nun tells you you're going to do something, you'd better do it!
DeleteYes, obedient Cradle Catholics do tend to have a sunnier view of their place in the Afterlife. Sometimes that translates to an inability to see anyone else in Hell. Sometimes to an inability to see anyone outside the Church in Heaven.
DeleteEither way, I have never met a Catholic who feared his own place at the Eternal Table. Purgatory, maybe. (I think the Church Ladies at CCD were strongly hinted to The Boy he was headed to a fairly long stint in Purgatory.) Hell, never.
The main justification, that I can see, for keeping someone out of heaven would be that if they persisted in a hateful, selfish, vengeful attitude, they would spoil it for others, and then it wouldn't be heaven.
DeleteAccording to the Catechism, baptism "assures entry into eternal beatitude" (CCC 1257). For some of us, that entryway may be on the other side of Purgatory.
DeleteI hope that I won't end up in Hell. But I will say that there are certain temptations in life which are very (one might say, "devilishly") difficult to resist.
Failing to repent a mortal sin negates Baptism, no?
DeleteJean - unfortunately, yes. From the CCC:
Delete"1861 Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God."
Some thoughts on Hell - Richard Rohr
ReplyDeletehttps://cac.org/daily-meditations/god-is-good-2021-09-12/
They are organized by day. Some interesting ideas and all are worth a look.
This is the beginning of the Tuesday reflection
In the first five centuries of Christianity, many of the church fathers affirmed universal salvation. It seems we were much more hopeful at the beginning that the Gospel really was universally good news! A mystical experience led Carlton Pearson, a former evangelical megachurch pastor, to complete a thorough study of the ancient message of universal salvation. He shares that:
The message of Inclusion, also known as Universal Reconciliation, is not new. It was [a] widely held position . . . of respected early church fathers and founders throughout the first five hundred years of church history. . . .
Augustine (354–430), of African descent and one of the four great Latin/Afro church fathers (Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, and Gregory the Great), admitted, “There are very many in our day, who though not denying the Holy Scriptures, do not believe in endless torments.” [1]
Origen. . . lived from 185 to 254. He founded a school at Caesarea, and is considered by historians to be one of the great theologians and scholars of the Eastern Church. In his book De Principiis, he wrote: “We think, indeed, that the goodness of God, through His Christ, may recall all His creatures to one end [that is, salvation], even His enemies being conquered and subdued . . . for Christ must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet.” [2]
Universal restoration and salvation was often embraced, as well as widely debated, in early Christianity.
Monday
Heaven is not about belonging to the right group or following the correct rituals. It’s about having the right attitude toward existence. There are just as many Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jews who live in love—serving their neighbor and the poor—as there are Christians. Jesus says there will be deep regret—“wailing and grinding of teeth” (Luke 13:28)—when we realize how wrong we were. Be prepared to be surprised about who is living a life of love and service and who isn’t. This should keep us all humble and recognizing it’s not even any of our business who’s going to heaven. What makes us think that our little minds and hearts could discern the mind and heart of anyone else?
Further, Jesus never really taught “the immortality of the soul” as we understand it. That was Plato. Jesus taught the immortality of love. A torture chamber was an unfortunate metaphor to keep people from never loving, trusting, or hoping. I am not sure it ever really worked because you cannot threaten people into love.
Sunday
Unfortunately, it’s much easier to organize people around fear and hatred than around love. Powerful people prefer this worldview because it validates their use of intimidation—which is quite effective in the short run! Both Catholicism and Protestantism have used the threat of eternal hellfire to form Christians. I am often struck by the irrational anger of many people when they hear that someone does not believe in hell. You cannot “believe” in hell. Biblical “belief” is simply to trust and have confidence in the goodness of God or reality and cannot imply some notion of anger, wrath, or hopelessness at the center of all that is. Otherwise, we live in a toxic and unsafe universe, which many do.
In his book Inventing Hell, Jon Sweeney points out that our Christian view of hell largely comes from several unfortunate metaphors in Matthew’s Gospel. [1] Hell is not found in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. It’s not found in the Gospel of John or in Paul’s letters. ..
Speaking of hell ( actually it's just a promise of a gruesome stretch in purgatory) Trump has now declared his candidacy for 2024. Seriously, can't the Republican party just shut him down and say, "Fine, you're running, but you're on your own. We're going a different direction." They could do that but they won't. The breather was nice while it lasted.
ReplyDeleteElements in the party do seem to be doing that. The RNC says it won't pay his legal fees, and Repubs with presidential ambitions are dissing him--Pompeo, Pence, Christie. My concern is that they will take all his horrid ideas like separation of families at the border, execution of dope dealers, tax cuts for big corporations, blind support of Israel, ignoring climate change, etc. so that we get Trumpism without Trump.
