Walking Miracles

Learning to appreciate the wonder of women

12/29/2021

Lk 2:22-35 When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.

Today’s gospel begins with a line that can be easily misunderstood and therefore also misinterpreted and ultimately lead to a major moral mistake. Luke records how Mary fulfilled the Mosaic law of purity, saying: “When the days were completed for [her] purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord…” That Mosaic law of purification stipulated that after childbirth a woman could not enter the Temple for one week (7 days). That means for that one-week period of time a woman was “impure,” or that she suffered from “ritual impurity.” You can read all about it in Leviticus 12.

Several years ago, though, I read a book by Louis Bouyer called “Woman in the Church,” that turned that interpretation on its head. Bouyer argued that in religious matters, we use the term “purify” not only to denote that which is profane and unholy, but also to indicate that which is profoundly holy and even divine. For example, when a priest cleans the chalice after Holy Communion, do you know what that “cleaning action” is technically called? He “purifies” the chalice. Even the white cloth he uses to supposedly “clean” the chalice is called a “purificator.”

Now, let me ask you a question: does the wine that has become the Blood of Jesus truly make that chalice “impure” or “dirty,“ or rather does that Precious Blood not make the chalice super-pure and unspeakably holy? Louis Bouyer’s point was that sometimes we “purify” something that is unholy, but other times we “purify” things that are beyond holy, that are divine, and the second sense is the case with women after childbirth. A woman’s blood after childbirth, analogous to the Blood of Christ touching a chalice, has made them super-pure, not impure. Bouyer’s interpretation helped me understand “ritual impurity” in a whole new light, quite different from the common conception, which is really a misconception.

Sometimes when I meet with a young couple for marriage preparation, I try to explain why the Church does not recommend the use of contraceptives. Instead, she urges the use of “NFP” or Natural Family Planning. I point to the woman’s tummy symbolically and say: “Every woman is a walking miracle because right here is the cradle of life. A new human being will enter the world through YOU.” And I put both my hands on my tummy. One young lady elbowed her fiancé and said: “Remember that: I’m a walking miracle!” The Church wants you to treat the woman as profoundly holy and so do not go near her sexually unless you are ready to welcome a new life. That is the gist of NFP: seeing the woman as super-holy, as a walking miracle.

But when it comes to contraception, who has to do all the work, shoulder all the sacrifice and suffering? Who takes the pill, the IUD, the Depo Provera, the patch, the vaginal ring, etc.? Ninety-nine percent of the forms of contraception attack the woman’s fertility, and in a sense, make it seem the modern version of “ritual impurity.” According to the modern estimation, therefore, that which makes a woman “impure,” “unequal” to a man, holds her back from living her fullest life, is precisely the “blood” of her potential pregnancy.

Can you see how contraceptives treat women exactly wrong? Contraceptives treat the blood of the woman’s period as if it caused impurity and imperfection, whereas NFP treats a woman’s blood like the Blood of our Lord in the chalice that a priest apparently (but not exactly) “purifies” at the end of Mass. Can you see how an easy “misunderstanding” can lead to a colossal “misinterpretation” and finally culminates in a cultural “misogyny” (hatred for women)?

In other words, the “ritual impurity” that Levitcus 12 prohibited calling a woman after childbirth “impure” has been taken up by our modern culture that calls a woman’s ability to have a baby “impure.” Indeed, we consider it unhealthy and so we give girls a “pill” to take, to restore them to “health.” You give someone a pill when they are sick. Contraception is only the modern version of “ritual impurity.” The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Praised be Jesus Christ!