Christine Smith's Blog

Regarding the Humanae Vitae teachings

Faith is integral to the way I live my life in every area.  Amazingly to me, I now feel a deep understanding inside (beyond mere mental understanding) of matters which perplexed or confused me before.

I can give you a direct example of where my eyes have been opened. It is in my understanding of the Humanae Vitae teachings found in the Encyclical Letter of Pope Paul VI in 1968.

Although all my life I have always regarded life as beginning at conception, I couldn’t understand how (artificial) contraception would contradict God’s will. It seems so apparent to me now. But for much of my life, I couldn’t grasp it.

Though I don’t have to consider contraception now since I am single (and believe sex to be a sacrament reserved for marriage), it’s still a matter I’ve given thought to understand. Now, I see it as directly a matter of trusting God. Just as I trust God to provide for me in life, so I would not exclude His will from a matter as sacred as to determine whether or when a new life should be brought forth. Likewise, very importantly and completely interrelated to that, I would want to keep nothing (not even temporarily) of myself artificially from my husband.

Unlike many other females, I don’t spend any time thinking about my “biological clock”; I simply trust and gratefully accept that which naturally happens in my life as God’s will for me. Whether I have a child, or if I never do, is in God’s hands, it’s not a matter I will try to artificially control one way or the other. If I were to marry, I would trust God’s omnipotence and omniscience to determine whether I would become pregnant or not. The blessing of being entrusted with giving birth to the child of the man God would have given me would be a great honor and responsibility – I trust God to determine whether that experience is meant for me or not. God would know what is right for us. Whoever I would be and the man would be when brought together in matrimony, (paraphrasing what the wedding vows say whether we’ve come together in sickness, health, prosperity, difficulties, fertility or not, or any other life circumstance), we would come under God’s hands and intentions to love one another as we are and to help each other grow. My focus in marriage would be caring for and being a helpmate to the man in the authentic love God would have him receive.

I’m busy and happy living my life, doing the work God has put before me and blessed me with. I trust God’s guidance and His timing if such a relationship were ever to happen. If it did, I would want nothing to come between myself and the man God would have given me and given me to, for marriage is “by appointment of Jesus Christ, a sacred sign and symbol of his indissoluble union with his Church…” (The Manual of The Holy Catholic Church,  Rev. James J. McGovern, D.D., “The Sacred Bonds of Matrimony”).

Sex, as physically pleasurable and enjoyable as it is, is a gift meant to emanate from a spiritual union of two individuals. It represents God’s spiritual union with us. It is a sacred communication, joining, and sharing…a physical expression of the joyful spiritual union of two individuals giving themselves first to God, then to one another. It’s beautiful. Sexual desire is natural.  Its sharing with another individual is a gift from God for both. As such, I believe sexual union to be only for marriage.

I find this Scripture beautiful: “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.” (Mark 10: 6-8, KJV)

Trusting God, and the teachings of His will which He has entrusted and given us through The Holy Catholic Church, takes devotion, humility, strength, courage and steadfastness; it requires forsaking mere intellectual arguments that exclude the reality of a spiritual life; it means putting total faith, trust, and love of God in one’s heart and then following your heart (and asking for guidance from God when questions or temptations arise) realizing that “Temptation is necessary to us to make us realise that we are nothing in ourselves.” – The Cure D’Ars – St. Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney, sermon “We Are Nothing In Ourselves.”

Let us, as Catholics, trust God in all matters – without compromise.  Let’s not look to ourselves to try and figure out what is right; let us trust in His will in every area of our life as we“…walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV)