"A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.'" Luke 23: 27-29.
This reading really struck me, because these days are now. Jesus tells the women to weep for themselves and their children, and specifically because people will saying that the barren women is blessed. Our society today not only says this, but has created pills and devices that make a woman barren. Jesus tells the women to weep because this is a sad truth that is coming upon humanity. For Jesus to see this attitude of seeing a barren woman and blessed as something to weep for, then he definitely believes that a woman who is barren is not blessed but rather should be grieved for. In those days it was unattractive for a woman to be barren, it was sad. Jesus in these words tells us that being barren is not a blessing, but the true blessing is being fruitful.
So, let us take this a step further. As I said earlier, not only is our society fulfilling that prophecy of Jesus, but we have created things to make women barren, not just claim that a barren was is blessed, but we change her so that she will be barren. If Jesus finds it so sad that he tells these women to weep because of this attitude, do you think he would agree with the act of making someone barren? I think the answer is no. For Jesus to tell us to weep for "days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.'" then I think he too would weep for the act of making someone barren. One objection to this would be that things such as the pill are only temporary and the woman is permanently barren, and these women will bare children not "never" as it says in the prophecy. This is a valid objection, it makes sense, but I would like to reply.
If you look at the sentence he is weeping "for they will say" these women are blessed. So, it is an attitude towards children and procreation that he is weeping for, not necessarily for a particular act, but for an attitude, weeping for where their hearts are. So, my question is if it is clear that in these words Jesus desires for our hearts be for viewing children as a blessing not the barren womb as a blessing, then what is the attitude associated with artificial contraception, something that outright rejects the fecundity of a woman. If Jesus wants our attitude to be "Blessed is the woman who is fertile and bears much fruit" (which I think is true because this is the opposite of the attitude he tells the women to weep for), then how is artificial contraception embracing this attitude. By using artificial contraception, we are saying that this woman is better barren for tonight, for the week, the month or the year, and that attitude cannot be consistent with the one that Jesus desires are hearts to embrace - "Blessed is the woman who is fertile and bears much fruit". This attitude of the heart cannot be a conditional one, but one that is unconditional, a woman's fecundity is either a blessing all the time or not a blessing, and since God made women to be fertile I would say that is is always unconditionally a blessing.
I could say a lot more on this topic, but I think I am going to stop there. If anyone is actually reading this, feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.
God Bless you all! and may the Grace and Peace of our Lord be with you always!
