This article is about the evils of fornication and lust in a marriage, or, as St. Paul said, “In the marriage bed.” Fornication is a very great sin! In 1st Cor. 10:8, it says that God killed 23,000 people in one day for the sin of fornication. In Genesis 38:10 it says that God killed Onan for wasting his seed rather than raising up offspring. Fr. Leslie Rumble said, “The seriousness of the punishment shows the seriousness of the crime.’’ If God was angry enough to kill Onan for his sin, how angry must God have been when he killed 23,000 in one day for fornication? I can’t help wondering also about the morality of Natural Family Planning too, when the couples get it down to a science, and use it not to space the children, but to have no children at all. I knew two couples who went to the classes many years ago. One couple in their twenties only had one child. They never had another after going to the classes. Another couple had several children, but after the classes, they, in their thirties and still fertile and capable, never had any more children. Is this not akin to a farmer planting his seed deliberately on the rocks so it wouldn’t grow? Would that not be insanity? Or planting his seed at a time of year when it could not grow? Is this not a
In the time of St. John Vianney, married people were shown the nobility of their calling, and he exhorted them to fulfill holily their duties. A lady of the name of Reut, of Ouroux, in the department of Rhone, had already a large family, and was about to become a mother once more. She came to Ars to seek courage at the feet of this holy Cure’. She had not long to wait, for M. Vianney summoned her from amid the crowd. “You look very sad, my child,’’ he said, when she was on her knees in his confessional. “Oh, I am so advanced in years., Father.’’ ‘’Be comforted, my child…if you only knew the women who will go to hell because they did not bring into the world the children they should have given to it.’’ At Fatima, Portugal, I n 1917, our Blessed Mother revealed to little Jacinta, now a canonized saint, “Many marriages are not good, and are not pleasing to God…more souls go to hell for sins of the flesh than for any other reason.’’
And again, St. John Vianney said to another, ‘’Come now, my little one,’’ with fatherly kindness to a woman who confided to him her anxiety because of her large family. ‘’Do not be alarmed at your burden; Our Lord carries it with you. The good God does well all that He does; when he gives many children to a young mother, it is that He deems her worthy to rear them. It is a mark of confidence on His part.’’ If a woman wishes to save her soul, she must be open to child-bearing. “A woman shall be saved through childbearing.’’ 1 Tim. 2:15. If she does not wish to go through the labor of bringing children into the world, she should remain unmarried, or become a nun in the religious life. The only exception would be a valid physical impediment, and birth control would still not be allowed, only abstinence. Self denial. ‘’If any man will follow me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Mark 8:34
The title of this article is taken directly from the Book of Tobias. These words came directly from the Archangel Raphael to the son Tobias, and they refer directly to the sin of birth control in marriage, those who receive matrimony and shut God out, which, as Fr. John Hardon said, ‘’is fornication in marriage.’’ Here are the words of Raphael to Tobias, ‘’Hear me, and I will show thee who they are, over whom the devil can prevail. For they, who in such manner receive matrimony, as to shut God out from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which hath not understanding, over them the devil hath power.”
In chapter 3 of Tobias Sara is patiently bearing reproaches because she has had seven husbands and they were all killed by a devil. Scripture says explicitly that the devil Asmodeus had killed them, at their first going in to her, verse 8. As one reads Tobias closely, every indication by what is said is that the seven men were guilty of lust when they went into her, and therefore the devil had ‘’power over them,’’ to kill them because of their sin. No so though of Sara. In her beautiful prayer to God, she says, ‘’Thou knowest, O Lord, that I have never coveted a husband, and have kept my soul clean from all lust.’’ The devil had no power to kill her. And later on Raphael gives instruction to the young Tobias on what to do to drive the devil away when he goes into Sara.
As a side note, there is an error in the New Mass Bible readings that says, after the reproaches of one of the servant maids, Sara went upstairs with a rope and intended to hang herself. Nothing could be further from the truth! Apparently the communist infiltration of the priesthood in the 1900’s was successful because one of them said they would encourage many different versions of the scripture, ‘to create confusion.’’ –AA-1025, Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle. Msgr. Bourassa of Canada said everyone should read that book in order to understand what is going on in the Church today. What the Scripture really says is this: ‘’At these words she went into an upper chamber of her house: and for three days and three nights did neither eat nor drink, but continuing in prayer with tears besought God, that He would deliver her from this reproach.” Fasting and praying she was, rather than contemplating suicide. A very valuable lesson for those who are tempted to suicide. Rather, pray and fast, and God will hear your prayer.
