Category Archives: Bible

What the Church Teaches About Contraception

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One of the most controversial Church teachings, at least according to the secular press, concerns the immorality of artificial contraception.  This is not a new or novel teaching of the Catholic Church.  Until around 1930, every Christian denomination had always taught the truth that artificial contraception is intrinsically immoral.  Since then, almost every protestant denomination has caved in to the pressure of its sinful members and changed the teaching on this subject.  The Bible predicted that something like this would happen:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

(2 Timothy 4:3)

The Catholic Church has not given in to the urging of its sinful members in this area and continues to teach the truth as handed down by God.  The Catholic Church has had great teachers like Blessed Pope Paul VI and Pope Saint John Paul II to guide Jesus’ flock in the truth.  This was also promised by the Bible:

And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

(Jeremiah 3:15)

While some who want the Church to “stay out of their bedrooms” have sought teachers (little “t”) to suit their own likings and give them license to ignore this sound teaching, the Church, like Jesus, has stood firm in the Truth.  Further, this is certainly an area where the Church has great need to exercise its authority as Teacher (capital “T”).

In the field of conjugal morality the Church is Teacher and Mother and acts as such.

(Familiaris Consortio 33)

And the Church has repeatedly affirmed its definitive teaching in this area:

[T]here must be excluded as intrinsically immoral “every action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible.”

(Familiaris Consortio 32, quoting from Humanae Vitae 14)

I plan to continue on this topic in future posts, focusing on one of the most beautiful and prophetic encyclicals ever written, Humanae Vitae.

Life

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There is no doubt that life begins at conception.  Anyone who claims to be a Christian but denies this truth is clearly ignorant of the Bible and the teaching of the Church.  God said in Jeremiah:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.

(Jeremiah 1:5).  If God knew you even before you were formed in the womb, that shows that a child in the womb is a child of God.  Further, it is a scientific fact that an embryo is a new, distinct life from its mother and its father from the moment of conception.

It’s one thing for liberal politicians to deny this truth.  It’s another for Christians to do so.  If you don’t believe and proclaim what God teaches in the Bible and through His Church, don’t claim to be a Christian.

It is imperative for Christians to believe, teach, and proclaim the truth about life.  Without the right to life, no other rights have any meaning.

The Remnant

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Faithful Catholics are the remnant of Jesus’ Church.  We are what St. Paul refers to in Romans 11:2-5:

Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have demolished thy alters, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

It is not enough to say we are Catholics or Christians or “spiritual.”  It is our duty to carry forward the full Truth of Jesus Christ.  That means that we must learn the faith through studying, reading, learning, and teaching all that the Catholic Church declares to be part of the Deposit of Faith.  It is not enough to rely on what we may have learned as children in CCD (or “religious education” or in Catholic schools) or RCIA.  We need to pursue a lifelong journey to know the faith.  We must not be and not remain silent in the face of people who “used to be Catholic” or were “raised Catholic.”  We must proclaim the full teaching of Jesus and His Church – the hard teachings that require people to change their lives as much as any other teachings.

Temptations

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Sometimes it is hard to say no to temptations.  We have all faced temptations.  Even Jesus faced temptations.  As the Bible says in Hebrews 4:14-16:

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find help in time of need.

It is heartening to know that even Jesus faced temptation.  He understands what we go through living in this world.  Jesus also gave us a great example of fighting against those temptations and not giving in to the inclination to sin.  This inclination to sin, or concupiscence, “cannot harm those who do not consent but manfully resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ” (CCC 1264, citing the Council of Trent (1546)).  Jesus wants us to fight those temptations, and He gives us the example of His life to show us how to do so.

Further, Jesus will forgive us if we give in to our temptations.  All we need to do is to confess those sins to a priest in the Sacrament of Penance (CCC 1446, 1456 [“Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance”]).

Being Merciful to Sinners

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What does it mean to be merciful to a sinner?  The first three of the seven spiritual works of mercy are to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, and admonish sinners (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Appendix B, Formulas of Catholic Doctrine).  By these works, the Church seeks to protect people from the attraction of sin.  As the Bible states in Hebrews 3:12-13:

Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.  But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

The devil presents sin as attractive and “no big deal.”  That is why it is so important for people of faith to instruct and support each other in the Truth, and to admonish those who teach sin as normal or “no big deal.”  It is not merciful to ignore a person’s sins.  It is not mercy to remain silent and implicitly accept the actions of a person who lives a lifestyle that is not in accordance with the Church’s teaching, be that living with someone before marriage, committing immoral acts with another, or supporting evils such as the abortion of the “redefinition” of marriage.  It is important for the Church, both leaders and lay faithful, to speak out against those sins.  That is not judging – that is mercy.

The Cost of Faith

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[G]odliness is an abomination to a sinner.

(Sirach 1:25).

This verse tells us that sinners will reject and revile the true teaching of the Church.  We can see this all around us today.  People who try to live out their faith and properly reject true abominations such as the attempt to redefine marriage are subject to scorn, ridicule, and hate.  People who work to protect the unborn and expose the evils of abortion are denounced as radicals and terrorists.  People who speak out against immorality and call people to “repent and be saved” are belittled and rejected by the world.

This is to be expected.  There is a cost to being a Christian.  Thankfully, in most parts (though sadly not all) of the world, that cost is to one’s reputation and standing, and not to their lives.  But there is a cost nonetheless.  When people try to live and share godliness, the media and many of those in positions of power and leadership recoil – because they see godliness as an abomination.

Preparing to Make a Defense of the Reason for Our Hope

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Saint Peter tells us:

Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence; and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

(1 Peter 3:15-16).  Why do we have this hope?  I firmly believe that Jesus died for our sins, and that we are truly forgiven when we confess our sins to a priest and receive the Sacrament of Penance.  The Bible tells us that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light.  I am particularly drawn to my belief that Jesus is the truth, and that the Catholic Church has the fullness of that truth.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church lays out a great explanation of that truth.  It is in that truth that we find true happiness.

Only in God will [man] find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.

(CCC 27).  We need to encounter God in prayer and the Sacraments.  We also need to learn and study the truth set forth in the Bible and the Church’s Tradition.  A person cannot just attend Mass and stop there.  It is imperative that Catholics take the initiative to educate themselves about what the Church really teaches.

A Couple of Bible Quotes

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Here are a couple of Bible quotes I came across in reading my Bible today.  These are quotes I would like to memorize and possibly add to my daily prayers.  The first quote is from Isaiah.

O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for thee.
Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.

(Isaiah 33:2)

The second quote is from the Book of Wisdom.  This is one of the books of the Old Testament that protestants have removed from their Bibles.  They did this because this book, like other books they have excised, contains verses that are inconsistent with protestant teachings.  For a discussion of this issue, I recommend a book called Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger by Gary Michuta.

For in everything, O Lord, thou hast exalted and glorified thy people; and thou hast not neglected to help them at all times and in all places.

(Wisdom 19:22)