The beauty, and the burden, of faith’s ‘hard truths’

September 13, 2018
John Weiser
Kentfield

Thank you for Archbishop Cordileone’s article on the “hard truths” of our faith and their power to move people (“’Greatest power to move people’ in ‘hard truths of our faith,’” Page HV6, July 26). The article is often beautiful; unfortunately, for all its beauty the article proceeds on a basic misunderstanding of human sexuality. Like many clergy, the archbishop is fixated on human plumbing. There is male and female and under certain circumstances their union begets children. The clergy reason that since procreation is one result, that must be the reason why God created male and female. And since procreation is one result it must be the only result and hence the clergy conclude that all marital acts must be “open” to procreation.

There is some symmetry to the argument but seems to me to be much too narrow and restricted a view of God’s plan. God put a sexual urge in men and women and, unlike many in the animal kingdom who have mating seasons, the human urge is not limited to times when procreation is feasible. In fact most women reach menopause between ages 40 and 50, but the sexual urge continues for decades thereafter. We can say therefore that fulfillment of sexual urge after that age can only be for unitive purposes. God knew that marriage brings its strains and so designed a plan that encourages marital relations in the non-conceiving time to build bonds between the marriage partners.

Similarly, even in the period before menopause women are only fertile three or four days each month leaving 26 or 27 days of each month when she cannot conceive. Still, the sexual urge continues during those 26 or 27 days. Holy Mother the Church, aware of these truths of human sexuality, has in her wisdom created a huge hole in the “hard” truths of “Humanae Vitae.” That hole is natural family planning, which is based on the facts of a woman’s cycle of fertility. In NFP a woman determines the days of the month when she is fertile. The couple is then encouraged to abstain from sexual relations on those days to avoid procreation and instead to enjoy sexual relations during the balance of the month when procreation will not occur. It seems to me to be church’s propagation of NFP is an acceptance of the proposition that marital relations are unitive in purpose. Procreation can hardly be the only purpose for marital relations if the church supports a methodology intended to avoid procreation, while allowing a couple the mutual joy of the marital embrace.

The invocation of “hard” truths reminds one of Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees for laying heavy burdens on the backs of their flocks while doling nothing to help ease the burden. “Humanae Vitae” proposes a heavy burden, but the church has done much to reduce that burden by its encouragement of NFP.
 

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