DeleteHw dare they plagiarize from the stable genius. Doesn't get any lower than that.
DeleteOff topic: Prayers for my friend Paulette. She has been hit with a lot in the last two years. She is trying to come up with a plan for her disabled son after she is gone. Care and money are not a problem, but the idea of putting him in an institution is about killing her. He is 50 and has always lived at home.
ReplyDeleteSending prayers! That's a difficult situation. If he is 50, she isn't young.
DeleteNo, and if I told you what all's nailed to the cross she's been carrying for the last 35 years, you'd think I was making it up. I can provide a couple hours of comic relief and listening, but she needs heavenly intervention.
DeleteI'll pray for God's help. One dancing partner with an autistic son told her daughters that they're responsible for him if something happens to her. But that isn't always available.
DeletePrayers for Paulette. I recently met a woman, an absolutely lovely woman, whose life story exhausted me to even think about. I truly think I would have had a complete physical and emotional breakdown had I experienced half of it. I am guessing that I would feel the same about Paulette. Where do they get the strength and courage? God I asdume. Prayers ascending!
DeleteYes, praying now. I have a niece who requires parental care, and apparently never will be self-sufficient. If something happens to the parents (as of course happens to all of us sooner or later), she'd have to go into an institution. It's hard to think about.
DeleteThank you all for your prayers.
DeleteRe – “mortal sin” and hell. How I learned to form - and trust - my conscience. A personal example of forming conscience .
ReplyDeleteMany years ago (50 actually - we celebrate our 50th this year), I decided to thoroughly study the church's teaching on contraception - which had made no sense to me even when I was a teenager. I read books, I attended talks, including one by a moral theologian at CU, I read church documents. And it still made no sense. I continued my research, forming my conscience with the guidance of the church. Eventually I was actually horrified by what I learned after tracing the teaching back to the first century CE. In fact, I was so shaken by what I learned that I left the church for a while. That was the first time I left, and I did return eventually, taking the pill in good conscience. Not only had I learned the origins of the church's distorted understandings of women, of marriage, of sex in general, I had learned that the ban on contraception contributed to unnecessary stress in marriage, often causing permanent harm. It was not a good teaching. Many couples, especially the women, reach an age, and number of children, when she knows that it's time to call a permanent halt to the chances of becoming pregnant. NFP as practiced does not work well, and it puts enormous strain on the couple's relationship, as it is not a "natural" way to plan pregnancies, but a most un-natural one, requiring abstinence at times when the marital embrace is needed for emotional reasons, and relying on the very un-natural practices of taking daily basal temperature readings, and extracting one's own cervical mucus for daily examination. It forces couples to schedule love-making according to these readings – very not natural! And of course, it trivializes female sexual desire- the libido reaches its peak each month precisely during the time when pregnancy could occur - obviously a “natural” mechanism to encourage mating and the continuation of the species. But we humans can make love at any time - we don't limit it to "mating season" (which is now, for deer, making driving at night even more hazardous!) Unbelievable - only male celibates who secretly think, like Augustine, that sex is dirty unless entered into for purposes of procreation, would consider the forced abstinence and these practices to be "natural". in marriage! The most popular method of birth control behind the pill, is permanent sterilization. But this too is condemned by the church, by celibate males clinging to distorted ideas formed in patriarchal times.
Continued -
DeleteRather than something bad, modern birth control seems instead to be a gift from God - a gift to married couples and family, and a gift given to human beings - the whole human race - at the precise time in history when it would be needed. Until the 20th century infant mortality was high pretty much everywhere. Children were economic assets for the family - needed to herd the livestock, or work the farm, or learn the family trade, or work in the small business. Since infant mortality was high, many children were needed. Maternal mortality was also high, so very often a second wife came along, and more children for her too. Big families were needed also to take care of their elderly family members since there was no such thing as social security. These conditions still prevail in some of the world's poor countries. International economists know that birth rates decline as economies develop. Families become smaller, because then children usually, survive, and the family has alternatives other than farming, trades, etc. for supporting the family. Education advances, along with medical care. Modern, reliable contraception becomes available. Social security systems are enacted. Children become an expense, and so most are born because they are wanted for themselves, not because they are economic assets needed in family enterprises or for social security.
The world's population just hit 8 billion. In 1922, a century ago, it was about 2 billion. It reached 3 billion around 1962, 60 years ago. Now it's 8 billion. I'm no Malthusian, but obviously the world can't handle continued population growth at the rate of the last half century.
