Had to share this with you all!  :-)

Morgan Gallagher
Online Lactaneer
Nursing 27month and coping with "indiscreetly expose" as he rest of it is so 
good....

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http://www.theologyofthebody.com/03-16-07.asp


Body Language:
Commentary on the Intersection of Faith, Sex, & Culture
By Christopher West

Nursing a Sexually Wounded Culture


There have been various stories in the news lately about breast-feeding 
mothers being escorted off airplanes or out of shopping malls for “indecent 
exposure.” In a similar vein, a few months ago a well-known parenting 
magazine caused a stir because its front cover pictured a baby at the 
breast. Letters to the magazine varied from “how beautiful,” to “that’s 
gross,” to “that’s pornographic.”

In conversations I’ve had with Catholics about the issue, I’ve received 
varying responses as well. Most Catholics, having a deep sense of the 
sacredness of a mother’s love, would not respond by concluding that 
breast-feeding is “gross” or “pornographic” (thank God!). Still, others get 
more than a bit uncomfortable with the idea of breast-feeding in public.

I’m not advocating that nursing mother’s should indiscreetly expose 
themselves in public places. But I do think it could be a good exercise to 
ask why something as innocent as breast-feeding can cause such discomfort in 
us. Why should women be made to feel as if they were doing something 
shameful – even criminal – when they feed their babies at the breast? This 
is not the case in other parts of the world.

I remember attending the Second World Meeting of John Paul II with Families 
in Brazil in 1997. Nursing mothers were a common sight at this international 
gathering. What I found intriguing, however, was that women from 
“first-world” nations tended to drape themselves and sit off in a corner, 
while women from other nations seemed to have no qualms whatsoever about 
feeding their babies in full view of others. I remember one woman 
unabashedly roaming the crowd passing all manner of bishops and cardinals 
with her breast fully exposed while her child held on to it with both hands 
happily feeding. The only people flinching seemed to be those from the 
northern hemisphere.

Isn’t it interesting that the part of the world producing the most 
pornography and exporting it to the rest of the globe has seemed to lose all 
sense of the true meaning of the human breast? What a commentary on the sad 
state of our sexually wounded culture! Breasts have been so “pornified” that 
we can fall into thinking that even their proper use is shameful. In other 
words, we have been so conditioned to see a woman’s body through the prism 
of lust that we find it very difficult to recognize the purity and innocence 
of breast-feeding.

St. Paul hit the nail on the head when he said, “To the pure all things are 
pure, but to the impure nothing is pure” (Ti 1:15). It is a tragically 
impure world that labels the purity of a baby at the breast as “gross.” For 
those with the purity to see it, a nursing mother is one of the most 
precious, most beautiful, and most holy of all possible images of woman. It 
is an image that should inspire – and throughout Christian history has 
inspired – the most lofty of sentiments. In fact, it is a heavenly image. 
Isaiah 66 describes heaven as that place where we will all drink from the 
abundant breast of the new Jerusalem and find comfort in her overflowing 
milk.

John Paul II observed in his theology of the body that the “whole exterior 
constitution of woman’s body, its particular look [is] in strict union with 
motherhood.” Since the body reveals the person, John Paul believes that this 
speaks volumes, not only about feminine biology, but about the dignity and 
nature of woman as a person. This is why he takes special care to note that 
“the Bible (and the liturgy following it) honors and praises throughout the 
centuries ‘the womb that bore you and the breasts from which you sucked 
milk’ (Lk 11:27). These words,” he continues, “are a eulogy of motherhood, 
of femininity, of the feminine body in its typical expression of creative 
love” (TOB 21:5).

Sweet Jesus, please free us from the pornographic lies that distort the true 
meaning of our bodies! And Mary, Mother of God, pray for us that we would 
see in every nursing mother an image of you feeding the Christ child.

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