Sirach,
Chapter 17, Verse 4
He put fear of them in all
flesh, and gave them dominion over beasts and birds.
God has made us greater than the
animals and lesser than the angels. Yet, God in his majesty gave us the power
to co-create with Him the human race. Children are a gift they are to not fear
they parents like the animals do us but children are to have holy fear of their
parents and give them love and honor. Indeed the family is a physical
representation of the Holy Trinity. It is interesting to note that God started
the human race through a family (Adam and Eve) and Christ’s first miracle was
at the wedding in Cana which is traditionally the Gospel for the second Sunday in
ordinary time or the second Sunday after Epiphany.
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” (Jn. 2:1-3)Families are an essential part of God’s will for all of creation.
For as a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you. (Is. 62:5)
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
III. THE LOVE OF HUSBAND AND WIFE
The
fecundity of marriage cont.
·
The gift of
a child
2373 Sacred Scripture and the Church's traditional practice see in large
families a sign of God's blessing and the parents' generosity.
2374 Couples who discover that they are sterile suffer greatly.
"What will you give me," asks Abraham of God, "for I continue
childless?" And Rachel cries to her husband Jacob, "Give me children,
or I shall die!"
2375 Research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged, on
condition that it is placed "at the service of the human person, of his
inalienable rights, and his true and integral good according to the design and
will of God."
2376 Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the
intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum,
surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous
artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child's right to be
born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage.
They betray the spouses' "right to become a father and a mother only
through each other."
2377 Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial
insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain
morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative
act. The act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by which
two persons give themselves to one another, but one that "entrusts the
life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and
establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the
human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the
dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children."168
"Under the moral aspect procreation is deprived of its proper perfection
when it is not willed as the fruit of the conjugal act, that is to say, of the
specific act of the spouses' union . . . . Only respect for the link between
the meanings of the conjugal act and respect for the unity of the human being
make possible procreation in conformity with the dignity of the person."
2378 A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The "supreme
gift of marriage" is a human person. A child may not be considered a
piece of property, an idea to which an alleged "right to a child"
would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right
"to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his
parents," and "the right to be respected as a person from the moment
of his conception."
2379 The Gospel shows that physical sterility is not an absolute evil.
Spouses who still suffer from infertility after exhausting legitimate medical
procedures should unite themselves with the Lord's Cross, the source of all
spiritual fecundity. They can give expression to their generosity by adopting
abandoned children or performing demanding services for others.
Comments
Post a Comment