In my study of contraception I realized that my conscience was telling me the truth, that I was morally obligated to follow my conscience, and that following my conscience was also supported by church teaching in the CCC - even if the church considered my choice to be "sinful". NOT taking advantage of modern birth control might have been sinful, because it would have harmed me, my marriage, and my family.
It seems that sometimes the people in the church most in need of serious examination of conscience are the clerics, - those who define teachings and write catechisms. Since they do so with half a brain (women are excluded and thus so are the insights and understandings of women), distortions creep in, especially in matters relating to women, marriage and sexuality in general.
John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote a famous treatise called "On Consulting the Faithful on Matters of Doctrine." He maintained that the Holy Spirit speaks through all the faithful, and points out that the clerical class, especially bishops, have made some egregious errors throughout history, He believed that when a teaching is not "received" by the faithful, that it is likely that the teaching is in error. Certainly in modern times, the teaching on contraception has not been received by the faithful. And that is because it's wrong. But the clerical class wants to hold all the power and simply tell the people what to believe, even when it's clearly wrong.
From the catechism
1776 "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths."47...
1782 Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. "He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters."53
Heading for the airport soon, so can’t start a new topic. But those who follow church politics as well as the intersections between church and secular politics might want to read the stories at NCR online about the anti-Francis, trumpian USCCB bishop leaders who were just elected at their annual conference.
DeleteSafe trip, Anne.
DeleteHave safe travels, Anne.
DeleteNot too surprising that Broglio was selected to succeed Gomez, or that Coakley is third in the leadership. The bishops are apparently deciding to maintain the same course. Lori has been selected vice-president, which is a bit encouraging, since he is more moderate. All of the above are either JPII or Benedict appointees. Eventually they won't be in the majority anymore.
I don't know anything about Archbishop Broglio. Occasionally I do mass with a priest who is retired from the chaplain corps so I'll see if he's willing to share any thoughts or impressions. I think we need to give Broglio a chance before passing judgment. I read an article about his first press conference - on most of the questions he seemed to do okay. I believe he did reassert that there is some sort of correlation between homosexuality and the sex abuse crisis. He didn't go into a great deal of detail, so it's difficult to say he's completely right or completely wrong. If the term "crisis" encompasses misdeeds such as McCarrick's, then he's not completely wrong. In his remarks, he pointed to clergy who are attracted to teenage boys. I guess there could be an element of homosexuality in that.
DeleteApart from parsing his press conference words, though, we need to be alert to attempts to demonize gay clergy. I hope that's not what Broglio is about.
"NFP as practiced does not work well, and it puts enormous strain on the couple's relationship, as it is not a "natural" way to plan pregnancies, but a most un-natural one, requiring abstinence at times when the marital embrace is needed for emotional reasons, and relying on the very un-natural practices of taking daily basal temperature readings, and extracting one's own cervical mucus for daily examination. It forces couples to schedule love-making according to these readings – very not natural!"
DeleteI think the term "natural" in this context is supposed to contrast it with the artificial/technological family planning methods: condoms, the pill, IUDs, et al. None of those are "natural" - they all involve putting up some sort of a human-produced, physical barrier or chemical inhibiter to what would naturally occur without those precautions.
As soon as we enter the realm of "family planning", we're seeking to circumvent nature - we're no longer "natural" in that sense.
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DeleteThe biological/natural urge is for humans to screw like rabbits all the time (female desire actually has little to do with estrus cycles, and male desire is pretty much any time any place) with multiple partners and for women to undergo multiple pregnancies from puberty until peri-menopause. At that point, hormonal changes slackens female desire and desirabilty. "Old age" morbidities like heart and kidney disease make men less likely to function sexually. Loss of sex drive and desirability in middle age protects the species from defective offspring.
DeleteBut wholesale biological promiscuity isn't really conducive to the kind of cooperative social order humans prefer to live in. It leads to STDs, confusion over parentage, more children than can be adequately cared for, and in-breeding.
Over millennia, religious teachers have come up with all sorts of ways to try to accommodate both social/spiritual ideals and biological realities.
The RCC tells people to keep it zipped outside of marriage and that all sexual activity that results in sperm going anywhere but a vagina is a sin, unless it is a nocturnal emission. If married people don't want kids, they must abstain. Anything else is a mortal sin and/or intrinsically disordered.
My honest belief is that God is not so much invested in any particular set of "rules of engagement," but expects us to temper our biological urges with love and empathy for others, to respect all human life, and to put the care of children, whether ours or those of others, at the center of human endeavor.
When sexual gratification becomes the center of human existence, it leads to materialism, exploitation, and kills the spirit.
Just my two cents as I look back on what I learned about human existence in the last 70 years ...
Equating the desire for marital lovemaking on a natural schedule into a desire for wanton promiscuity, as the RCC does, is sinful, reflecting thousands of years of distorted religious thinking.
