Today, you are going to hear an explanatory homily, which will be about 10 to 13 min. longer than usual. Homilies like this are given at times, to better explain a certain topic, and to be sure its said with the utmost love and charity possible when its given.
In
the Gospel, while the apostles were in the boat tossed by waves,
Jesus came walking on the water. Peter got out of the boat, and began
to walk on water. But, he became
frightened and began to sink.
Jesus stretched out his hand,
and both entered the boat. He
calmed the storm &
there was peace. Jesus
reveals His divine power and gives peace to the fearful hearts of
Peter and the Apostles.
We
are at
times, afraid.
Out of fear,
we may
do things our way, instead of
God’s way. But, when
we realize our mistake, if we cry out,
“Lord save me!”, and
trust Jesus,
He
will make it
work out, and give
peace to
us and our family. If
we trust Jesus &
follow His ways,
even if a family is battered
by a storm, faith in God will get them through the
difficulty.
God
wants every family to prosper, to have peace, to enjoy life, to grow
in holiness and love. We are all God’s children, and He infinitely
loves each of us. Every family is an image of the Trinity, a
communion of persons living in unity and love.
My
name is Fr. Edmond Kline, a priest from the diocese of Wichita,
Kansas. I was invited by your parish group Catholic Family Ministry, celebrating the 55th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s
encyclical Humanae Vitae, meaning
“Human Life”. The
document was to give moral guidance to Christians when the birth
control pill first came out in 1960.
Today,
I hope to explain
why the pope said birth
control is wrong.
You
will hear his amazing
predictions about birth control, that came true. How
birth control affects
marriages, and
I
will explain
how marriages can be protected and strengthened.
Back
in the 1960’s, and
later,
the rhythm method was
the only
known method to prevent conception. But, it
didn’t work well for irregular cycles. So, what were Catholics
to do, when they felt they couldn’t have a child, due to a serious
reason? Some felt they were forced
to
get a tubal ligation or a vasectomy or had
to use the pill because
they had no choice.
Back
then, few bishops and priests explained what the Church teaches. But,
today, there are new natural methods and more priests are getting the
word out to help couples.
Pope
Paul VI gave us the document,
Humanae Vitae to
give principles and guidance to the people. So why is birth control
seriously sinful? He
said there
cannot be a
separation from
the unitive action
of
marital relations, from the procreative
action of having children. I
will first explain why the unitive action is necessary.
Today,
children can be immorally created without the union between a man and
a woman. For example, scientists can create children in a laboratory,
such as a test tube baby or a petri dish, for the purpose of in vitro
fertilization or scientific research. But, children are not anyone’s
property and God desires they be created in a marital union of love.
When
there is marital union
between a man and woman, there must also be openness to procreate (to
have children). During
marital relations anything that impairs
the capacity to transmit life, that
God the Creator, through
specific laws, has built into it, frustrates God’s
design, contradicts His will,
and is seriously sinful.
Artificial
birth control (the
pill, injection, patch, an
IUD, condom
or sterilization, prevents
a child from coming into the world, and
doesn’t
allow for God’s
natural design. It tells
God, “No!
You who may not
bring a child into the
world.” The
Catechism of the Catholic Church
states contraception is a refusal to be open to life and a failure to
give oneself totally to another during the marital act. #2370
The
problem with tubal ligations
and vasectomies is they
remove
healthy body parts to
prevent conception.
Mutilating
the body is a sin against the
5th
commandment, “Thou
shall not kill”.
Smoking,
drunkenness, illegal drugs
can also harm the body, and goes against this commandment.
My friends, our body doesn’t
belong to us, it belongs to God. St.
Paul said, “Do
you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is
in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you
were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1
Corinthians 6:19)
However,
the
Pope
indicates when it's necessary to cure bodily diseases, for
therapeutic purposes, medicine,
or surgery
is
acceptable, even if it causes
in
the
inability to have children, such as a hysterectomy.
To
be open to conception, does not mean, God always wants couples to
conceive. Pope Paul VI said parents should practice Responsible
Parenthood by making reasonable decisions when having children.
Sometimes physical or psychological
conditions of the spouses are unfavorable for procreation too.
