THE LIVING WORD
Reading Scripture from the Heart of the Church
Children Are a Blessing from the Lord
Does Scripture have anything to say about contraception ?
Dr . Mary Healy
Although the Bible does not contain any direct prohibition of contraception , the Church ’ s teaching on this subject is derived from fundamental truths about marriage and sexuality revealed in Scripture as well as in creation itself . It is similar to the case of other moral issues such as polygamy . Although Scripture nowhere condemns polygamy , over the centuries both Jews and Christians came to recognize this practice as fundamentally incompatible with the dignity of the human person and with God ’ s plan for marriage .
There are several biblical truths that help to ground the Church ’ s prohibition of contraception .
First , there is the Bible ’ s strong emphasis on the fact that children are a gift from God . God ’ s very first blessing and commandment has to do with childbearing : “ God blessed them , and God said to them , ‘ Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth …’” ( Gn 1:28 ). With this command , God gives human beings responsibility for their reproductive powers . The sexual union of spouses is for the exalted purpose of participating in God ’ s own work of creation , populating the earth with new human beings created in his image and likeness .
The people of Israel considered this command a solemn obligation as well as a wonderful blessing . Many biblical passages celebrate the gift of offspring :
“ Behold , children are a heritage from the LORD , the fruit of the womb a reward . Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one ’ s youth . Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them !” ( Ps 127:3- 5 ; see Ps 128 ).
Second , Scripture implies the mysterious involvement of God himself in every act of human conception . In Genesis we read , “ Adam knew his wife Eve , and she conceived and bore Cain , saying , ‘ I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD ’” ( Gn 4:1 ). This divine intervention becomes even more evident in the description of Hannah ’ s childbearing after being healed of infertility : “ The LORD visited Hannah , and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters ” ( 1 Sm 2:21 ; emphasis added ). In every conception of a human life , God performs a new act of creation : A new person with an eternal destiny comes into existence , a new face reflecting God ’ s image in the world in a way it has never been reflected before . To refuse this mysterious divine action is to shut the door in God ’ s face and exclude him from the great mystery that is meant to image him in the world ( cf . Eph 5:32 ).
Third , Scripture indirectly reveals the disordered nature of contraceptive acts . Genesis tells the brief story of a son of Judah named Onan , whose brother had died . According to the norms of the time , a man whose brother had died leaving a widow should marry her and raise up offspring for his brother ( a practice later known as the levirate law ).
“ But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his . So whenever he went in to his brother ’ s wife he would waste the semen
on the ground , so as not to give offspring to his brother . And what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD , and he put him to death ” ( Gn 38:9-10 ).
Onan was motivated by selfishness , not wishing to share his inheritance with children who would be considered his brother ’ s . But his sin was not merely a matter of avoiding the levirate law , since the law allows the brother to refuse , with a penalty only of public humiliation , not death ( Dt 25:6-10 ). Genesis implies , rather , that Onan ’ s grave wrongdoing was to frustrate God ’ s purpose for sexual union , and especially to oppose the fulfillment of God ’ s promise that he would multiply the descendants of Abraham ( 17:6 ; 28:3 ; 35:11 ).
Finally , the deepest biblical truths grounding the Church ’ s teaching on contraception are those so eloquently articulated by Pope John Paul II in his Theology of the Body . As he showed , God designed the marital act to be the visible expression of a covenant in which a man and woman give themselves to one another entirely and without reserve — including their potential motherhood or fatherhood .
Dr . Mary Healy is professor of Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart .
36 Sacred Heart Major Seminary | Mosaic | Spring 2018