Looking through my old books I came across the following notes on a page, taken from Dietrich von Hildebrand's little book Man and Woman. Has anyone stopped to consider that the dramatic increases of the incidences of suicide might be related to the shedding of the "taboo" on sex. We must restrain our venereal hand in order to restrain our murderous hand! Love and life are once again inseparably joined. One must be very reverent of the mysterious fountain of life (the conjugal act) to stand upon one's reverence for life itself. No wonder that the sixth commandment (thou shalt not fornicate) follows the fifth (thou shalt not murder). As if to say that to respect life you need to also respect love.
"The sinfulness of artificial contraception is rooted in the fact that one arrogates to oneself the right to separate the actualized love union in marriage from a possible procreation, to sever this wonderful, deeply mysterious connection, instituted by God, and to approach this mystery in an irreverent attitude..." (67)
"It is the same sinfulness which lies in suicide or euthanasia [the same could be said for abortion], in both of which we act as if we were masters of life...It is the same irreverence which ignores the indissolubility of marriage and in which marriages are contracted and ended as one would change gloves." (68)
"Every active intervention on the part of the spouses, which eliminates the possibility of conception through the conjugal act, is incompatible with the holy mystery of the superabundant relation in the incredible gift offered by God [being, therefore, the direct opposite of Natural Family Planning]..." (68)
"To the sublime link between marriage and procreation the words of Christ also apply: 'What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.'" (68)
"And the irreverence also affects the purity of the conjugal act because the union can be the real fulfillment of love only when it is approached with reverence and when it is embedded in the religio, the consciousness of our basic bond to God." (68)
As G.K. Chesterton (that great English novelist/journalist of the 20th century) once famously said: sex is very beautiful and very dangerous! The misuse of it is a bottomless pit of boredom! Hell!
I think of Robin Williams' (requiscat in pace!) movies, in particular one in which he was a teacher who seduces his teenage student (as I recall [not of course wishing to recall too much here for even to bring such images to mind should make one blush for shame], he plays and glamorizes the pedophile!) That kind of crap is deadly! One ought not play with that! Hollywood ought not play with that! How many people have been sacrificed to the Moloch of sexual license only God Himself can tell!
N.B. For more on this subject read
On Human Life
By Archbishop Chaput July 22, 1998
By Cardinal James Francis Stafford July 11, 2008
Humanae Vitae
By Pope Paul VI July 25, 1968
This is something the Catholic Church has right and everyone else in the present social context (except perhaps Islam) has wrong, way wrong! If we got right on this we would solve many of our most pressing problems beginning with the prevalent anti-Catholic sentiment!
N.B. The great Protestant ministers Scott and Kimberly Hahn converted to the Catholic faith based on Sacred Scripture's testimony on this!
For a broader look at the nature of love read
Deus Caritas Est
By Pope Benedict XVI