In Tune with NFP

For most of the twenty-one years of my priesthood, I have prayed, worked and socialized with ministers and faithful of various Christian and non-Christian denominations. I have served on the diocesan Ecumenical and Interfaith Commissions and volunteered as a police chaplain for a police department along with ten other Christian and non-Christian ministers. Presently, I attend a once-a-month luncheon and prayer meeting with other Christian ministers in Vacaville where I am pastor of a medium-sized Catholic parish. I have enjoyed the opportunity to get to know other ministers, to pray with them and to hear about their own challenges and joys of being a faith leader.For the most part, however, when I do interact with ministers of other denominations, we mostly talk shop and not theology. I suppose this is somewhat understandable. After all, while we may share some basic fundamental understandings about God, we do not share the same core beliefs. For example, Catholics believe that Jesus Christ instituted seven sacraments, while most Christian denominations recognize two sacraments (Baptism and Eucharist). Moreover, Catholics have a different understanding of the Eucharist than non-Catholic Christians. While Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is present “body, blood, soul and divinity” in the Eucharist, most non-Catholic Christians would not affirm this. Nonetheless, many Christians and non-Christians share a strong inclination to defend the sanctity of human life. We recognize that God is the author of life and that all human life, “from womb to tomb”, is sacred. We pray together on sidewalks at abortion clinics and support pregnancy crisis centers in our communities. We work for the rights of the immigrant and promote the dignity of the incarcerated. When it comes to promoting natural methods of fertility awareness across different denominations, perhaps the point of departure for a deeper conversation is our common belief that God is the Creator of all. God sustains us in our lives and designed us for a particular purpose. To borrow from the world of music, God is the Ultimate Conductor of the magnificent symphony that encompasses humans, plants, animals and all of life. When the instruments of the symphony are in tune and played correctly, according to the design of each instrument and the intentions of the composer, the result is beautiful music. When the instruments are not in tune and not played well, a bad noise can result. We live in a world of bad noise. Natural Family Planning is part of the answer to restoring our world’s culture to a beautiful symphony. Couples who live NFP understand that God made them in a particular way and for a particular purpose. They know that to go against God’s design would not only harm them physically, but also spiritually, psychologically and emotionally. They would be making a bad noise instead of a beautiful symphony. Scientific progress has not always been good for our culture, yet one way science has helped us is through modern ultra-sound technology. Now, one can clearly see that the child in the womb is a child. He or she is not a blob of tissue. Coupled with our increased knowledge that the contraceptive pill can serve as an abortifacient, flushing the fertilized egg from the mother’s body, why would not this fact alone move reasonable people to reconsider contraception and adopt natural methods of fertility awareness? It is time for me to go beyond “talking shop” with my fellow ministers and invite them to a NFP class.