Six hours with Dr. Janet Smith

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It was a long but really enjoyable day yesterday. Curt and I headed out to Langley, which is about a 35 minute drive from our home. We arrived at St. Nicholas parish, a lovely little church in a wooded area in a fairly new subdivision. It is the home parish to Redeemer Pacific College, a Catholic College located on the campus of Trinity Western University. It is a truly ecumenical arrangement, with the RPC students being able to take courses at TWU as well. Anyway, the crowd was over 200 strong and was mostly younger people. It was a nice change - many of the events we go to with our parish tend to be well-attended but the crowds are a little older than us.

For those not familiar with Dr. Smith, here’s a quick rundown. You can learn more about her here. She is currently the Chair of Life Issues at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, MI, and is author of Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later. Her video, Contraception: Why Not? has had over 700,000 copies distributed. On a personal note, she is funny, warm and incredibly smart.

I’m still working through a lot of the material, but I did want to share some of what I learned yesterday. I’m certain there will be follow-up posts to this one.

The morning segment was focused on Evangelium Vitae: The Gospel of Life. The first topic she addressed was that of suffering. We have lost the sense that there is value in suffering, that those who suffer are losers. Celebrities seem to be our new ideal - they have it all, but the reality is that they are often crippled with relationship woes. We need to see the nobility in suffering; that we are truly living in a valley of tears. Where there was once the enemy over the hill, we are now our own enemy - we have mothers killing their own children in the womb, children pulling the plug on their aging parents, sex or disease selective abortions… the list goes on.

The idea of suffering grabbed me right away. I am 32 years old, in a good place right now - but I have known some suffering in life. And I have rarely shaken my fist and said “Why me??” I was raised with the idea deeply ingrained that suffering forms us, challenges us to live harder and stronger. I attribute this to my mom, to our family history. It is disjointed in places but it is full of suffering and of rising above that pain. I am proud of that, and hope that I will never become so complacent as to expect that life will be handed to me on a silver platter or that it’s okay to coast now, that all the hard stuff is behind me.

Living in North America, our material needs and certainly our wants are easily met. There are many, many people living in poverty, but it is hardly the poverty of prior generations, of the dirty 30s for example. Those were hard times. Now, even those on welfare can afford to take the kids to McDonalds. They just might not be able to afford an Xbox. I don’t mean to demean those who are lacking financial security, because I’ve said it often enough that I was there myself, for much of my life - but we need to keep perspective.

Dr. Smith moved on from the idea of suffering to the idea of conscience - what is it? It is not opinion, which I know I’ve been prone to think. It’s sometimes very, very hard to discern what my conscience is saying because I know that my heart is deceitful - Dr. Smith had me laughing several times when she very frankly said what a lazy, lying person she is. That was refreshing - because I am one too. I try my hardest to be truthful, and think I am doing much better now than I did when I was younger. Laziness is less of a success, so I take heart in that I’m still unfinished and have much work to do. Anyway, she gave a description of conscience that will stay with me for the rest of my life, I am sure: it is not my opinion, rather it is the small sanctuary where I meet with God and He lets me know what He wants me to do. Sometimes, it is hard to listen to Him, but Dr. Smith righted my thinking immediately by reminding us that our God is a loving Father, not an angry God who wants to harm us or make us feel badly about ourselves or make us jump through hoops to earn His love. Often our vision is so limited that we can’t possibly understand why God would be calling us to do something, but once we are on the other side, it’s crystal clear. It’s helpful to remember every day that God loves us. That will go a very long way in helping us to take heart when listening to that still, small voice of our conscience.

A funny story: Dr. Smith related a conversation she had with a Catholic woman who was using birth control. She told Dr. Smith that the priest had suggested the woman search her conscience and follow that urging. The woman was certain that the Holy Spirit was letting her know that in her situation, it was okay to contracept. Dr. Smith considered that, and replied: “So you’re telling me that the Holy Spirit told you it’s fine to contracept, but hasn’t had time to let the Holy Father know?” The woman was blindsided, but rightly so. She was projecting her opinion over her conscience and wasn’t able to see the truth.

Later on in the day, we did discuss the role of the priesthood in assisting their flock with matters of conscience; there have been many issues where the direction from Rome has not been fully established but the people need an answer. Birth control would be one from the past, and our current situation of abortion and gay marriage would be another - the teaching is certainly there but it has been hard to convince some of the Church family that in spite of the social climate, the Church’s position is the same. There have been situations where Catholics have been told to follow their conscience, but that has had less than desirable results. To wrap up today’s post, I want to leave you with a beautiful part of the presentation that spoke directly to the failure to see the severity of the spiritual crisis brought about by failure to uphold the Church’s teachings on life, and one of many responses to it. A snippet of the Philippine Bishops apology; you can read this and an excellent article by Dr. Smith here:

It is said that when seeking ways of regulating births, only 5% of you consult God. In the face of this unfortunate fact, we your pastors have been remiss: how few are there among you whom we have reached. There have been some couples eager to share their expertise and values on birth regulation with others. They did not receive adequate support from their priests. We did not give them due attention, believing then this ministry consisted merely of imparting a technique best left to married couples.

Only recently have we discovered how deep your yearning is for God to be present in your married lives. But we did not know then how to help you discover God’s presence and activity in your mission of Christian parenting. Afflicted with doubts about alternatives to contraceptive technology, we abandoned you to your confused and lonely consciences with a lame excuse: “follow what your conscience tells you.” How little we realized that it was our consciences that needed to be formed first. A greater concern would have led us to discover that religious hunger in you.

What a brave, loving statement! I barely touched upon my first page of notes, so expect a few more posts on my time with Dr. Smith. It was a great experience, and I have no doubt that my relationship with God and with my husband were strengthened in six short hours.

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