Dear readers,

“Thou Shalt Lie in Wait for Her Heel.”

Life is a gift from God. It is not surprising then that when it comes out of God, who is Life, it is immaculate, without sin. It was the case for the angels when they were created, and for Adam and Eve, since their body was created without sin. But not for their children conceived and born with that sin called original, a sin in the broad sense of the word, since it is the state of privation of the gifts bestowed to our first parents, particularly the gift of sanctifying grace.

It is when the soul is infused into our body that it becomes stained with sin, by becoming part of the human race. But God is merciful: although man is now conceived and born without sanctifying grace, the participation in God’s divine nature is made possible through another gift, that of baptism, which is normally received as soon as possible after birth. That is the saving plan of the Redeemer.

The original divine plan then was that sanctifying grace should have been transmitted through normal generation. The devil spoiled it at its source. So, divine option number two is to offer us that grace through baptism, which is truly a regeneration and “a more admirable one,” by the same token, as the Holy Mass reminds us daily.

Now, the old devil, seeing the mercy of God towards fallen man, did not remain idle and has endeavored to stop an incredible number of humans from reaching that elevation to divine life and, if they succeed in dying in that state of grace, from taking his place and his fallen angels’ place in Heaven. His new strategy is called abortion and contraception.

Contraception, although it is an interference with human life at its inception, is ultimately the frustration of God’s eternal plan on that human life. If he could, the devil would completely destroy the human race like Athalia tried to do with the royal family of the House of Juda (see II Kings 11). But, just as in that story where only one boy escaped the royal massacre, eventually became king and had Athalia put to death, in the big picture of the history of the world, only one escaped that deadly original wound, the Immaculate Conception, who did indeed become Queen, and has since crushed the serpent’s deadly head. That is why he fears her immaculate heel and lies in wait for it.

Contraception is then part of the serpent’s battle against the Immaculate Conception. Let us stay close to our Immaculate Queen; let all those in the sacred bonds of matrimony understand this, and we will see and share, one day, her triumph.

Fr. Daniel Couture