The son Tobias’ father was a very holy man. Even in captivity, he forsook not the way of truth. He was very generous to his fellow captives. He would do no childish thing. And when everyone else worshiped the golden calves, he alone fled to Jerusalem to adore the true God, offering his first-fruits and tithes to God. These, and such like things did he observe when but a boy according to the law of God, chapter 1. When he became a man, he married and bore a son, Tobias, ‘’and from his infancy he taught him to fear God, and to abstain from all sin, verse 10.
He would not defile himself with meats, like many Catholics do today who eat meat on Friday without substituting another act of charity or penance. His entire life was about doing good, avoiding sin, and observing God’s law. His whole life was full of charity. In captivity, he went among his brethren daily, comforting them, distributing to them as he was able, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, careful to burying the dead, and they that were slain. When having a dinner, the young Tobias came in and told his father, ‘that one of the children of Israel laid slain in the street. And he forthwith leaped up from his place at the table, and left his dinner, and came fasting to the body…taking it to his house privately, that after the sun was down, he might bury him cautiously.’’ And even though he risked his life doing so, burying the bodies of the dead, ‘’Tobias, fearing God more than the king, carried off the bodies of them that were slain, and hid them in his house, and at midnight buried them.’’ Chapters 1 and 2. God then allows him to become blind from dung out of a swallow’s nest while sleeping. “Now this trial the Lord therefore permitted to happen to him, that an example might be given to posterity of his patience, as also of holy Job.’’ 2:12.
Tobias, thinking he is about to die, gives counsel to his son. This counsel is so full of wisdom it bears repeating. [1] “Therefore when Tobias thought that his prayer was heard that he might die, he called to him Tobias his son, [2] And said to him: Hear, my son, the words of my mouth, and lay them as a foundation in thy heart. [3] When God shall take my soul, thou shalt bury my body: and thou shalt honour thy mother all the days of her life: [4] For thou must be mindful what and how great perils she suffered for thee in her womb. [5] And when she also shall have ended the time of her life, bury her by me. [6] And all the days of thy life have God in thy mind: and take heed thou never consent to sin, nor transgress the commandments of the Lord our God. [7] Give alms out of thy substance, and turn not away thy face from any poor person: for so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from thee. [8] According to thy ability be merciful. [9] If thou have much give abundantly: if thou have a little, take care even so to bestow willingly a little. [10] For thus thou storest up to thyself a good reward for the day of necessity.
[11] For alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness. [12] Alms shall be a great confidence before the most high God, to all them that give it. [13] Take heed to keep thyself, my son, from all fornication, and beside thy wife never endure to know a crime. [14] Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind, or in thy words: for from it all perdition took its beginning. [15] If any man hath done any work for thee, immediately pay him his hire, and let not the wages of thy hired servant stay with thee at all. [16] See thou never do to another what thou wouldst hate to have done to thee by another. [17] Eat thy bread with the hungry and the needy, and with thy garments cover the naked. [18] Lay out thy bread, and thy wine upon the burial of a just man, and do not eat and drink thereof with the wicked. [19] Seek counsel always of a wise man. [20] Bless God at all times: and desire of him to direct thy ways, and that all thy counsels may abide in him. [21] I tell thee also, my son, that I lent ten talents of silver, while thou wast yet a child, to Gabelus, in Rages a city of the Medes, and I have a note of his hand with me: [22] Now therefore inquire how thou mayst go to him, and receive of him the foresaid sum of money, and restore to him the note of his hand. [23] Fear not, my son: we lead indeed a poor life, but we shall have many good things if we fear God, and depart from all sin, and do that which is good.’’ 4;1-23.
Reflection: It is better to be poor and rich in faith, than to be rich and poor in faith. James 2:5 “Hearken, my dearest brethren: hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?”
[1] “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl in your miseries, which shall come upon you. [2] Your riches are corrupted: and your garments are motheaten. [3] Your gold and silver is cankered: and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days. [4] Behold the hire of the labourers, who have reaped down your fields, which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth: and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. [5] You have feasted upon earth: and in riotousness you have nourished your hearts, in the day of slaughter. “ St. James chap. 5
Let us fear offending God, for his wrath will consume us if we don’t amend, as it has so many others. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’’ Hebrews 10:31. “He that sinneth in the sight of his Maker, shall fall into the hands of the physician.” Ecclus. 38:15. “For our God is a consuming fire.” Heb. 12:29
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