The Holy Night (The Nativity), Carlo Maratti; 1650s

A COUPLE I know had their first child fairly late in their marriage. They had a daughter. The wife wanted to have one more child, but the husband refused to permit it. He was worried about money.

They sent their daughter to one of the most expensive prep schools in the Northeast. She interacted there with children of top professionals. She ended up marrying a blue-collar guy from Texas the year after she graduated from college, and now lives many miles away from home.

Another couple I know lost one of their two sons to sudden death when he was 12. Many years later, the loss remains fresh.

Today, the loneliness of these couples is palpable.

How many people experience wrenching loneliness, especially at Christmas time, because of the Sexual Revolution and the normalization of birth control? We can never know; the number is incalculably high.

Loneliness is part of the human condition. Even those with many children experience it. But contraception has made it far more prevalent. In the years ahead as more children of the Sexual Revolution enter old age, their lives at times will be a grim counterpart to the hedonistic pleasures or pragmatic mentality of younger years. The best hope is that these often intense sufferings, offered with true contrition to a loving God, may constitute a form of reparation for the sins of a society desperately gone wrong. God offers abundant graces to those who repent.

May many of these lonely people on this holy night find in the divine child consolation and hope. May this be the baby they never had. May they see that no suffering, if we so choose, is in vain. May the manger be theirs.

Il est né le divin enfant,
Jouez hautbois, résonnez musettes!
Il est né le divin enfant,
Chantons tous son avènement!

Ah! Qu’il est beau, qu’il est charmant!
Ah! que ses grâces sont parfaites!
Ah! Qu’il est beau, qu’il est charmant!
Qu’il est doux ce divin enfant!

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