Reason #489-Why I'm Catholic

Non-Contraceptive Marriages

I'm going to make this one short and sweet. I said I was going to do this two posts ago, so sorry it's late. When my wife and I got married, we picked out our new place, some dishes, a dvd/vcr combo (bad idea) and of course contraception. This is what every good protestant is coached to do: enjoy the fruit of mariage without all the baggage; at least until that baggage miraculously becomes the bundle of joy you are longing for.

Instead of railing against contraception, I will send you here.

Instead of recapitulating an argument I'll quote the one from two posts ago:

"Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality" CCC 2370

Okay, I'll just try a simile...

Contraception is like partaking of the Eucharist with a plastic bag in your mouth. As awful as that image sounds, that is what we do when we act as if we want everything the sacrament of marriage has to offer, but spit out of our mouth, so to speak, the potentiality of the zoe (life) of God.

One more (not a simile)...

In the marital act, a couple asks the Holy Spirit to meet them. The Holy Spirit can cause the act to bring into existence that which did not exist before, and it is precisely in that moment (conception) that a soul is created and put into that which the naked eye cannot see. "Quench not the Holy Spirit". Contra (against) ception (from conception). To act against the possibility of the Spirit's free range is to do precisely what our Lord warned against.

Let us not be deceived, life is not in our hands. However, the Lord does set before us two options and we should choose life.

For more reading go here.