(LifeSiteNews) — Consistently, the pro-abortion movement relied on “My body, my choice” as a rallying cry, but the female-centric chants become less politically correct as the Left embraces gender ideology and claims men can get pregnant.
No one’s body is truly theirs alone. Even when discussing bodily autonomy with vaccines, pro-lifers argue that their body is a creation of God and they do not want to dishonor God by injecting themselves with abortion-tainted jabs.
All bodies belong first to God. St. Paul writes in Corinthians, “Or know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own? For you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.”
St. John Chrysostom, commenting on this passage, describes the “magnitude of the deposit” God has made. The saint notes that the body is not “of the Spirit” but the Holy Ghost is “in you” as a gift “from God.”
From there it follows that our bodies are only to be used to serve God.
No one’s body, when rightly committed spiritually to serving God can on Earth be considered only theirs.
A single person that is seeking a spouse should want to get married to fulfill God’s vocation for them, by being a loving wife and bringing forth children or by being a loving husband and providing for the family.
An inability to have children does not negate this truth – we know from Genesis that in marriage the “man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh” and woman is “bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” A sacramental marriage that is open to life fulfills God’s design.
In marriage, it would be selfish and sinful for the husband to say his body is his choice or for the wife to say her body is her choice.
Husbands are meant to offer up their body for their wife by providing financially for their needs and in other physical ways, such as labor around the house. Wives offer up their bodies through childbearing and submission to their husbands.
Men who work long hours, even sometimes taking on several jobs so their wives can stay at home, understand this truth. Women who get up at all hours of the night to take care of children understand this truth.
Those who have pursued a religious vocation, such as becoming a priest or a nun, they too offer up their body, first to God, and then in obedience to their superior.
A priest submits to a bishop or the superior general of his order and likewise a sister submits to her abbess. Their bodies are not their own.
All agree to go where their superior tells them to go, but it’s all in the ultimate submission to God that they follow and trust in their leader on Earth to guide them to where he or she sees as most beneficial for serving God.
A rightly-ordered conscience knows that “[our] body” is not to be used as “[our] choice” but instead should be directed toward glorifying God.