For example, the husband
loses his job. The
wife is ill or
a
woman in her 40’s at risk of having a miscarriage or a
child with health problems. I
know of a couple, who had
twins one year and two years later had triplets. They have
5 children under the age of 2.
During
these serious circumstances, couples follow God’s design by
abstaining
from marital relations during
the fertile time, to avoid
having a child. Through
prayer and the circumstances of their
life, they
responsibly plan their
family by
morally acceptable natural means, that
are 99% effective. By
doing this, we follow God’s natural design for the human body and
for marriage.
When
I do marriage preparation classes, I ask couples, “How
many children do you want?” They
usually say, 2 or 3.
But, that’s not the right answer. Couples may not realize it, but,
that way of thinking treats children like property. They
unknowingly disregard God’s command: “Be
fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” (Gen.
1:28)
The
right answer is to have as
many children
as
God wants. It's
up to Him. He knows what we can handle. We need to trust Him that He
will provide for all that we need. We may not live the high standard
of living we had hoped for, but we will live the standard of living
that will make us most happy. All
married couples are called to be
open to the gift of children. Children are the supreme gift of
marriage. God
does not expect us to have children randomly, rather we cooperate
with Him in bringing a child into the world.
Let’s
now turn
our attention, to the pope’s
predictions in Humanae Vitae. Paul
VI predicted 5
things. 1. birth control
would open wide the way for marital infidelity. 2.
there would be general
lowering of moral standards; 3.
the government would
force contraceptives upon
married couples; 4. there
would be a loss of respect
for women by men using them
as an object of pleasure; 5.
contraceptives would make it
easy for young people to be tempted to pre-marital relations.
According
to statistics,
marital
infidelity has
dramatically increased.
A
study from The
Journal of Divorce and Remarried,
said women
who took the Pill
divorced at a rate 54% above
average. Women
with tubal ligations divorced at a rate 78%. Men
who used condoms divorced at 67% above average. The
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, quote CMR (Current
Medical Research), which
says, there’s a 3% divorce
rate for
Natural Family Planning users,
meaning 97%
will
never
divorce
by
following God’s natural plan.
The
pope predicted there would be a lowering
of moral standards.
God’s moral law has always
been in our hearts. The 10
Commandments can never
change. For example, it has
been and will always be
wrong to commit adultery, to kill, to lie, to
steal or take God’s name in
vain, etc…
The
Didache, is a document in the
early Church written about
70 AD.
It
condemned
birth control. Since
the beginning of Christianity, Catholics
have always
forbidden
it.
Protestant
churches always forbade it,
until 1930, when
the Anglican church, began
to permit it.
When
individual Catholics began to follow the
Protestant
view,
as
the pope
predicted, moral standards were lowered.
Another
papal
prediction
came true that
governments
would force contraceptives on married couples.
Today, governments mandate
birth control in
poor countries, otherwise,
they won’t receive
financial assistance. Some governments
coerce
sterilization
for marginalized
women.
China
and Russia use
abortion to regulate birth.
The
pope
also
predicted
a loss of respect for women.
Due
to a lack of periodic abstinence, men
view women as an object of pleasure, women feel used, as
men become more selfish.
The
pope
predicted contraceptives
would make it easy for young people to be tempted to pre-marital
relations.
It
leads
to a lowering of teenage
moral
standards, by
way of
promiscuity, a loss of self-discipline,
an
increase in venereal diseases, and non-marital
pregnancies. Today, young people are more apt to live together
cohabitating before marriage. Rather, then promoting
abstinence and chastity, adults
encourage
teens
to use
birth control. Pope
Paul VI said, “It is an evil
thing to make it easy for them to break the law (of God).”
Why
do so
many marriages
fail,
when
using
birth control?
Some
get sterilized
or
use
birth
control to
live
a more carefree life, have nicer material things, a larger house,
newer
cars, etc..
By
limiting
children, they
think
it leads
to
happiness,
more
wealth,
comfort and less problems. But,
birth
control
causes children
to be viewed
as a
burden
and property and
material things become idols.
Couples
cannot
receive sacramental grace, when
habitually living in serious
sin. A mortal
sin causes
spiritual
death
to the soul.
