Two hearts as one…

In married life, “the agony and the ecstasy go together”, according to dynamic author and educator Dr Christopher West in a recent YouTube video titled ‘This Coke Commercial Will Strike the Deepest Core of Your Humanity’ on living out natural family planning.

Simply put, he alludes to the fact that married life can be filled with both the panic and the joy of expecting a new baby in the family!

Dr Evelyn Billings weighed-in on conjugal (marital) love in her talk: ‘Two Hearts as One’, delivered to priests in Sydney, Australia in 1988 in this excerpt below:

“There is no one who would disagree with the statement that true love is essential for a successful conjugal relationship – the joining together of two people to make one whole is this extraordinary relationship of marriage. It is a biological joining of male and female with a special purpose of being productive of new life, and it is a spiritual joining with the special purpose of unifying the hearts and minds of the couple, in a bond capable of accepting the responsibility of children and acknowledging the Lord and giver of life.

“Remain in my love,” said Christ in the Gospel of St John. “If you keep my Commandments, you will remain in my love…” “What I command is to love one another.”

Herein is the essence of the marriage promise so clearly defined for those of us who are Christians, and instinctively known by those who are not. For such is human love that in its unlimited expression, it is akin to the infinite love of the Trinity, the image of God and the magnet for all human souls.

Henri Daniel-Rops in his book The Church of the Apostles and Martyrs, gives a moving account of the private life of the majority of Romans in the Early Empire when some of the burial inscriptions bore testimony to the fundamental virtues and among them conjugal love.

One couple chose to lie side by side beneath the epitaph: “We had but one heart.” It is strangely reminiscent of the Encyclical of Pope Paul VI Humanae Vitae, when he spoke of the love of couples with “one only heart, one only soul”.

Each individual yearns for love both to give and to keep. It is in marriage that there is a special opportunity to find and perfect that love; there is someone special to be given that love.

The children who will come, generously made welcome in acknowledgement of the role of the Creator and of His love for all the family, will receive a special love which though different is also binding.

As well, love will be given in return in more than even measure by every member of the family. It is love that is the fruit of the conjugal relationship that will endure. “Go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last,” said the Divine Son. “As the Father has loved me, so I love you.” Thus we have the Divine assurance which pours life into marriage, is the vitality of the family, and the essence of the wellbeing of its members.

The relationship begun in the blaze of attraction, one for the other, becomes a steady burning fire of enduring love in marriage when subject to the Commandments and the law of marriage. “If you keep my Commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s Commandments and remain in His love. I have told you this, that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.”

In a way parents experiencing this joy can echo these words to their children.

Complete conjugal joy is attainable. It is not an idle promise. It is contained in the Divine Plan for every human individual.

The natural order commands a discipline which is not beyond the compliance of human beings. It draws upon human virtues and attributes, qualities which set us above the rest of creatures.

It expects something in return from the human gifts of intelligence—to learn and to know, to consider, judge and to choose. It asks that the moving force be love which demands what is best in all human nature. It is of human nature that we speak when we talk of natural fertility regulation.

BOMA-TT Phone or WhatsApp: 384-1659, Email: naturalfertility@catholictt.org or billingstt@gmail.com, Local Website: billingstt.com, International Websites: woombinternational.org or billings.life