The Witness of the Body: Inclining Against Contraception

By Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq.
6/26/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

I had encountered the truth that to engage in contraceptive sex would be to live a lie

Without the aid of any Church doctrine, by just listening to the "close-in teleology" of the conjugal act, I had encountered the truth that to engage in contraceptive sex would be to live a lie. I had an inclination I could not have then put into words that to separate the unitive and the procreative aspects of the conjugal act was wrong, and not only wrong but horribly wrong. For me it was clearly something despicable, something for which I would have to answer to God were I to continue the practice.

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CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - "Theology of the Body" is the name given to Pope John Paul II's integrated vision of the human person, a person composed of spiritual soul and material body, and incomplete without both. For John Paul II--and indeed for all Christians who refuse to succumb to what Jacques Maritain called the Cartesian "sin of angelism," the error of seeing a human person as a "ghost in a machine"--the human body is as equal a partner to the human person as is the spiritual soul. Our soma, our body, has a "theology," a word to tell us about God, just as much as does our psyche, our soul.

There is something about our end (in Greek, our telos), our design and God's purpose, that is to be learned from our body, from its acts, even from what the theologian Steven A. Long calls the "close-in teleogies" of human acts. There are "close-in theologies" that are found in the "close-in teleogies" of the human body, especially in such inter-personal matters as the conjugal act or the marital act.

To be sure, pure bodily activity is to be understood within the context of the whole human person, and not separated from it. Yet it is also sure that the body talks to us. We have to have an internal ear to hear what our body is saying. The loud din of our culture, our presuppositions, our ignorance, our lusts can often deafen us to the witness of the body. There are many sources of static.

Sometimes even some moral theologians try to plug their ears with respect to the music found in the "close-in teleologies" and "close-in theologies" by crying biologism, biologism, biologism!

But it is a fact that the natural moral law often speaks to us in the language of the body, in the meaning of its acts, and in what moral theologians have called our inclinations. Unquestionably, our inclinations can frequently go awry, especially after the disorder caused our nature from Adam's Fall. So not all felt inclinations can be assumed to be legitimate.

Importantly, in understanding these inclinations, it is also wrong to think of the inclinations as bodily urges. Far from being disordered primitive urges, the inclinations are in fact expressions of a kind of reason, an Ur-reason, a fundamental, non-conceptual, non-discursive reason. This is why I like to think of these inclinations as a sort of intellectual feltness. The natural law is (contrary to Kant and the natural law theorists of the Enlightenment) not based upon conceptual or discursive reason alone, but is fundamentally built upon these inclinations.

The notion of the natural law as something built upon these fundamental inclinations fits in better with the Biblical notion of the natural law as a law of reason written not on one's brain, but in one's heart. (Rom. 2:15) The Biblical notion of the heart refers or signifies the very center, the most intimate core, of the human person. The heart is something much more basic than one's brain. And it is here--in the central core of the human being, the heart--where the intellectual feltness, the inclinations of the natural moral law, are found.

Now I say all this as an introduction because it helps explain a life-changing experience I had about 28 years ago. And here to understand the context, I need to give a few biographical details.

Though raised Catholic, I had left the Church--indeed Christianity altogether--by the time I entered college. I remember my inchoate rebellion at age 13, but by the time I reached 17, this attitude had blossomed into full-scale rejection of God and of His Church.

As I approached college graduation, I happened to attend a Bill Gothard seminar with the young woman who would eventually become my wife, and experienced a conversion. I realized how much I had sinned or strayed from childhood innocence, how I needed forgiveness, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior.

To make a long story short, after my conversion I read the Scriptures, but as I bounced from Baptist Church to Charismatic Church, I soon became aware that the Scriptures were not as perspicuous-that is, as plain to the understanding--as the Protestants claimed them to be.

So I decided the best evidence of the meanings of the Scriptures would be the so-called Apostolic Fathers, those persons who were the immediate successors to the Apostles. I was soon convinced, upon reading St. Ignatius of Antioch, that a Scriptural Church had to have at least three requisites: (1) it had to be Liturgical, (2) it had to be Eucharistic, and (3) it had to be Episcopal, which is to say governed by bishops.

So I looked for such a church. The Episcopal Church was convenient, had (or at least appeared to have) these three signs, and so ...

