In my last post, I introduced the challenge of a declining
population, which I believe is at the root cause, or at least contributes, to
just about every challenge we face as a society today. Fewer
people means less creativity to solve problems, less intellectual capital, and
less people to drive our economy and culture.
If we think of an analogy from
the environment, more of the world is becoming like a desert and less like a
garden. When the womb is barren, so
becomes the world.
In the past post, we mentioned some papal teaching, and
listed several Scripture posts, from the Old Testament and the Acts of the Apostles,
which I claim make my point that it is not the will of God that our birthrate
be low. In this post, I would like to do
a little more of that, but specifically focus on the words and deeds of Our
Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels. I
will present some verses that I would propose that it is the will of Christ
that we reverse our population trend. I
admit these are not traditional ways of interpreting these passages, and I do
ask for your indulgence as I perhaps gave a spin on these that are not usual, but
I would propose they are not in conflict per se with any interpretation that
has been given on them in the Tradition of the Church.
Let’s start with this famous line from Our Lord. “What profit is there for one to gain the
whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” (Luke 9:25) When one person gains a lot of land,
typically they take the land for themselves.
Now, a godly person would share that land with others, or at least allow
others to live on the land. However, I don’t think that type of person was who
Our Lord had in mind when he said this. It could be said, based on this saying, that
Our Lord prefers that there be a multitude of people in a given land, and not
just one.
Later in that same chapter (verses 51-55), we read, “When the days drew near for him
to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way
they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but
they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his
disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command
fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”[ But he turned and rebuked them. There is never
a problem that is solved by eliminating people, and therefore, having fewer
people on the Earth! This is a lesson we
can draw from the words and actions (or inaction) of Jesus in this passage.
In Luke 11: 27-28, we read the
following: While he was saying this, a woman
in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore
you and the breasts that nursed you!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those
who hear the word of God and obey it!” The woman was praising one woman who gave birth to to one child. The Lord kind of implies there is nothing
remarkable about that. On the other
hand, says that what is real blessed are the
many who obey the word of God. One
of God’s commands is to be fruitful and
multiply. One woman giving birth to a
child, a natural process, is indeed good. However, what is much better is many giving birth out of obedience to
God’s word. The more, the merrier!
The parable of the fig tree speaks to those
who are barren, and the need to be patient. Fruit will come if we do the right things! Then
he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he
came looking for fruit on it and found none. So
he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for
fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be
wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one
more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit
next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” The Lord does not like barrenness in the
spiritual nor physical world. But we
should never just toss the barren womb away, or forget about it! We need to pray, persevere and do whatever we can
to make it possible to bear fruit. More
often than not, God will take care of the rest, and bless us with fruit if we do. (For those for whom he does not, I have some words at the end of this post.)
Our Lord loves babies! We read further in Luke’s Gospel (18:15-17) People were bringing even infants to him
that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered
them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said,
“Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as
these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not
receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” If it was just one infant, I do not think the
disciples would have objected. But there
were many. It did not bother Our Lord,
he enjoyed it. Babies give delight to him. The more babies there are, the greater the
Kingdom of God shines forth!
The Parable of the Ten Gold Coins (Luke
19:11-26) speaks of God’s expectation for us to multiply. As they
were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near
Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear
immediately. So he said, “A nobleman went to a distant
country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten
of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, ‘Do business with these
until I come back.’ But the citizens of his country hated
him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to rule
over us.’ 15 When he returned,
having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the
money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by
trading. The first came forward and said, ‘Lord,
your pound has made ten more pounds.’ He said to him, ‘Well done, good slave!
Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten
cities.’ Then the second came, saying, ‘Lord,
your pound has made five pounds.’ He said to him, ‘And you, rule over five
cities.’ Then the other came, saying, ‘Lord, here
is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, for I was afraid
of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and
reap what you did not sow.’ He said to him, ‘I will judge you by
your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man,
taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you
not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it
with interest.’ He said to the bystanders, ‘Take the
pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’ (And they said to
him, ‘Lord, he has ten pounds!’) ‘I tell you, to all those who have, more
will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be
taken away. The Lord’s
preference is for us to take what we have, or better put, what has been given
to us by God, and multiply it. We have been given life, truth, and love. We are expected to reproduce.
Here is one final passage to consider. On the road to Calvary, Our Lord speaks to a
group of women who were mourning and lamenting what was happening to him. But Jesus turned to them and said,
“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for
your children. For the days are surely coming
when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and
the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the
mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do
this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke
23:28-32). The Lord tells them
that while what was happening to him may appear bad, what was really bad would
be a future world where humans do not want to give birth. Does this sound a little bit like our world
today?
Again, these interpretations I have given
here are mine, and there are other levels and meanings to each of these
passages. However, I hope I have made a
case that I think one would be justified, based on these and other passages in
the Gospels, to conclude that low
birthrates are not in accordance with God’s plan for his Creation.
Before I close, let me just say a word to
those women who like to bear children, but cannot. It is a pain that I cannot begin to imagine
what it is like. It is indeed a cross to
bear, and Our Lord suffers with you. He does not like it any more than you do. He wept over the barrenness around him, and
the barrenness he foresaw and spoke of while on the road to Calvary. Your
suffering can be united with his, and as we all know, his suffering bore fruit
for the whole human race. Your suffering can likewise bear fruit. It could be spiritual
fruit, and/or it may just bear physical fruit, too, like, for example, if you
decide to adopt. But however you decide
to respond to this cross you have to bear, know that God suffers with you, and
like how he had a plan for our salvation through the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so the Father has a plan to make your
suffering, redemptive, as well. Grab
onto it, and like Jesus, in the end, you will experience victory.
For those who in this situation, turn to
Saint Joseph, who is solace of the wretched.
For those who experience the truly “wretched” condition of
barrenness, and for those who perhaps
were able to conceive, and chose not to, and now feel “wretched” because of it,
Joseph can be your consolation. He suffered for Our Lord during his lifetime
as we have discussed in previous posts.
Some of this suffering is enumerated in the Infancy narrative, but I
would venture there was a lot more suffering than was explicitly
mentioned. Joseph had to work by the
sweat of his brow, and because he was not conceived immaculately like Our Lord
and Our Lady, he felt its effects. His
family was poor. I am sure he struggled to provide for them everyday. And finally, beyond the physical suffering, I
am sure he struggled emotionally and spiritually to understand the mystery that
was his son. To those who are barren, I say, with Saint
Joseph at your side, lean on the Sacred Heart of Our Lord.
Joseph, solace of the wretched, pray for
us.
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