The readings from today’s Sunday mass made numerous references to trees, seeds, and other natural phenomena. In the gospel, Jesus spoke in parables about the kingdom of heaven being like the seeds planted by a farmer, which mysteriously grow because God imbues them with life, taking them from seeds to full grown plants and trees. One of the ways we can know something about God is to consider how He has revealed Himself in nature. Tiny seeds miraculously grow at amazing speed into everything from plants and animals to complex human beings, capable of thought, self-awareness and love. Yet we all started as the seed of a man that conjugated with the ovum of a woman in a tiny cell that grows into the complex creature we have become, in just a few short months.
Could anyone deny that a bean sprout is a bean, before it emerges above the surface of the earth? Yet people contend that embryos are not humans before they’re born, violently denying their right to life. God reveals many great truths in nature. He reveals the awesome complexity of nature in our genetic structure, and the expanse of His power in the workings of gravity that set and maintains the entire universe in motion. He even reveals His own nature in the way He created humanity as male and female, giving men and women different but complementary characteristics. Only in the unity of a man and woman does new creation take place and the miracle of new life becomes possible through the power of God. This truth about our bodies reveals how much God loves us, wanting us and our children to be raised in love and security that only a man and woman living together permanently, can give their beloved children.
Sadly, we seem to have forgotten many of these truths, and allowed ourselves to be duped into believing that humanity in and of itself has possession of the truth. Many treat the concept of God is an archaic vestige of the pre-scientific age, while ignoring the truth God has revealed in our very bodies, and in the consequences of our sinful actions. Perhaps we do this to rationalize our selfish motives, like the false sense of freedom that pervades our society. Many of our elite intellectuals proselytize by appealing to our selfish desires. Their concept of freedom is one of license to do whatever we please, as long as no one gets hurt. But in doing so, they tend to overlook the damage done to ourselves and others in the process. Pornography is portrayed as a victimless crime, but consider how many women are victimized by men who believe they are entitled to sexual gratification on demand. Femininity is suppressed by birth control drugs that render women incapable of carrying a pregnancy, often by thinning out the lining of the uterus so that it cannot sustain a fertilized egg, and therefore spontaneously aborting it.
God, Our Father has imbued us with amazing gifts, including our fertility. Like human fathers who love their children, God wants what’s best for us. Consequently, He has revealed the beauty, intimacy, and potential for human love, in our very bodies. He has given men physical and emotional characteristics that make them well-suited to protect and provide for their families, along with hormones that strengthen him for those tasks. Conversely, he has equipped mothers to nurture, protect, and love their children, sacrificing their very bodies for the lives of their children. Furthermore, He has created in man and woman the potential for marital love that unites them in a permanent bond to ensure the safety and security of the children they beget, and for our own happiness and fulfillment.
When our society ignores the truth of our bodies as revealed in our masculinity and femininity, it tampers with natural law and the consequences are dire. When sex is treated as a plaything and everyone is expected to engage in sex as soon as their teenage hormones kick in, all sorts of ill-effects follow, as evidenced by the explosion of STDs over the past generation, not least of which are AIDS and cancer-causing HPV. The number of unwanted pregnancies goes up and so does the abortion rate, when science is applied to the regulation of birth, rather than the virtues of self-control and sexual continence. To cover all this up and make is seem normal, we redefine language to anesthetize us from responsibility. Birth control is not recognized as interference with a woman’s natural body chemistry, instead, the carcinogens that make up birth control pills are now referred to by our government as “essential women’s health care services.” The war on breast cancer seldom acknowledges the direct link between years of taking birth control pills (class 4 carcinogens) before pregnancy, nor the well-documented link between abortion and breast cancer. Those who advocate for HPV vaccine fail to mention that HPV is virtually unknown among monogamous couples, or that the vaccine only protects against two or three of the twelve strains of HPV, giving girls a false sense of protection from multiple sex partners.
This week begins the “Fortnight for Freedom” called for by our Catholic bishops. They will be making a concerted effort to educate Catholics about the attack on religious freedom, currently underway. Educational sessions, letters, and homilies will be presented in churches all across the country, encouraging Catholics to pray for our “first freedom, ” the freedom to practice our religion without interference from the government. All Catholics will be encouraged to pray for our country, speak out publicly, and participate in special liturgical services in which we will unite in prayer for our nation. Our president and his appointees are insisting that the Catholic Church and all Christians participate in the promotion and provision of birth control, as well as chemical abortions (morning after pill) and surgical sterilization, despite our religious belief that these are immoral actions which bear immense consequences. Nearly 50 Catholic institutions have filed lawsuits, asserting that this violation of the first amendment is unconstitutional.
The fortnight for freedom will run 14 days, from June 21st to the 4th of July. Not coincidentally, June 21st is the vigil of the feast of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, two men who died at the hands of their government, rather than violate their religious belief about the sanctity of marriage. This is a national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty. Those who support the government’s actions will treat this as a tempest in a teapot and the actions of a few religious fanatics, while trying to portray the church as opposed to women’s rights. They will also claim that the church wants to withhold necessary health care services from women. Ironically, many of the Catholic institutions affected by he new government mandate are hospitals and social service agencies that care for women and children, provide counseling for abused women, and homes for unwanted babies. On the 4th of July, church bells across the country will ring out at noon, calling for real freedom; not the false freedom of license that brings with it the slavery of addiction and sin, but the real freedom to know the truth. Real freedom is the freedom to worship God and to adhere to His truth as revealed in His Fatherhood and in our nature. Real freedom is the freedom to practice the virtues Our Father has taught us, not the false freedom of sin which enslaves us in vices.
This Father’s Day, let’s thank God for being the author of life, the creator of all that exists, and for loving us as only a parent can love: unconditionally and mercifully. Let’s also celebrate the nature of our masculinity and femininity in all its beauty, with the potential for new life and the rewards of self-sacrificial love. Those who seek to redefine marriage, deny the truth of our bodies, and the sacredness of marital love. If our government can dictate what we must condone, despite our religious beliefs, birth control and abortion are just the beginning of the war on truth and virtue. I urge you to participate in the fortnight for freedom, not only through prayer, but by leaning more about these issues and their importance to our nation and our democracy.
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