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1 - 10 of 14 Comments

mikem
10 months ago
ANDY- please do not learn NFP - without focusing your (plural) attention on The Billings Method. It was Drs.John and Evelyn Billings who answered Pope Paul Vi's plea to find a way to regulate birth that was pleasing to God, and fulfilling to Man. If you (plural) have not learned it, and probably haven't since it isn't favored among the NFP crowd, and are still in the business of making children, then learn the Billings Method at once! the web site is www.woomb.org
We were able to co-create our children with God by choosing their genders with the Billings Method, and that is one of the least significant advantages of this method which, in my opinion, fulfills the Biblical statement: "What God has joined together...." it is truly awesome.
P.S. I love Pope Benedict XVI's phrase: "the human person is plural." Male and Female.
JeanCatherine
10 months ago
Wanjiru

Start with Priests for Life and scroll down to their list on the left side of screen and click on Contraception. It has a huge amount of information on this subject. Read Humanae Vitae as well.
Also check out the Paul VI Institute on the web and contact them about your problem and see if they respond.
Patience Micheal
10 months ago
I appreciate this article, it has strengthened my resolve never to use any form of contraceptive when i get married, God bless Andrew for sharing his experience. I pray that youths will seek God's will in thier relationship before and in marriage.
Beth
10 months ago
Wanjuri - You will not find in the bible any direct statement that it is wrong to use contraception. This teaching, like many other moral teachings of the Church, is based on both a general understanding of biblical teaching and the apostolic authority of the Church. You will find in the Old Testament an account of a man (I can't remember his name) "spilling his seed" during the sexual act in order to avoid conceiving a child, and thereby offending God. What we also see from the story of Creation is the way God intended things to be - and clearly He intended for the marital act to be fruitful. Not every single time, obviously, since even women with normal fertility are actually infertile most of the time. There is the unitive aspect of sex that is very, very important. But when a couple abstains from sexual intercourse during the woman's fertile time in order to postpone a pregnancy for legitimate reasons (i.e, uses NFP), this is very different from engaging in an act of intercourse and purposely thwarting the procreative potential of that act. The former represents a healthy, honest view of sex and a mutual respect between the spouses - the latter is a bulimic approach to sex that does not cooperate with the natural law and can ultimately harm the relationship between the spouses. Remember that in Catholic teaching both the end AND the means must be morally acceptable. Two different couples trying to postpone a pregnancy for legitimate reasons - one using NFP, the other contraception - are not morally equivalent just because they have the same end in mind. I highly recommend that you read the encyclical "Humanae Vitae" - Pope Paul VI was prophetic in his assessment of what the widespread use of contraception would mean for women, marriage and society. Also, be sure to educate yourself on modern methods of Natural Family Planning, which are highly effective and very individualized. They are NOT our grandmother's "rhythm method". Many women have found relief from various gynecological problems - including infertility - by learning NFP and getting help from pro-NFP doctors. It is very empowering for women to learn about our bodies and to be loved and respected just as we are.
Errol
10 months ago
A moral Truth!

Contraception leads to sexual exploitation of men and women including young children...
ANNE
10 months ago
Unfortunately, catechesis in the US has been very poor. People are not encouraged to read the "CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH, Second Edition" which would help slow heresy, schism, relativism and secularism.
We must all encourage everyone to read the CCC which is readily available in many languages.

Contraception is NOT women's health care.
It is injurious to women's health and allows men to make objects of women.
Thus it harms women physically as well as mentally.
READ the WARNING labels on the packages.

Women who should not have children should merely abstain from sexual activity for a week each month. This is healthy for women.

All sexual activity outside of marriage (between one man and one woman) is a Mortal Sin.
Wanjiru
10 months ago
I am a Catholic. And for some years I attended Protestant churches but eventually returned and got married in the church. I have medical issues and cannot have more children. But I still do not understand the issue of contraception. Can someone please provide me with some bibilical justification etc. Thanks
Judy T
10 months ago
Many states require contraceptive coverage in health insurance policies, and there may not be a conscience protection clause allowed. Even if the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare, some of us may be subsidizing contraception. We cannot quit here, we must work on the state level as well.
Terri K in CC
10 months ago
My daughter and were just discussing "inclinations" today, though I didn't have a term for it when we discussed. I was telling her how, despite a lack of catechesis or any sort of real teaching, it just felt wrong to begin my marriage to her dad with contraception. We were still college students when we married and she was conceived. She had assumed she was an accident. I told her that no, we were excitedly open to a baby and she was a much-anticipated blessing.

After our daughter was born my husband and I wandered in the darkness of trying to make contraception work in our marriage for a few years. Nobody even talked to us about NFP until had been married about five years and then we embraced it right away. We are both cradle Catholics and we married in the Church. We have nine living children now, and two more in heaven.

How many other young couples deny their inclinations and use contraception because they don't know they have alternatives? So many of us are indoctrinated to believe that contraception equals responsibility. It's insidious.
Beth
10 months ago
Nicely written! If only my more "liberal" female friends could understand how decidedly pro-woman the Church's teachings are! I, too, experienced a falling away from my Catholic upbringing during my late teens and 20s. While I never formally left the Church, I had no understanding of Catholic sexual morality beyond "thou shalt not". And so I did - with impunity. It wasn't until my late 20s, many broken hearts and humiliations later, that I studied the Catechism and finally "got it". Met my husband a few years later, had a TRUE honeymoon, and we have never used contraception. The mutual respect and beauty of our intimacy is something I wish every person could experience. As long as women go on believing that contraception and abortion are necessary to advance the cause of women's equality, the more women will continue disproportionately to suffer the consequences of promiscuity.

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