Unrepentant
sin
prevents
spousal
love
from growing. Less virtue is practiced, then sin and
vice reek havoc in the marriage.
Selfishness
grows.
There
is a
loss of self-discipline and
sacrificial love disappears.
Communication is hampered.
If
one never confessed using birth control or sterilization,
and
if
they receive Holy Communion, in the state of mortal sin, they make
sacrilegious Communions, which
are
additional mortal sins.
If
we purposely withhold a serious sin in confession, then it makes all
confessions after that invalid. And
every time the Eucharist is received, the person does not receive any
graces at all, but rather deeply offends
Our Lord.
Every
sin hurts Jesus. Before St. Faustina entered the convent, she had a
vision of Jesus, crowned with thorns, with His hands tied to a rope
and blood flowing down His face. Sin
causes Jesus pain and suffering. The
movie, The
Passion of the Christ shows
how
sin hurts Jesus. Jesus was crucified once. But,
Pope Pius XI said,
“Every sin must be said to
renew in a certain way the Passion of Our Lord, crucifying again in
themselves, the Son of God and making Him a mockery.”
When we commit mortal sin, we crucify again in our self, Jesus. Every
sin affects our
soul,
but it
also
affects
every
soul in the
mystical body of Christ and wounds the Heart of Jesus. We should not
take sin lightly, but rather do
everything we can to avoid it,
and immediately ask Our Lord for forgiveness when we sin grievously.
We
should never stay in the state of serious sin, but
to go to Confession.
The
Church teaches there is no forgiveness after death. If we die
unrepentant, in the state of mortal sin, we will go to hell for all
eternity. The Virgin Mary showed the three children of Fatima a
vision of hell. They saw a sea of fire and forms of humans, men and
women, shouting and crying in despair. They saw demons in the forms
of ugly animals. The vision was so horrible the children feared that
they would die from fright. Rather than causing them to be afraid of God, they were afraid souls would go to hell, so they began to do penances, to prevent people from going there. They tied a rope around their waste and give their food away to poor children.
Hell
is eternal, its forever. The
mercy seat of
Christ is
the Confessional. But,
the
judgment seat of
Christ is
at our death and our judgment
is permanent.
God
sees
our
unhappiness and misery caused by birth control, and He deeply
wants to help couples
in their marriage to grow in love and
have peace.
The
Church’s role is to guide souls to eternal salvation. God
wants us to trust Him-- by following the teachings of His Church,
given to us by popes and saints. Openness
to
procreation affirms the dignity of women. The practice of periodic
self-denial strengthens
the marriage by converting selfish love into charity. Receiving
the Eucharist in the state of grace, couples receive
untold graces to live out their marital commitment.
Regular
Confession, helps the couple to grow
in humility, to forgive
injuries, avoid grudges and
jealousy,
and it
keeps their souls in the state of grace. When
a couple begins to use natural family planning, marriages
are greatly
strengthened. For example.
A
couple in Wichita used birth control the first 3 years of marriage,
but stopped, and began to regulate births naturally. After they
started following God’s plan for marriage, the woman said, “One
day my husband came home from hunting. Mud
was splattered all over his truck. When he fell
asleep on the couch, I went outside and washed his
truck. When finished, I came back inside
and a few minutes later, he woke up, and said, “I’m going
to the convenience store to get a slush puppie, do you want one?”
She said, “No, thank you.” When he saw his cleaned truck,
he came back inside the house, and said, “What do you want?”
She said, “I don’t want anything.” He said, “You
must want something, you cleaned my truck.” She said, “No,
I don’t want anything in return. I just cleaned it because I love
you.” It was at that moment, the couple realized when they
abstain from relations during the fertile time, it caused each to
grow in greater love for the other- by finding new ways to show their
love.
When
couples practice
the natural way of regulating births, it encourages them
to be
more sacrificial. They
learn self-discipline, patience, humility
and
to
talk
things out better.
When
Pope
Paul VI wrote
Humanae Vitae,
he
was unaware of
another reason why birth control is seriously sinful.
He
could have not predicted this
terrible
effect of birth control. Back then, the
side effects and dangers of
drugs were
not well
known.
