T
twoangels
Guest
We are called to love people the way God loves us. How does He love us? He loves us for our own sake. What does that mean? First, its important to understand that God lacks nothing. We do not fill some void in His life. We do not make life worth living for Him. He does not need us for his own personal welfare. These sorts of motivations are based primarily on our own self love. Often when we hear that God has no need for us, we find it difficult to believe that He could love us. We want to be wanted and want seems to infer some desire that is desperate to be satisfied. God does will does not work like covetousness. He loves us for our own sake.
So we are called to love people in this way. That’s not to say its wrong not to enjoy people or to realize that people give your life some meaning and purpose. But it is to understand that their value as human individuals is not based on the fact that they make you happy. They will not lose their value if you became disinterested in them.
Sex as God designed it is an act where we open ourselves to the possibility of new life, but where the key creative functions were left completely out of our control. So if you imagine sex without human invention to change its nature, it is an act that forces people to contemplate that creative power in their consent to have sex, but also to recognize that having a child or not having a child is not their decision to make. If they have sex, they are opening their arms and waiting for a gift that may or may not come. This expresses appreciation for that gift.
Contraceptions changes the nature of the act. The couple pursues sexual pleasure without the opening of the hands to accept the gift. They are deliberately saying “no” and thus expression a lack of appreciation for the value of human life. Then when they decide to have children, this is motivated by a want. Couples become emotionally desperate to have a child. the opposite side of the contraceptive coin is actions to pursue the conception of a child outside of the sexual union. This again expresses a sense of entitlement which again expresses a lack of appreciation for individual human life.
Its immoral because Christian morality has a standard of perfection in love. It is a standard that is humanly impossible to acheive which is why Christ died for our sins.
I would say personally, I still find it confusing as to why when it comes to the expressions of the seven deadly sins, all but lust causes a person to discern the gravity of the sin. Whereas with lust, there are plenty of confession guides that say if its a sin of lust, its automatically grave.
Sometimes the argument for it being grave looks odd to me, but at the same time I feel my husband and I are forced to be more deliberate and selfless with our love for each other. Not using contraceptives causes us to contemplate the beauty of the procreative nature of sex. It really feels in a real sense that when we have sex, we aren’t holding back. It is a complete gift of self. That’s not to say there aren’t fears at time, but as my husband said, fear stems from an acknowledgement of the responsibility and that responsibility is based on how precious and deserving that little life is for us to care for it with the sincerest love. as such, we also shouldn’t let our lusts prevent us from abstaining if we should avoid. The abstainence becomes an act of love.
