Bairbre Cahill
“Bright flash of light marks incredible moment life begins when sperm meets egg.” This was a headline that caught my attention recently. Newspapers and science websites carried the story and all were equally clear that here, in this flash of light, was the beginning of new life. In a media world so quick to disregard the humanity of the child in the womb, I found it striking that there was such a strong affirmation that life begins at conception.
That is one reason why the news headline stayed with me. Another was because around the same time I had a conversation with my friend, Bernie, about her work as a midwife.
Bernie has trained in the art of hypnobirthing which as she explained to me is really about helping women to relax, so that they trust their own bodies and get in touch with their own power and strength to bring their child to birth. In so many ways pregnancy and birth are seen as medical matters rather than as utterly natural processes which only sometimes need any actual medical intervention.
Women can be robbed of their power when childbirth becomes too medicalised and consultant-led. I know with the birth of our youngest I was really in touch for some reason with what was happening, tuned in to the wisdom of my own body and that transformed my experience of labour.
The third thing that got me thinking is Pope Francis’ writing about love in the family, Amoris Laetitia. I have only started reading it and need to spend time thinking about it, but already I am struck by the wonderful images that Pope Francis creates with his words. At the beginning of the book he invites us into family life through the image of a family sitting around the table. What I love is that Pope Francis sees the presence and power of God in the family simply in the ordinary business of being family. It is not only when a family prays together or goes to Mass together that they are touching holiness.
Pope Francis recognises, in the midst of all the challenges, that family life is a gift and blessing to the Church.
Synergy happens when things work better together than they would on their own. I found just such a synergy in the three ideas I have encountered over the past week or two. It all got me thinking about how we talk to our children and young adults about sexuality. Sex and sexuality are so often portrayed as being only about personal pleasure, freedom and fulfilment.
My conversation with Bernie got me thinking about the power of what it is to be a woman or a man, the potential of our sexuality. How often do we encourage our young people to think of their sexuality as a God-given gift?
Such a gift also brings with it responsibility. There have been many attempts to disconnect sexual pleasure from procreation.
The Catholic Church recognises that a sexual relationship serves both to nurture and strengthen the relationship between a man and woman and also to enable them to bring forth new life. That image of the flash of light at the moment of conception is a reminder for me of the reality that God is present at this moment of creation. I know it may be to do with the release of zinc from the egg but whatever the scientific explanations the power of that image stands.
How do we communicate this sacred reality to our children? We need to think deeply and talk openly about the importance in our lives of love, relationships, commitment, sexuality, marriage and parenthood. For most of us this is where we live out our baptism, the often messy, sometimes wonderful reality of family life. God is there in the midst of it all – the Divine spark, the giver of Life itself.