Today, commercials from drug companies list possible
side effects. If the birth control pill, Depro pavera was
advertised on TV, perhaps you would see a woman running through a
field, while the speaker gives the possible side effects: headaches,
nervousness, depression, changes in appetite, weight gain, breast
cancer, liver disease, acne, heart attack, loss of hair, and stroke.
These are the
actual side effects as listed by WebMD.
Now
there is one more side effect. This is very difficult to say, and
It's very difficult for you to hear. Before I tell you, you must
remember, that you never heard it before. You should have been told
prior to using birth control, by either the doctor, the pharmacist,
your parents or by us priests. The last side effect applies to all
birth control pills, patches, injections, and the IUD. This is the
side effect: All of these may prevent a
fertilized egg from implanting. My friends, a “fertilized human
egg” is a baby. The pill, the IUD, the shot, and the patch - all
cause the womb to be irritated in such a way, a newly conceived baby,
is unable to implant, and so, a child may die within 5 days of
conception, and the mother did not know she was pregnant. While this
does not happen very often, it can happen.
When
the Virgin Mary visited Her cousin Elizabeth,which was a 5-day
journey from Nazareth to the city of Ain Karem, the baby Jesus was just 5 days old
from conception. He therefore, had no hands or feet, no eyes, and not
even a beating Heart. But the unborn John the Baptist leapt in his
mother’s womb at the presence of the unborn baby Jesus.
I
have 6 sisters and a brother.
When I was a seminarian, I learned
one of my sisters
was taking the pill.
I read
the contraindications on the
label from the pill at her
home. The
label said, “May cause the death of a
zygote.”
A
zygote is a newly fertilized egg, a new baby. I told my sister the
Church teaches it's seriously
sinful to take birth control, and the pill can
cause the death of a baby. But,
she continued to take it.
She later said, despite
taking the pill, she had three children, one was an ectopic
pregnancy, and so died. So,
if a woman takes birth control, can
conceive three
children, and
bring two to full term, then
how many children are dying within 5 days of conception, because the
child is unable
to attach to the womb? This is one of the main reasons why birth
control is so dangerous and immoral.
My
dear parishioners, sadly,
you
may have lost a child or even multiple children by taking birth
control and
never
knew
you were pregnant.
At
the moment of conception, God gives a
new child a soul and a body and
a
new human being is
created in God’s image and likeness.
A
person is a person no matter how small from
conception.
Pope
Paul VI,
gave
advice to doctors and nurses,
“For then,
when married couples ask their advice, they may be in a position to
give right counsel and to point them in the proper direction. Married
couples have a right to expect this much from them.” If
there are any Catholic doctors and nurses here at Mass, I encourage
you to learn more about what the Church teaches and be ready to
explain it to your patients. You have a moral obligation to present
the truth.
I
am not here to judge anyone. How many of you heard of this before?
Almost
none of you. Truly,
you
didn’t understand what you were doing. Jesus understands that. God
is rich in mercy.
In
the Confessional is the merciful Jesus. Our
Lord told St. Faustina, “Let
not even the weak and very sinful fear to approach me, even if their
sins be as numerous as all the sand of the earth all will be forgiven
in the fathomless pit of my mercy.” In
Confession, the
arms of
Jesus are
opened
to embrace you. All He wants of
you-- is for
you to
give
Him your sins,
to
relieve you from this burden.
He
is the merciful shepherd, who loves His sheep and seeks out the lost
and when He finds the lost, He picks us up, and holds us to His
beating
Heart
carrying us home rejoicing.
If you have never confessed using birth control or getting
sterilized, run quickly to Jesus in Confession and you will have
peace and joy in your heart.
Humanae
Vitae
also
suggested
the
promotion of chastity.
Chastity
speakers
like Jason Everett will
speak at Catholic schools and public schools, and also at churches.
He
spoke at our public school in Halstead, KS a few years ago.
Pope
Paul VI asked scientists to
develop
new natural
ways to space children. Today, there are 6
new
natural methods. All
are
99% effective, which
is more effective than birth control.
The
Sympto-thermo, Family
of the Americas, FEMM,
Billings, Marquette &
Creighton Method.
Go
to your Archdiocese
website.
In
the search engine, type “Natural
Family Planning” or
“NFP”.
