Made for This. Mary Haseltine

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СКАЧАТЬ to conceive, and to give birth! Sex, the physical, self-giving love between husband and wife, is good and desired by God, and it is meant to be fruitful both spiritually and physically. This means that the natural result — birth — is also good and desired by God.

      As the fruit of the perfect love between a perfect man and a perfect woman, in the beginning birth did not include pain. Did it occur as naturally as other bodily functions, or was it even pleasurable or euphoric? We don’t know. We do know, however, that things changed.

      When Adam and Eve sinned, they upset God’s original design for all of creation, which means God’s original design for birth also got messed up. While the first command of God still stands, it now comes with caveats. Genesis tells us: “To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain [issabownek] in childbearing; in pain [be’eseb] you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (3:16).

      This is not happenstance. The consequence hits at the very heart of who the woman is — bringer of life into the world. God doesn’t negate that original command to be fruitful and multiply — sexuality, marriage, and childbearing are still good and desired by God — but now the original plan becomes more difficult. The effects of sin reach deep into who we are as man and woman, both as individuals and in relationship to each other.

      In all of human history, the Church traditionally holds that only one woman ever underwent childbirth without suffering the consequences of original sin: there is a long-standing tradition that Mary gave birth to Jesus without pain, because she was conceived without sin through the future merits of her Son. The Catechism of the Council of Trent states: “To Eve it was said: In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children. Mary was exempt from this law, for preserving her virginal integrity inviolate she brought forth Jesus the Son of God without experiencing … any sense of pain.”⁴³ Many Church Fathers also wrote that Mary had no pain in childbirth.

      Pain in childbirth is the lingering and deeply rooted effect of sin, and we regret that consequence. But this should not lead us to despair, or to curse Eve, or to distance ourselves from Mary. Rather, it is an invitation to allow our hearts to see the tragedy of sin, and then choose to find our own unique part to play in God’s plan in light of the rest of the story.

       The Importance of the Biblical Understanding of “Pain”

      If we are seeking to understand God’s design for birth, then let’s try to understand what he himself says about it in Scripture. The first thing to note is the very words used in the original Hebrew texts. Translating from one language to another often loses some of the full meaning, and the connotation can change depending on the word used by the translator. The Hebrew masculine noun used for Adam’s punishment — “toil” in his work (be’issabown⁴⁴) — has the same root noun, itstsabon, as the feminine noun used for Eve’s “pain” in childbirth (issabownek⁴⁵): “To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain [issabownek] in childbirth’” (Gn 3:16). Itstsabon is defined as “pain or toil.”⁴⁶ A different word, be’eseb, is used in the next line from Genesis: “In pain [be’eseb] you will bring forth children.” Both words come from the verb ‘atsab, which is simply defined as “to displease or grieve.”⁴⁷

      Simply put, the “pain” in childbirth can have a larger connotation than our language offers. It might give us a truer perspective of pregnancy and birth to use a fuller definition. While there are women who are graced with nearly painless births (really!), the vast majority will experience some degree of pain. But it can be tremendously helpful to change your mindset toward what labor and birth will be. Prompted by a more complete understanding of the words of Genesis, let’s take on the idea that labor is work. As Adam has his difficult work, so Eve has hers. Labor is called labor for a reason. Labor, birth, and recovery will be very, very hard work.

      The preparation for and the act of birth is analogous to a marathon. There is much preparation involved, there is a lot of work to put in, and it’s not at all easy or comfortable. It may, in fact, become very painful, and it will likely be a challenge beyond anything experienced previously. Yet the joy of making it to the finish line makes every drop of blood, sweat, and tears worth it. We may arrive there sweaty and aching in every muscle and ligament of our body, it may have been the hardest work we have ever done, but the joy overwhelms and deepens as we invest more and more of ourselves into the race. Like almost anything worth doing or in which we find the greatest pride and satisfaction, labor and birth will require commitment, an investment of self, and, yes, work. Some women may have to work harder, some may seem not to have to do much at all. But the Lord has picked out the perfect race just for you, and it’s the one he knows is best.

      Even the pains which, after original sin, a mother has to suffer to give birth to her child only make her draw tighter the bond which unites them: the more the pain has cost her, so much the more is her love for her child. He who formed mothers’ hearts, expressed this thought with moving and profound simplicity: “A woman about to give birth has sorrow, because her hour has come. But when she has brought forth the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for her joy that a man is born into the world.” Through the pen of the apostle, Saint Paul, the Holy Ghost also points out the greatness and joy of motherhood: God gives the child to the mother, but, together with the gift, he makes her cooperate effectively at the opening of the flower, of which he has deposited the germ in her womb, and this cooperation becomes a way which leads her to her eternal salvation: “Yet women will be saved by childbearing.”

      — Pope Pius XII, Allocution to Midwives

       Entering the Story

      Out of everything God could have chosen, he chose the act of childbearing to be where we as women would most directly feel the effects of original sin. There is something deeply significant in God choosing that specific way for women to bear the consequence of the fall. God could have decided that women also would have to work the land, or that we would have difficulty eating or some other activity, or have to be separated forever from man. God could have struck Eve dead on the spot and started over. But the God of the universe, who is wisdom and love itself, chose childbearing. And every single woman after Eve is now affected — which sometimes doesn’t seem all that fair to our limited minds, does it? Yet those of us now faced with the prospect of physical birth have the opportunity to view it as a time to “enter into the story” of salvation history. Even if we don’t fully understand it, we can view our experience of birth as a vehicle for our own sanctity and response to the problem of sin.

      As Christians we believe that the incarnation of Christ and, ultimately, his passion, death, and resurrection — the Paschal Mystery — change the story. We believe that while the effects of original sin still remain, they can become vehicles of grace when we unite them with the Cross. Saint John Paul II writes, “The Redemption restores, in a sense, at its very root, the good that was essentially ‘diminished’ by sin and its heritage in human history.”⁴⁸ Christ’s death and resurrection didn’t erase those consequences of sin we received. They redeemed them. And this changes everything. We now have the incredible chance to share in that eternal work of Christ. Before Christ, work was simply punishment for sin; now it is an avenue for redemption and grace.

      In birth, we women have the opportunity to enter this mystery. Saint Paul refers to this reality: “Woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty” (1 Tm 2:15). Our births are effective tools in sanctifying both ourselves and the world. During pregnancy, labor, birth, and after, we have the chance to allow our bodies to mimic Christ’s as we lay down our lives for the sake of another. Through Christ, the pain of childbirth is redeemed and capable of eternal good, not just for ourselves or our babies, but for the whole world. Drawing upon his example and grace, we have the chance to embrace our own СКАЧАТЬ