Justice and conjugal union are two topics rarely spoken of together. However, in his commentary detailing Pope John Paul II's teaching on God's loving plan for human sexuality, Christopher West reveals a surprising connection. He states that "since man and woman's relationship is the deepest substratum of the social structure, there can be no social justice without a return to the full truth of the Christian sexual ethic" (Theology of the Body Explained, Revised Edition, Pauline, p. 186). Further developing this thought, we can indeed discover the intimate connection between justice and nuptials.
Perhaps no other teaching in Church history elicits a reaction as similar to the discourse of Jesus on the Eucharist (Jn 6: 25-71) as the encyclical of Pope Paul VI forty years ago, Humanae Vitae - Of Human Life. The response to Jesus' teaching, "you must eat my body and drink my blood," differs little from the reaction often heard to the Church's affirmation of married fruitful love and against contraception, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" (Jn 6:60). That said, the Church's teaching on conjugal love applies even more so to our response to Jesus in the Eucharist for both demand nuptial justice - the gift of self.
According to Humanae Vitae, true conjugal love has four characteristic marks and demands: it is "an act of the free will," is "total," "faithful" and "fruitful" (HV, No. 9). Additionally, it has both a "unitive" and a "procreative" meaning (Ibid, No. 10) that cannot be separated any more than the unitive act of Jesus upon the marriage bed of the Cross can be separated from the fruitfulness of his total offering. Conjugal love is an image of the love between Christ the Bridegroom and the Church his Bride and "this bride... is present in each of the baptized and is like one who presents herself before her Bridegroom" (Letter to Families, No. 19).
Indeed, the Eucharist is "the sacrament of the Bridegroom and the Bride" (Mulieris Dignitatem - On the Dignity and Vocation of Women, No. 26). We recall that "a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Gn 2:24; cf. Eph 5:31-32). Christ took leave of his Heavenly Father at the Incarnation and from his Mother to begin his public ministry. In a free act of total, faithful and fruitful love he embraced his Bride, the Church, and poured himself out completely for her.
However, selfishness and sin can contracept the reciprocal gift of this communion. Contraception is a withholding or impeding of the gift of self necessary for the communion to be fruitful. It is also a misappropriation of the other's gift of self for utilitarian purposes whereby one treats the other as an object for selfish purposes. To the degree one withholds their self or something from our Bridegroom, one impedes or blocks the grace of this union and the "fruits of the Holy Spirit" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1832). Indeed, Christ specifically warns that one must give a return on heavenly gifts in the parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30).
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta understood the joy of nuptial love. She remarked that "When I see someone sad, I always think, she is refusing something to Jesus" (Come Be My Light, Doubleday, p. 33). Truly, Mary's "fiat," "Be it done unto me" (Lk 1:38), is the archetype of the Church's reply to her Bridegroom. Holiness, then, is a reflection of the bride's gift of self to her Bridegroom (cf. MD, No. 27).
Many might be reluctant to categorize Humanae Vitae as a social encyclical, but in truth it represents the very core of social justice which begins with marriage and the family, society's smallest cell. Justice, the giving of God and neighbor their due, can indeed be contracepted. Where the spiritual and social dimensions of justice intersect, we find nuptials - total self donation. Herein lies the "Eucharistic consistency" that Pope Benedict XVI tells us our lives must embody (Sacramentum Caritatis - Sacrament of Charity, No. 83).
With traditional play upon the words of Pope Paul VI, "if you want peace...," be a free, total, faithful and fruitful gift to God and neighbor.
Mr. Simoneau directs the diocesan Justice and Peace Office. Copyright 2008 The East Tennessee Catholic. Reprinted by permission.