Reflections on a Train Platform
October 30, 2015
FROM a 2014 piece by Peter Kwasniewski, Ph.D.:
One day in New Jersey, years ago, I was standing on a train platform waiting to catch a train into New York City. Seeing beautiful and well-dressed young women waiting at the platform, on their way to work, I thought: How many of these women are committing themselves to a life of singlehearted devotion to Mammon, the god of the world, without reaping any of the benefits that would arise from a life dedicated to the true God? They are celibate, after a fashion, but they are not virgins; they make sacrifices day after day, but reap no salvation from them, and bring no immortal souls into the world. They might have sex, but no children; thus, they lose the chief glory and merit of the married woman. Once they have a child, they then frequently hand over the burden of work to someone else, losing the greatest opportunity and privilege of all, that of nurturing and educating their own offspring. We know that there are cases where daycare cannot be avoided and is chosen as a last resort; and yet, could one truly say it is unavoidable in the majority of cases?
So many modern women are a set of absolute contradictions: their lives are consecrated, but to a false god who takes away the blessings of virginal faith; they are lying down with their husbands, but choose barrenness; when they bear children they do not nurse and educate them. In a satire upon their own existence, they are unvirginal celibates, unfruitful wives, unfaithful mothers, and all this by choice.
