A good analogy for NFP

I found this wonderful analogy on the new Catholic-Page Blog

UPDATE: Check the comment section. This great analogy came from Mr.Paul Rex on the NFP Forum at EWTN. Many thanks Mr. Rex. The best analogy I have heard on this topic.

An anonymous commenter at Amy Welborn’s blog has offered this brilliant analogy showing the moral difference between contraception and NFP.

“Imagine a local symphony that is funded solely by its patrons, and each patron therefore has an obligation to support the symphony, at least insofar as he is able. The symphony performs some concerts that are free and open to the public; it performs other concerts that are by paid admission only.

“If one patron (let’s call him “Nat”) goes only to the free concerts and has a good reason for doing so (e.g., he can’t afford to pay), no one would claim he was doing anything wrong. He would be complying with his duty to support the symphony insofar as he is able, while at the same time taking advantage of the symphony’s benefits on the terms they were offered to him. If, however, another patron (let’s call him “Art”) goes to one of the paid-admission concerts but avoids paying by sneaking in, he does do something morally wrong, even if he does it for the same reason that Nat attends only the free concerts (i.e., he can’t afford to pay). Putting aside the consequentialist arguments that differentiate Art from Nat (e.g., if a lot of people sneaked in, the symphony might go out of business), Art’s actions are distinguishable because, by their very nature, they are a rejection of the symphony’s stated policies and represent a statement by Art that he will dictate the terms on which he will enjoy the symphony. Art, in short, refuses to listen to the symphony’s imperatives and listens instead to a law only unto himself.

“The Church’s distinction between contraception and periodic abstinence is, I think, analogous. God offers us the gift of sexuality on certain terms: sex results in pregnancy on some days during a woman’s reproductive cycle; on other days it does not. If we have a just reason to avoid pregnancy and choose to have sex only on the infertile days, we comply with those terms in a way that we do not when we use contraception, which overrides God’s basic terms of sexuality and assumes for ourselves the right to have sex whenever we want with only the consequences we desire.”

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