Michael Malone - Weebly

Mercy in Madder had admitted to himself a conflict in
dogma. Conjugal intercourse had a single purpose,
procreation. Was Mrs. Haig not right then to take no
pleasure in the act, since its sole pleasure, fertility
denied, was therefore lust, a sin? Should he instruct her
to honor her husband's desires, when those desires had
been (through, however, no active fault of their own)
altered from sanctity to sinfulness by the fact of the
couple's sterility, or perhaps by their knowledge of that
fact, or perhaps by their acceptance of that fact? For
might not the desire nevertheless be holy, if in
committing the act each wished to be creating life,
whatever God chanced to do with those wishes?
There were miracles. Had not life leaped in the
ancient womb of Sarah? And perhaps, besides, she
judged herself too harshly, for her husband by his
confession seemed to feel no emotional deprivation.
Should God ask for her husband more union than
the husband asked for himself? Such speculations
troubled Father Crisp, who was a warmhearted man
continually balancing off the rights of his parishioners
with the rights of God. Uncertain what to say through