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Adam and Eve were in the garden enjoying their true and complete freedom having authentic mastery over themselves so they could be in relationship with God, other, self and nature. They were filled up with God’s love. Love, always, a free gift, can never to be coerced (coercion goes against the definition of love.) So, the Lord, to be truthful to authentic love placed the tree of good and evil in the center of the garden commanding Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruits of the tree. Satan asks why they cannot touch the tree (already beginning to tempt them with the twist on the truth.) Then, to assist them in stumbling, he shows them how they could have more than infinite love (see that statement and notice the fallacy – more than infinite?) The two-fold sin occurs simultaneously. Eve takes the fruit — doing something that should not be done, the sin of commission, while Adam says nothing though he was right next to her, not doing something that should be done, the sin of omission. Adam and Eve are no longer free; they no longer have mastery over themselves which means they no longer have authentic mastery over their relationship with God, other, self, nor creation. They and all of creation are wounded by this original sin. Satan attacks the family, the original unity of Man and Woman. Because Satan hates Man and Woman, the one-ness created in God’s image and likeness, He continuously strikes at this relationship, the relationship of the family. What was God’s response? In part, to place nicer garments on Adam and Eve than they made for themselves and immediately made more plans to mend their wounds.

All through history, Satan has struck at the family with the most force. And, for centuries all Christian Churches held strong and fast to keeping the unitive dimension (one-ness bond) and procreative (bearing children) together in the marital act. Never did the churches, divided as they were on other topics, allow the original plan for God to be interrupted nor separated. Then, in the early 1900’s there was a Lambeth Council of a Christian Community where it was first agreed upon that Man had the ability to separate the unitive from the procreative. It was only a matter of a few short years that Christian denominations gave approval for contraceptives to be morally permissible. In response, in 1931, Casti Connubi, written by Pope Pius XI reaffirmed the consistent church teaching that the unitive and procreative could not be separated and to separate them… you can read about the modern day problems happening within the family prophesized in that document. The Lord continued to love his people, nourish his people with the truth and sacraments and invite more faithful to be his disciple in carrying out this message. In the early 1960’s a commission on the family was formed to discuss many issues including to determine if a medicine (pill) and not a device would be morally permissible for a contraceptive. The commission agreed with the logic of the Lambeth Council. Since the commission was going to give their findings to the pope, Pope Paul VI, they had no problems going to the press at the time explaining what they were going to deliver to him. On the minority side, Cardinal Wojtyla (who would become Saint Paul John Paul II) explained to Pope Paul VI why the logic is false and that there is nothing permissible in any form that could separate the unitive from the procreative in how humanity is created in God’s image and likeness. To the shock of the whole world, Paul VI received recommendation from the commission and wrote Humanae Vitae explaining the false logic and morality being portrayed by the majority of the commission and said, siding with scripture and tradition, there cannot be a separation of the unitive and the procreative. And, when there is… the same prophesy that was given in 1931 was restated again in the 1968 document, Humanae Vitae. Humanae Vitae was the last papal document Pope Paul VI wrote as his heart broke watching untold numbers of bishops, priests, religious and laity leave the Church over this unchanging teaching. Pope Paul VI died of a heart attack, a broken heart, on August 6, 1978. In other words, what happened when he told the commission they were on the wrong side of this is that the serpent was dangling the fruit in front of the Bride of Christ, the Church, and the Holy Father, the Vicar for Christ on Earth said, “No, let’s not take this fruit; instead lets walk away from this false teaching.” And Satan unleashed havoc. The Holy Father stood strong as people used their free will to either embrace the truth of the unchanging teaching or walk away thinking something besides the author of freedom could give them freedom. Saint Pope John Paul II was elected Pope and gave us Theology of the Body which is the anthropology, the reasons behind why Humanae Vitae and all of the history of the church on this doctrine has been accurate and upheld as the way God created Man and Woman and what the Holy Spirit has always and will continue to speak through the Church. All the while, the prophecies of Casti Connubi and Humanae Vitae came to pass: loss of respect for women; increased conjugal infidelity; lowered morality; increased divorces; increased abortion; increased out of wedlock pregnancies; increased venereal diseases to name a few. What was the response as these prophecies came to pass? The Church continued to preach the truth, nourish us with the sacraments, heal us in the sacrament of reconciliation and more faithful joined the mission to preach the truths of the Gospel.

The Church will continue to give us the teachings on who we are as Man, as Woman, on the sacrament of marriage, on the absolute need of the marital act to be both unitive and procreative and that this act is a gift given by God to a husband and wife united in marriage. The Church, as Bride of Christ, Magisterium, clergy, and lay faithful will continue to teach her Spouse’s message of the relationship between children and their parents, the family as the domestic church, God’s favorite creation is humanity; that the best way He has to reveal himself is through us, created in His image and likeness. God will continue to give us our free will to choose Him and His teachings or not. Free will is needed because coercion is not love; God is love. Satan, as we heard revealed by the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, will continue to unleash his harshest wrath upon the family tearing men, women and children apart. In the time in which we live, we can choose to live the way God created us to live, including in the marital relationships and marital act where we will restore marriages, families, and relationships between parents and children; where we are created in God’s image and likeness. Or, we can believe the Church, therefore God is outdated and has lost touch with us and continue to recreate God into our image and likeness. Whichever, the church will continue to peach the truth, offer the nourishment of the sacraments and forgive sins and restore people back to Christ. I recommend putting our faith and trust in the teachings of the ever young, wise, relevant Church, the Bride of Christ.