DeleteThe Church has always held sexual continence up as the ideal. It does revisit its teachings occasionally. How hard-nosed it has been about sexual mores, and whether it emphasizes sacrifice or happiness in its pronouncements, has varied a lot over time and place.
Delete"My honest belief is that God is not so much invested in any particular set of "rules of engagement," but expects us to temper our biological urges with love and empathy for others, to respect all human life, and to put the care of children, whether ours or those of others, at the center of human endeavor."
DeleteJean, I agree with you.
We meddle with nature all the time. Right now my cholesterol levels are controlled by a drug. My blood pressure is controlled by two drugs. . My life will probably be extended by using the CPAP contraption. I get that life is good and things that extend it are good. But our previous death rates were overbalanced by our fecundity and extended life span and almost all our children (once called by the term "perishers"} survive. I accept that birth control of any sort is unnatural. But we haven't been natural for eons. We're just trying to establish a balance again. I'm afraid the Greek philosophy adopted as second scripture by Christian thinkers in the first millenium with its relentless logic and superhuman clarity is not helping us now. Perhaps some future technology may permit the human population to expand by a factor of a thousand by colonizing other planets or a million by fabricating a Dyson sphere. But, at the moment, we are up against a wall.
Delete"We haven't been natural for eons."
DeleteDredging up bits from my physics classes here, but, yes, isn't entropy pretty much where nature tends?
Organisms and structures fall apart or die because they can't indefinitely withstand the stress of larger forces that break things down into elemental parts and scatter them evenly across the universe.
Any intervention that interrupts the process of entropy could be viewed as "unnatural"--from giving women prenatal vitamins to getting COVID shots to having cancer treatment to using barrier birth control methods.
Jim, NFP IS family planning, and it meddles with “ nature” just as much as any other method.
ReplyDelete"NFP IS family planning". Yes, hence the name. It's natural in the sense that it doesn't require a physical or chemical barrier to conception.
DeleteAs a former user of NFP I can attest to both the advantages (there are some) and the disadvantages (many of those too). There are also advantages to being an old lady and not having to think about those issues anymore!
DeleteIt appears that the USCCB is preparing for schism, given the new top three in leadership. It seems they are deliberately spitting in Francis”s face.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned, I think we need to give the new guy a chance.
DeleteFrancis believes in empowering bishops' conferences, over and against Rome's traditional/perpetual ulta-montanist tendencies. If he can tolerate the German bishops (as he does usually if not always), he should be able to put up with a few Americans selected by the previous regimes.
Unrelated, I hope DC is warmer than where we are today. It was 9°F here this morning. Biden's granddaughter Naomi is getting married on the White House lawn today. Planning an outdoor wedding in November is a bit risky!
ReplyDeleteConsiderably warmer here this morning, 21 with just three inches of snow. Hope Naomi has a bridal sweater.
DeleteThree inches of snow isn't what I'd be eager for. Jean, if that's the same weather system which cruised through here a day or two ago, it gave us about an inch of snow, but it wasn't the kind of pretty, postcard effect one wishes for in that first early snow of the season. More like wet and slushy.
DeleteI understand the same system is socking Buffalo with up to four feet of snow. Something about the Great Lakes being warm and re-energizing the precipitation.
Lake Michigan fired up the system, West Side got hit, but it broke up before it got to Detroit, so we got about three inches.
DeleteYes, lakes heat up more in the summer now because we have more hot days (and maybe bc the lakes are shallower). If the Arctic air stays north of us, winter starts later and doesn't leave until mid April. If the Arctic air dips further south, the heat from the lakes mixes with cold air generating precip in the form of snow.
Snow was wet yesterday, but fluffy today. I feel sorry for the village crew that is trying to pick up piles of heavy wet frozen leaves. I think they will wait until it hits 40s next week.
I like winter, but I can't do outdoor things any more. I just sit on the porch rocker in my down coat under a blanket drinking coffee, enjoying the clean air, and watching my birdies at the feeder.
Across the Street has written me off as a nut.
We had 3 inches of snow but the rain subsequently washed it away. Jean, thanks for the image. I enjoy winter, too, but have no porch and no rocker. Sounds like a great way to take it in.
DeleteI try to time my outdoor time when school lets out. The school is at the end of my street, so lots of kids walk by my house. Fewer bullying incidents when the kiddies know adults are watching. Got that tip from our beloved former next door neighbor who died several years ago. Two or three other people on our street do the same, but not often in winter.
DeleteI spent most of my growing up period in a row house. The kitchens faced the back alley where we kids played. The resulting mom scan pretty much had full coverage of the situation even without Nest cams and Ring cams.
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