I was praying this morning and the reflection in the Magnificat said that, 'What was the sin of Lucifer, but the resolve to be his own master. What was the sin of Adam, but impatience of subjection, and a desire to be his own god.' It was a reflection given by John Henry Newman.
Maybe the hardest part about Natural Family Planning is giving up control, our inate desire to be "our own master". Women, maybe men too, want their life in order. Magazines and blogs continuously post on the best ways to manage your draws, clothes closets, cabinets, food pantries, bulletin boards, color coded schedules and mail bins. Now that I think about it, men like to control their bank accounts and garages.
Why? Because organization brings order and that order brings peace to chaos, thus we control disorder. Even God designed the universe with order from the galaxy to the atom; order is a sign of his presence. We conquer disorganization with taking control and good household management, we feel that in some way we have learned to manage life, with all the unmanagable happenings around us. Managing and controling are good because they can lead to order and peace in a household, ultimately, a happy home.
The flipside, is that is can sneak its way into our want to control our bodies and sexual life. I think NFP is a natural protection against Satan's sin of "being one's own master" because we are saying to God, "You, my God, are in control of my life. My fertility is a GIFT from you. I will attempt to manage, through prayer, what I think is your will for my family, and you may intervene if you deem fit".
As John Henry Newman put it in today's reflection, "If then, the very principle of sin is insubordination, is there not a stupendous meaning in the fact that He, the Eternal, who alone is sovereign and supreme, has given us an example...He, who is independent of us all, yet who at this season became as though our fellow and our sevant, to teach us our place in this wide universe..." Not my will, but thy will be done.
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