Day 309: Faithful and Fruitful Marriage

Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and fatherhood of God. "Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its interpreters. They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian responsibility." CCC 2367

In today's reading, the Catechism discusses marriage fidelity and being open to procreation in the sexual act between spouses. When couples take their wedding vows, they are pledging themselves to each other in the sight of God. To be unfaithful to a spouse is a betrayal of the trust husband and wife should have for each other. That moment of selfish gratification with someone other than one's spouse is not worth the grave sin and loss of grace, also in the sight of God, that is the result. Further, such a betrayal of one's spouse gives a lousy witness to those around you. All these years later, I can still remember while in the military, guys who would leave on deployment, and their wives were at the E-Club looking to "hook up" with others. This completely disgusted me, which I feel as strongly now as I did back then. It says a lot when a couple can fall in love and get married while young, raise children, and grow old together while remaining faithful to each other. Every marriage will have difficulties, but not betraying one's spouse through infidelity is part of what true love and marriage are about. 

As for sex being open to procreation, that goes back to God's command to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen 1:28). Some couples have great difficulty or are completely unable to have children, but if there is no medical reason, then couples should be open to this since that is part of marriage. What is confusing to me is what has been called the "rhythm method" in CCC 2370. If this is permissible to "space the births of their children" (CCC 2368), I don't understand why non-abortifacient contraception like condoms is considered "intrinsically evil" for couples. Both essentially seek the same goal. Sure, the former isn't 100% as one can make mistakes in regulating the woman's cycle. Yet, the same can be said for condoms, as they can be damaged, put on incorrectly, or just fail. 

This is probably another area I could benefit from in going through the Theology of the Body later.