A Light in the World
My wife and I recently
learned the happy news that we are pregnant with our fourth child. (Well, she is, actually.) This news has brought us great joy, but it
has also placed us squarely on the wrong side of our secular culture’s
“morals.” We are now officially menaces
to society, contributing to overpopulation and acquiring an indefensible
“carbon footprint.”
Now, to our friends and
family of Faith, this is a happy announcement.
As Catholics, we are all called to be open to life in our
marriages. God may not bless our
marriages with children, but we promise on the day of our wedding that we will
accept the children He wishes to give us.
God has a Father’s Heart, He loves children, and we are called to be
generous with our fertility. Large
families should be a sign to the world of God’s fruitful Love.
However, judging by the
comments my friends with four kids or more have gotten, and the few my wife has
even gotten in public with three, the world sees things very differently than
God does. And it will react to our
joyous news in a far different manner than the community of Faith.
Perhaps one of these days
I will write an article on all the reasons why the overpopulation hype is a
heap of nonsense. Overpopulation is not
truly a problem. In fact, Catholic
children from large families may be the only hope our secular neighbors have of
ever receiving Social Security or Medicare, given our current demographic
nightmare. But that’s not the point of
this post. See the Population Research Institute for plenty of
important facts and information, and links to other useful resources.
I am also not a global
warming alarmist, but I believe in clean air and water as much as anyone, and
my family tries to be good stewards of God’s creation.
But the fact is, there is
a mentality rampant in our society that compels total strangers to verbally
attack parents with more than a couple of kids, or to stare at them like they
would never dare do to someone with a disability, for example.
Why is this? Some of it is pure nastiness. But many believe the ideology extolled by
modern Western culture. Perhaps they
feel a sense of moral superiority that gives them license to be rude to
complete strangers (nastiness again).
Let’s face it, it has been a brilliant scheme of the devil’s to turn
decisions about having children into totally selfish ones and then provide a
framework for feeling righteous about it.
Regardless of the level of
nastiness in the motives of another, that is not really for us to judge (we
have no way to anyway), and the important question is, how should we respond?
It is tempting to respond
with a wise crack or a verbal snipe of our own.
Perhaps we should make a rash judgment about their motive, and berate
them for it. But if we are trying to be
a light in the world, if we want our families to be a sign of God’s Love, then
we had better respond as Christians. And
that means one thing, charity.
We may have reasoned
discussions with our loved ones who have adopted the world’s mentality, but
most likely not with the stranger in the parking lot or the check-out
line. We should be prepared to, I
suppose. But we certainly need to
respond with patience and with charity.
There is probably no one-size-fits-all response, but getting upset,
defensive or accusatory will do no one any good. So whatever we say, it should uphold Truth,
and do so with charity.
This, however, is not
always so easy. If someone is willing to
attack us out of the blue, they are probably not bringing much charity to the
table. It will take strength of character
not to respond in kind.
There is an interesting
parable, from India, I think. It seems a
man saw a scorpion stuck on a rock at the edge of a river, surrounded by water
in a storm. The water was rising and it
was clear that the scorpion was going to drown.
So the man reached out to pull the scorpion off the rock and onto dry
ground, when it stung him. He pulled his
hand back but a moment later reached out again, only to be stung again. A third time he began to reach his hand to
the creature when his friend called to him: “What are you doing? If you keep trying to save that scorpion, he
will just keep attacking you.” “I know,”
said the first man, “but I will not let his nature, which is to fight, overcome
my nature, which is to love.”
Well we are not dealing
with mere scorpions, but human beings made in the Image and Likeness of
God. Our nature comes from God and we
must not let it be dictated by our neighbor.
Where will we find the
strength do this? We must see our
detractors, not as enemies, but as Christ, in whose Image and Likeness they
were created. This is what Mother Teresa
did in Calcutta. She spent time with
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and when she went out into the streets, she saw
Him in the poor. If we are to see Jesus
even in our enemies, at least potentially, and so find the strength to love
them, we must spend time with Him. And
some of that time needs to be with the Blessed Sacrament, in Adoration. If we come to know Him in this great
Sacrament, we will fall more deeply in love with Him, and the prayer will come
true that says: O Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, make my heart like unto
Thine.
