REVISITING HUMANAE VITAE

    And now we arrive at what seems to be the real reason for Johnson's objections to the TB. While Johnson criticizes John Paul for gearing all his addresses toward a defense of Humanae Vitae (HV), he is oblivious to the irony of the fact that he himself gears his whole criticism of the TB towards his own rejection of HV.
Johnson is right on one thing. He has to attempt, as best he can, to discredit the TB if he is to maintain - and allow his readers to maintain - the morality of intentionally sterilized sex. As John Paul says, questions come from HV that "permeate the sum total" of his reflections on the TB. "It follows, then, that [a reflection on HV] is not artificially added to the sum total, but is organically and homogeneously united with it" (TB, Nov 28, 84).
Johnson's claim that there is "virtually nothing" in the preceding addresses that strengthens a defense of HV seems like a blatant smokescreen. It's certainly true that there is virtually nothing in Johnson's presentation of the TB that strengthens a defense of HV. But he wouldn't want to include anything that did (say, like, the Pope's central thesis...), would he?
In fact, the TB places the teaching of HV on the surest foundation possible - God - and his revelation that we are created in his own image and likeness as male and female. For those who have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit to understand the "great mystery" of nuptial union as an icon of the inner life of the Trinity and a sacramental sign of Christ's union with the Church, contraception is simply unthinkable.
It is no exaggeration to say that such a couple would prefer to die martyrs deaths than to engage in contracepted intercourse. Yes, that is the seriousness of the matter. As John Paul says, such couples have a "salvific fear" of ever "violating or degrading what bears in itself the sign of the divine mystery..." (TB, Nov 14, 1984).
But, of course, they don't live in fear. They experience conjugal union on a level that is mystical and even liturgical. When they become "one flesh," they "fulfill the very meaning of their being and existence" by loving as Christ loves. Therefore, they are filled with the eternal joy that Christ himself promised (see Jn 15:11).
Insert contraception into the language of the body and it changes everything. Nuptial union is meant to proclaim the mystery of the Trinity - that "God is a life-giving communion of love." However, an intentionally sterilized act of intercourse proclaims the opposite: "God is not a life-giving communion of love." Contraception changes the "language of the body" into a specific denial of God's Creative Love, making the spouses "false prophets."
Nuptial union is also meant to be a sacramental sign of Christ's union with the Church. Insert contraception into this sign and (knowingly or unknowingly) a couple engages in a counter-sign of Christ's union with the Church.
If the husband is to be a true symbol of Christ in the "one flesh" union, then he must speak the language of Christ: "this is my body given up for you" (Lk 22:19). And if the wife is to be a true symbol of the Church in the "one flesh" union, then she must speak the language of the Church (as modeled by Mary): "Let it be done unto me according to your word" (Lk 1:38).
However, contracepted intercourse says: "This is my body not given up for you;" and, "Let it not be done unto me according to your word." Whoa! That's a contradiction of the very mystery of redemption. That's precisely John Paul's point.
And in anticipation of the criticism of biologism, or reducing spiritual realities to mere physical realities, I respond with that first statement in John Paul II's thesis: "The body, in fact, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible, the spiritual and divine."
This is not biologism, this is the very economy of the sacramental order. For sacraments to convey spiritual realities, the physical must accurately symbolize the spiritual. Changing the physical symbol, in fact, invalidates the sacrament. This is why an intentionally sterilized act of intercourse can never consummate a marriage - it is a contradiction of the very essence of the "great mystery" of the sacrament.
Which brings us to the irony of the title of Johnson's article. Johnson and all those who accept contraception are the ones who are living a "disembodied" theology of the body. They must, by necessity, disembody sexual love in order to claim that intentionally sterilizing their bodies has no bearing on what they are saying about themselves and about God.
Johnson claims that it's the overall disposition of "openness to life" that matters and we needn't burden ourselves with evaluating individual sexual acts. Does this same logic apply to the marital commitment of fidelity? Is it ever okay to commit adultery, even once? Does the overall commitment of fidelity somehow make that individual act of adultery okay? To use Johnson's own words, "this is simply nonsense."
When we override the divine language written in our bodies with contraception, we speak against the "great mystery" of God's life and love that our bodies proclaim. We blaspheme. And it is never okay to blaspheme. Not even once.