The Pill and a Happy Marriage

A couple funny things about the "the pill", how many objects can you just say the word, and everyone knows exactly what you are talking about. Imagine saying grab "the ball", and everyone knows what your talking about, (a soccer ball, or a basketball), and there's a lot of pills out there, allergy pills, cholesterol pills. But if you say "the pill", people know what your talking about. That's a sad commentary on our culture. The other funny thing about the pill, is that in many people's thought process there's no openness, its sort of like saying, "you should really consider not using tooth-paste anymore, or if you stop using deodorant, you'll will be happier". Another thing to consider, is that our culture has made great strides in trying to live in a healthier, more natural way, we believe in eating well, and taking better care of our minds and bodies, this is beautiful. But many times people fail to mention the most obvious un-natural way that people are putting into their bodies, (Just read the common side effects to contraception)

But I want to stick with what's most positive about Natural Family Planning- Your Wedding Day! My sister Patrice just got married, and it was so funny to watch it all play out, because she has been dreaming and planning this day for the past 20 years. Girls love weddings, and its clear from our faith, that they have good reason for this. Our culture is right building up the wedding Day! But the problem is, we forget that in the Catholic Sacramental vision, that day should continue everyday into eternity. In the great movie Fire-Proof- (I will post on this movie next week) The couple falls back in love, and the natural response is to renew their wedding vows. Lets start over, and begin to live what we promised. That's the amazing "Theology of the Body," the Church believes that sex is so holy, that its sacramental, we are giving flesh to our promise on the alter! That's where the problem of the pill comes in. When you insert the pill in the equation, your promises on the alter, your giving flesh to your promises becomes a lie. Because truth be told, you are not accepting everything, you are not making a total gift of yourself. Here I am, you can have everything, (except my fertility, this you can not have!) But God does not play games with us, we are His Children, that's why he made us with natural cycles that lift us up as humans. If a husband and wife works together, they can with prefect confidence avoid pregnancy, for a simple reason, NFP is based upon abstaining during fertile periods. You can't have pregnancy without sex. Think about that, that's how holy sex is, God allows us to co-operate with him in his most amazing act, creating a unique and unrepeatable human life. When we are prayerfully discerning if we should have another child, emotionally, physically, economically, we have to remember the gift God has given us. But with full confidence we can avoid pregnancy and most importantly raise up the truth of our wedding vows, bringing flesh to the promise we make.

How happy we would be if every day in our marriage we lived the joy and the celebration of our wedding day! Why is it so hard for us to believe that this is what God wants, for us to celebrate love, to celebrate our marriages. With NFP we are able to truthfully proclaim with our flesh the promises we made, and we can always be sure that God will stay faithful to his end of the promises.