A
list of doctors
and instructors will
come up, who
can
help you learn
these
natural
methods
and
strengthen your marriage. You
can also
download apps from
your website and
connect to
a teacher.
Jesus
is not asking you to do something that's impossible. He's not placing
on you a burden too heavy to carry. You can receive help to understand the natural design of your body and fertility. You can do it.
There
is great hope. More
young
couples
are now
using
natural methods and also now breastfeeding, than ever
before.
Our
diocese has a new class for high school girls called the “The
Wonder of Eve”, to
help them
to learn about how
God
designed their
fertility and their body. In
my diocese, NFP classes are required for all couples preparing for
marriage.
My
friends, the key to successfully regulating births naturally is to
truly come
to know
the
way
God designed your body. NFP teachers can help you know your body and
the way God created it to function.
If
you do, you will have a
97% chance of not divorcing, rather
than a
58% chance you will, if
you use birth control?
I would like to address men. Now
is the time for men
to be men.
When the devil was trying to trick Eve, Adam should have done the
manly thing. He should have told the serpent, “Listen,
buddy, you stay away from my wife, or else, you're gonna have to deal
with me.” He should
have come to her aid, and
risk his life to defend
her.
St.
Paul said, “Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make
her holy,…” (Ephesians
5:25) This means, that men are the spiritual head of
the family. Men and women are equal. But, the action of the man
leading the family spiritually, makes his wife and children holy—it
sanctifies them. Just as Adam should have been willing to lay down
his life for Eve, and just as Jesus laid down His life for His bride,
the Church, so you are called to be strong and do the same.
This
is how marriage and the family will become stronger, when the man
leads the family spiritually. Fathers, you reflect the image of God
the Father. You are called to be the protector of the family,
especially from sin, and to help the family grow in love and
holiness.
Men.
Listen. As a suggestion, when you go home today, take your wife by
the hand, look into her beautiful eyes, and say, “Sweetheart, I
love more than anything. When we use birth control, we are hurting
our souls and receiving Communion sacrilegiously which
deeply offends Jesus. We need to open our heart
to do what God wants. I think He is calling us to live
a more sacrificial life. I love you so much, and
I want to help you and our children to get to heaven.
From now on, we are going to step out of the boat, and take
the hand of Jesus. We are going to keep our eyes on Him and
trust Him and His Church. We're going to go to
Confession regularly, and we will trust
in God’s plan for marriage.
We
are going to follow the teachings of the Church. I don’t
want to take the risk of losing one of our unborn children
due to some chemical or device. It's not going
to be easy for us, because we have to trust. We will learn to
practice patience, communicate better, and
be more self-disciplined. I want
the special time when we come together to be sacred,
and not sinful. Let’s pray together every
night, 10 Hail Marys and then over time, we will
pray the Rosary as a family. Let’s use
God’s natural way to grow in love for each other. Let’s
take the classes together. Let’s
make Jesus and Mary the King and Queen of our family by
consecrating our family to the Hearts of Jesus
and Mary.”
Then, listen to what she has to say.
In
conclusion, my friends, God
loves you infinitely, and He knows what is best for you and your
family. He has given His authority to His Church, the body of Christ,
to help you obtain salvation. Jesus told His apostles and
their successors, popes, bishops & priests,
“He who hears you, hears me. He who rejects you, rejects
me and the one who sent me.”
On
our part, we need to admit, out of fear, we made a mistake in not trusting God by
doing things own way. When we follow God’s natural plan for
fertility, we are doing God’s will. We take our Catholic faith seriously. May every
family become a holy family, in imitation of THE Holy Family, Jesus,
Mary, and Joseph who
is a model for us.
They
prayed together, sacrificed for each other,
were faithful to
God’s laws, and lived a life of purity and chastity. Jesus
is here today, stretching out His hand to save you and your family.
He wants you to step out in faith. But do you trust Him? Will you
take His hand?
Journal
of Divorce and Remarried -
https://naturalwomanhood.org/marital-problems-birth-control/
CMR
– US Bishops Website
https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/natural-family-planning/medical-research/upload/CMR-Summer-Fall-2013-Divorce-and-NFP-edited.pdf
