Hail Life!

Several years ago, we went to a Roman Catholic wedding followed by a lively reception where numerous children ran about in a most delightful manner. They were dressed in their finest, yet appeared a bit disheveled from the festivities and feasting, and their sole purpose seemed to be to find one another, elves finding other elves to dance to the music, to frolic, and to stay one step ahead of their parents. As the evening wore on, a couple of them were seen to have fallen asleep in the arms of their mothers, while a few continued to dance, while others simply watched the festivities with grave eyes (a long day of celebration had hit them hard) from the arms of their very fatigued parents. At one point during the night, one of the workers at the rented hall remarked that he had never seen so many children at a wedding reception. Yes, there were many children about, and I mentioned this to The Parish Priest, and he said, without a second thought, “That’s because Roman Catholicism is a religion of life!”

Right-ho!

Traditionally, Roman Catholicism is a religion of life.

Roman Catholics do not use artificial contraception, because it is mortally sinful, is evil, and is opposed to the natural law. They do not participate in, and do not assent to being sterilized, which is, again, an action opposed to the natural law.  Roman Catholics are accused of breeding like rabbits by reprobates, heretics, and men of ill-will, but if breeding like rabbits produces the adorable elves that I saw at that wedding reception, then, let’s drink a glass to breeding like rabbits! If anything is worth doing in life, it is producing life, and producing it in abundance. I have never seen proof that acquiring more material goods produces happiness yet this is the siren call of The World: acquire, acquire, acquire. Yet, we shall all die, and nothing goes with us to the next life, except, and here’s the great exception: our children. Our beloved children. Each and every child is a unique, unrepeatable person created in the image and likeness of God. God creates life in cooperation with us. Life is a gift from God. It must be cherished, and valued at every stage, in every condition, in all appearances, even when it is ugly, terminally ill, or marked by suffering. We cannot be the arbitrators of life, deciding which life is valuable, or which life is not. This is a very dangerous action, and it is an action reserved only for God.

Yesterday, after Holy Mass, I had the honor to see a newborn babe in the back of church. The angel was cradled in its mother’s arms, and she was beaming with happiness at the safe delivery of her eighth (surviving) child. Next to her stood her eldest son who held her two year old, dressed in a full suit, who smiled and waved at me in a most charming manner. The entire happy scene caused us to remember the joy of First Things: the joy of life, the surprise of seeing a newborn, especially one, who according to The World, has no right to exist, whose parents might be accused by The World, and Wordlings, of breeding like rabbits; yet there he was, safely cradled in the arms of his loving mother, wanted by his siblings, parents, and his fellow Catholics. He could not speak, but he spoke: hail life (I found the door, I was born! G.K. Chesterton)!

So, if you are accused of breeding like rabbits, do not be alarmed. You are not the first, and you will not be the last. Take it as a badge of honor. Hold your head up high, and keep your family and children close to your heart. By doing this, you will be building up a culture of life. By this, too, you will be defeating the utilitarian Marxist ideology that detests children and family life, which detests people that have faith in God, and detests the independent family that refuses to acquiesce to The World and its maxims.

As I walked out of the church picturing the happy scene I had just witnessed, reveling in seeing the life in the church, the life in Roman Catholicism, the sun broke out, the birds sang, and for one moment, the veil lifted, and I (half imagined, G.K.C.) that God was smiling.

Hail life!

•SCF