The Wedding Feast vs. Table Scraps

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes

By John Mallon
© 2005 by John Mallon
Catholic Online

Last year I did some work for an organization that deserves much more attention than it's getting. The organization, which I mentioned in my last article is the Population Research Institute of Front Royal, VA. Their mission statement, as stated on their website (www.pop.org), is "The Population Research Institute is dedicated to stopping human rights abuses committed in the name of family planning, and through research and education to dispelling the myth of overpopulation."

Yes, overpopulation is a myth. Around the turn of the 19th Century an Anglican Minister named Thomas Malthus wrote an essay that became famous and actually influenced Charles Darwin. In a nutshell Malthus believed that human reproduction would out-pace the planet's ability to sustain and feed the people of the earth.

The alarmist predictions of Malthus have been proven wrong time and time again, yet this idea was revived in a book called The Population Bomb by Paul Erlich in the 1960s. Variations of the theory are put into practice by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The West is obsessed with contraception and the notion that children are something to be avoided at all costs or, when "wanted," seen as instruments of self-fulfillment. We cannot help but think the obsession with imposing these attitudes to the developing world is a salve for a conscience nearly moribund from opposing our most noble human instincts.

We Will Pray with You: Light Your Virtual Prayer Candle

For over two decades PRI has been warning of this very crisis now coming home to roost if Western nations continued in their irrational anti-natalist policies, and Chicken Little alarmist "family planning" measures. At the root of much of this artificial alarm has been the more hidden agenda for "consequence free" sex, pushed under the rubric of "reproductive health" and sexual and reproductive rights."

Needless to say, sex is a very powerful motivator and the push has been on for decades to mow down anything that stands in the way of the agenda that wants official moral sanction of sexual pleasure in any and all forms. This process, by its nature moves sex from being a selfless act of self-giving and sacrifices to a selfish act free from any and all responsibility.

Two major impediments to this agenda is any form of traditional religion, all of which place sexual activity in the context of marriage, defined as between one man and one woman bound in love and a freely chosen life-long commitment. Love as always, seeks to flower in fruitfulness and in marriage does so uniquely in the form of children which forms a family, the fundamental source of society and social stability.

This of course, for the sexual ideologue, is the second impediment which is the possibility of offspring resulting from sexual encounters.

The sexual ideologues have succeeded in creating a Catch-22 on which they base many of their arguments. They point to the fact that many modern families are failing as proof that the traditional family system does not work or is inadequate to modern realities.

But the truth is, families are failing precisely as the result of the destabilization created by the sexual ideologues. Not to give them credit, of course, Christians see this turn of events in modernity as the result of larger forces at work in history, namely Original Sin and general widespread concupiscence.

Also at work is a false opposition between science and faith since the Enlightenment.

In the generation, commonly called the "Baby Boomers," during these forces have accelerated promoting an unfortunate individualism and many people past childbearing age now contemplate the prospect of growing old alone. This sad prospect among the faithless, only fuels arguments for euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Perhaps the greatest joys and comforts amid the increasing aches, pains and discomforts of old age are children, particularly grandchildren. The tragedy of a life lived chiefly for oneself is that in the end that is all you are left with. This is one Christian definition of hell; the fruits of one's life ratified for all eternity: either the love of God and neighbor and the generosity of giving life to others, biologically or spiritually, resulting in an eternity of love in its ultimate fulfillment; or the opposite: the fruits of one's selfishness confining one to eternal darkness and solitary confinement. I recently heard quote that said "A man wrapped up in himself is a very small package."

Embrace your Faith

Sexual pleasure divorced from all its incumbent responsibilities and sacrifices is also necessarily divorced from all it joys. Joy and pleasure are not the same thing. In fact pleasure for its own sake is often tragic, pathetic substitute for joy. St. Thomas Aquinas said, "No one can live without joy. That is why a man deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasures." (Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, 35.4 ad 2).

Sexual activity is not an end in itself, it leads somewhere and points to things beyond itself. Sexual activity always has consequences. In a happy, healthy marriage it leads to deeper union of husband and wife strengthening the marital bond in security and stability and flowering into a family which requires great security and stability based on love and commitment. Ultimately it points to union with God in Heaven and the consummation of all things in the Beatific Vision.

Outside of the marital bond there is a tearing, and sundering of the soul because nothing is being ratified, it is not the seal of a covenant but a theft and a lie, instead of unity there is greater alienation and loneliness, and a despair of the stable permanence for which the heart longs because the empty promise disappoints. Outside of marriage there is no home being built in the bed just a reminder of a terrible transience of a loveless life, nipping at the table scraps instead of being seated at the banquet of love.

____________________

Mallon is Contributing Editor for Inside the Vatican magazine. He can be reached at realitycheck@catholic.org

Contact

John Mallon
https://www.catholic.org/featured/reality_check.php OK, US
John Mallon - Columnist,

Email

realitycheck@catholic.org

Keywords

Population Control, UNFPA, Marriage, Sexual Ethics

Light Your Virtual Prayer Candle For a Loved One

More Catholic PRWire

Showing 1 - 50 of 4,716

« Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Next »

A Recession Antidote
Randy Hain

Monaco & The Vatican: Monaco's Grace Kelly Exhibit to Rome--A Review of Monegasque-Holy See Diplomatic History
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

The Why of Jesus' Death: A Pauline Perspective
Jerom Paul

A Royal Betrayal: Catholic Monaco Liberalizes Abortion
Dna. Maria St.Catherine De Grace Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

Embrace every moment as sacred time
Mary Regina Morrell

My Dad
JoMarie Grinkiewicz

Letting go is simple wisdom with divine potential
Mary Regina Morrell

Father Lombardi's Address on Catholic Media
Catholic Online

Pope's Words to Pontifical Latin American College
Catholic Online

Prelate: Genetics Needs a Conscience
Catholic Online

State Aid for Catholic Schools: Help or Hindrance?
Catholic Online

Scorsese Planning Movie on Japanese Martyrs
Catholic Online

2 Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Set Free
Catholic Online

Holy See-Israel Negotiation Moves Forward
Catholic Online

Franchising to Evangelize
Catholic Online

Catholics Decry Anti-Christianity in Israel
Catholic Online

Pope and Gordon Brown Meet About Development Aid
Catholic Online

Pontiff Backs Latin America's Continental Mission
Catholic Online

Cardinal Warns Against Anti-Catholic Education
Catholic Online

Full Circle
Robert Gieb

We ask you, humbly, to help.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

Three words to a deeper faith
Paul Sposite

Relections for Lent 2009
chris anthony

Wisdom lies beyond the surface of life
Mary Regina Morrell

World Food Program Director on Lent
Catholic Online

Moral Clarity
DAN SHEA

Pope's Lenten Message for 2009
Catholic Online

A Prayer for Monaco: Remembering the Faith Legacy of Prince Rainier III & Princess Grace and Contemplating the Moral Challenges of Prince Albert II
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe

Keeping a Lid on Permissiveness
Sally Connolly

Glimpse of Me
Sarah Reinhard

The 3 stages of life
Michele Szekely

Sex and the Married Woman
Cheryl Dickow

A Catholic Woman Returns to the Church
Cheryl Dickow