Angelus News | July 19-26, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 26

infertility and decades of prayers finally
answered: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac
and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, and
Elisabeth and Zachariah, to name a few.
Those biblical stories of near despair
are set in a culture that revels in life
and rejoices when it is abundant.
“Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by
the sides of thine house; thy children
like olive plants round about thy table”
(Psalm 128:3), the psalmist sings.
The image is that of a garden so lovingly
guarded, so gently treated, that
the vines and trees are heavy with the
fruits that bring joy.
Or, if you prefer a more martial and
vigorous metaphor: “Like arrows in
the hand of a warrior, so are the children
of one’s youth. How blessed is
the man whose quiver is full of them”
(Psalm 127:4). The image is that of
sons and daughters as defense for their
families against the hard realities of
this world — against loneliness and
illness, displacement and violence.
Human nature remains the same,
thousands of years later. Deep inside
each of us is a built-in desire for the
happiness and safety children bring,
for the way they connect us intimately
to the human family, and for the
satisfaction of knowing the future will
be enlivened by our descendants.
But modern culture drives a deep
wedge between each of us and
the possibility of a “quiver-full” of
children. For those who marry while
young and fertile, a large family can
be a practical near impossibility.
There is little societal allowance for
more than two children, what with
the costs of housing and education,
and what is felt as the absolute need
for two incomes.
Another wedge is the way marriage,
defined as the permanent and faithful
union of one man and one woman, is
disappearing in the rearview mirror.
People are marrying later and later, if
at all, and demographic trends show
childbearing in free-fall, as infertility
(both biological and social) rises
rapidly.
And behind each point in the statistical
analysis are people living with the
ache for more children, or even just
one child.
During my time in China I was fortunate
to watch years of wanting and
hoping come to glorious conclusion
for my travel companions.
At the social welfare institute where
the toddlers were handed to their
new mothers and fathers, decades of
prayers were answered in the shape of
daughters, mostly, who held in their
little hands whole futures of happiness
for their weeping parents.
I was almost as happy, I think,
because God was putting another
straight and shining arrow in my
quiver, and I knew just how much
gladness was in store for me.
Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie grew up in
Guadalajara, Mexico, coming to the
U.S. at the age of 11. She has written
for USA TODAY, National Review,
The Washington Post, and The New
York Times, and has appeared on
CNN, Telemundo, Fox News, and
EWTN. She practices radiology in the
Miami area, where she lives with her
husband and five children.
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