Solid Guidance for Those Struggling
West’s illustrations of the sinful nature of contraception are among the best available. In explaining that the Church’s opposition to contraception does not stem from a bias against technology, West uses the following example: “If medicine and technology can give sight to a blind man, that’s a wonderful, intelligent use of it. But it would be a terrible abuse of medicine and technology intentionally to blind someone with perfectly functioning eyes. …it’s no less a terrible abuse of medicine and technology…to sterilize someone intentionally.” Explaining the difference between contraception and natural family planning (NFP) West challenges: “What’s the big difference between an abortion and a miscarriage? What’s the big difference between suicide and natural death?”
Good News thus provides solid guidance to couples who are open to, but struggling, with the Church’s call to responsible love. Other readers may profit from West’s work, but will ultimately have to look elsewhere to find answers to more fundamental questions.
Jameson Taylor is a writer at HLI and longtime contributor to Catholic Exchange. This article is reprinted courtesy of HLI Reports, a publication of Human Life International..
A Foretaste of Heaven
“The joy of sex — in all its orgasmic grandeur,” West proclaims, “is meant to be the joy of loving as God loves…a foretaste of the joys of heaven: the eternal consummation of the marriage between Christ and the Church.” To explain, the human person — including the human body — has been made in the image of God. As such, the person is a mystery that mirrors the sublime mystery of divine love. In the marital act, man and wife uniquely receive and give God’s love in such a way that they share in God’s creation of a new human person. The sexual embrace thus images God’s love as does no other human act. In recognizing this “nuptial meaning” of the body, we also see that the human body itself is a sacramental sign of God’s love.
Good News is, at times, inspiring, but the book is also a practical manual — in question and answer format — that can be used by Catholic couples preparing for marriage or for those who don’t understand the Church’s teaching on marital sexuality. In addition to introducing the reader to John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body,” Good News discusses the requirements for a valid Catholic marriage and explains why chastity — both inside and outside of marriage — is both beautiful and necessary.
The Contraception Contradiction
Although characterized as a down-to-earth guide to John Paul II’s thought, Good News fails to provide a compelling account of the Pope’s groundbreaking “Theology of the Body.” The book is sprinkled with quotes from the Pope, but West does not so much articulate John Paul’s understanding of human sexuality as he does refer to it. To say the least, the task of interpreting the “Theology of the Body” will require the location of the Pope’s scholarship within the historical context of the Church’s teaching on marriage. We should not blame West for falling short in this area, but neither should we ascribe to his book a virtue it does not possess.
While non-Catholics, or even lukewarm Catholics, may be unimpressed by West’s efforts, Catholics and non-Catholics alike should be persuaded by West’s discussion of why contraception is intrinsically wrong. “When we understand the prophetic meaning of sexual union,” West observes, “the serious contradiction of contraception becomes clear. Sex is meant to proclaim to the world that God is life-giving love. An intentionally sterilized act of intercourse proclaims the opposite: God is not life-giving love.” Reminding readers that each man is called to love his wife as Christ loves the Church, West asks, “Would Christ ever intentionally sterilize his love?” The very thought is preposterous.
