I received a gift of this plant from my friends, Alex and Thato probably about five years ago. It was originally two succulents in a small boot pot. Over the years it started producing new shoots so I transferred it to a bonsai training pot. I put this training pot next to my desk and one day I ate an apple took some of the seeds pushed it into the pot and honestly forgot about it. At the end of November, I saw three little shoots sprouting and realised the apple seeds had taken. Two of the sprouts were growing nicely until...
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| Apple seed sprouts, 9 December 2024 |
First, let me start by saying this blog will be very personal and intimate but this sprouting of seed is a testament to something the world has neglected in the past 60 years or so and this parable is very telling. If you search global fertility rates by country you find a marked decline from around the 1960s when the data was first collected to now. In the 1960s the average number of children per woman was around 5 and now is edging closer to 2 and below 2 for many advanced economies. There are many socio-economic reasons used to explain the drop in fertility rates such as infant mortality rates have fallen and health care improved etc. The majority of couples do not base their choice to have children on the quality of health care. The decision to have a child is one related to the personal and intimate reasoning of a couple and their willingness to cooperate with the plans of God in their life.
As contraception became widely accepted and in use around the late 1950s it is no coincidence to find a drop in fertility rates linked to widespread use of contraception. The pill was initially introduced to help women with irregular cycles regulate their cycle to assist with conception but later was misappropriated to avoid pregnancy. This also correlates with increased divorce rates as adultery can go relatively unchecked if women are not falling pregnant from illegitimate relations aided by preventative measures.
The Catholic Church remains resolute in not allowing contraception not because it is old-fashioned but because it sees the bigger picture. When a husband and wife come together there are several factors at play to ensure a child is conceived. Sperm stays alive 5 days, the ovulation window is only 48 hours and the woman's egg will only live for 24 hours. So that narrows things down to a narrow 24-hour window where life can be conceived making the chances pretty slim. Now this is simply the biological odds. Conceiving a child is a co-creative act meaning it is one of the few cases where something that never existed in the world before is brought to life. This takes us back to the beginning where God created the heavens and earth and all inside it and created man and woman. So the final and most important part of conceiving a child is allowing God's will to be at work. Then for what goes beyond our understanding, God can choose to touch the seed and egg and say let there be life. We will not understand the reasoning around the will of God but without God conception is not complete.
Therefore, at the heart of a child, we should see it as a gift. Husband and wife are instruments God can use to share in His co-creation by bringing a child into the world. This explains why the Church says that "Sacred Scripture and the Church's traditional practice see in large families a sign of God's blessing and the parents' generosity." (CCC, 2373)
Generosity requires giving something of yourself not from your abundance or excess as that is something you can do without. Instead, generosity is something that demands sacrifice and trust in God. The reason contraception is morally wrong is that it robs us of generosity. It allows us the option to take God out of the triangular relationship and cuts us off from the possibility of co-creation.
Now, natural family planning, better known as NFP, is different to the older rhythm methods etc. NFP is about the couple learning to understand the wife's fertility cycle and then using the cycle to guide them when renewing their wedding vows but with their bodies in the intimacy of conjugal love.
If a couple practising NFP for some reason decides throughout their lifetime to not want children and always avoid intimacy during the fertile window even though they have not used any form of medication or barrier to prevent pregnancy they are practising contraception with their wills. However, perhaps a couple decides they wish to space their children for their just reasons (this is always the intimate decision of a husband and wife who may consult God through prayer) this is not contraception as they remain open to the possibility of life even though they choose to avoid coming together during the fertile window.
When a couple says they are open to the possibility of life it simply means they give of themselves to each other freely, faithfully fruitfully and totally in other words they don't hold back something of themselves. By doing so, the couple abandons their will to God, who says: "I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)
Now as mentioned at the start of the blog, the two apple seed sprouts were doing just fine until one of my sons got the urge to pick it and they died. Now I can easily plant new seeds and begin again, as there are millions of apple seeds in the world producing the same product as a standard sweet-tasting apple. In her wisdom, the Church safeguards Catholics from contraception. She realises that the seed of a man and the egg of a woman unlike an apple seed are unique, unrepeatable, indispensable and irreplaceable. Just imagine the sadness of a world without that gift of life that is you?!
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