Today
is an anniversary. A joy-filled anniversary! The 61st anniversary, the 61st
birthday, of our pastor, Father Paul English.
A day to celebrate and give thanks for the gift to all of us that this
joy-filled priest is and has been to our parish, to each of us.
But
you may be aware that today is also another anniversary. A rather dark, tragic anniversary. For it was 44 years ago today that our
Supreme Court intervened in time and law and without precedent lifted virtually
every legal protection afforded to our smallest and most vulnerable sisters and
brothers, the unborn, when they legalized abortion in all fifty states, for all
nine months of pregnancy.
This
has brought a darkness over our land, a gloom that persists to this day. We probably don’t think about it very much –
out of sight, out of mind. Two years ago
137 people died in the Paris terrorist attacks.
Last June 42 at the airport in Istanbul and another 49 at the night club
in Orlando. About 3,000 persons perished
on 9/11. I could go on. All made international news, and rightly so.
But
what if we lost 3,000 people a day, every day, in terrorist attacks? Imagine the news stories. That’s the toll from legal abortion just in
our nation. Every day. About three every minute. 40-50 million worldwide, according to the
world health organization, every year.
Mind boggling? Out of sight out of mind.
But
abortion isn’t the only darkness, not the only threat to life, not by a long
shot. In our own state, there’s a
movement afoot to legalize physician-assisted suicide, a grave evil that has
led to out-and-out euthanasia in some European countries.
And
while tremendous advances have been made in our lifetimes to reduce starvation,
hunger is still the #1 threat to global health, as the World Food Programme
estimates that 795 million people worldwide, about 1 in 9, don’t have enough food
to eat.
In
His encyclical Evangelium Vitae (the “Gospel
of Life”), Pope Saint John Paul II spoke of the “extraordinary increase and
gravity of threats to the life of individuals and peoples, especially where
life is weak and defenceless.” He continued – “In addition to the ancient
scourges of poverty, hunger, endemic diseases, violence and war, new threats
are emerging on an alarmingly vast scale.”
Calling
to mind the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the Holy Father condemned
in the name of the whole Church, including you and me, declaring that every
upright conscience must agree, he condemned "Whatever is opposed to life
itself…any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or wilful
self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as
mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will
itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions,
arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of
women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are
treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible
persons; all these things and others like them.”
It’s
a dark list indeed. Four weeks ago, we
celebrated the Light that the Father sent into our darkness, Jesus Christ Our
Lord. He came to preach a gospel of
repentance, the good news of the kingdom, a gospel of life. As His disciples, you and I are called to be
lights in the darkness of our times.
As
people of light, we are called to be people of life. People who, by our baptisms are called to be
prophets, to proclaim Our Lord’s Gospel of life. Called to proclaim, and celebrate, the
God-given dignity of every human life, from conception to natural death. And to
defend human life against every threat.
These
matters are too often reduced to a matter of politics. I belong to Hillary. I belong to Donald. I belong to Bernie. We let our political views color our
religious beliefs, rather than the other way around. Is either party, is any politician (public servant
as they prefer to be called) authentically and consistently representing the
Gospel of Life? Perhaps in different
ways, but we can see the culture of death in aspects of each of our major
parties’ platforms. Our new president
promised a “pro-life” position on abortion, but also promised he’d punish
terrorists by killing their families.
You
and I, brothers and sisters, are called to declare “I belong to Christ” and let
our consciences be formed by Him and the teaching of the Church He
founded. By the successors to those
apostles He called on that seashore.
Indeed it is critical that we examine and re-inform our
consciences. Saint John Paul spoke to
this, declaring that our consciences have become darkened and conditioned by
our secular society, and that we are “finding it increasingly difficult to
distinguish between good and evil in what concerns the basic value of human
life.”
Imagine
the change we could bring about in our nation and world if you and I were to consistently
and brightly shine our deep reverence for every human life into every dark
corner of our society. If we were united
in our beliefs about the need to protect and nurture and care for every human
life. If we were statistically any more
pro-life than society at large. Sadly,
we are not.
But
being truly pro-life is not merely a matter of participation in the public
political arena. It happens right here
in our Church building, it happens right here in our hearts. I know a family, long-time parishioners, who
don’t come here to church anymore. Their
teenage daughter got pregnant. She, with
the support of her parents opted to take the difficult road, giving birth,
keeping and raising her son. Had him
baptized, brought him to church.
And
somehow they felt eyes of judgment on them here. Yes she got herself in a bad situation. But rather than to take the easy way out, the
one the secular culture advocates and even pays for, they chose the difficult
road. And those eyes of judgment chased
them away, such that they now go to Mass in a neighboring parish.
I
know that the vast majority of our parishioners would celebrate this family’s
choice for life. But it only takes a
few, doesn’t it?
As
to those women who’ve chosen abortion, do we sit in judgment of them? We pray that they come to know the great love
and mercy Jesus Christ Our Lord has for them, that He so wants to heal them,
but aren’t we also called to be people who show that same love, mercy, compassion?
Do
we who call ourselves pro-life care for and support poor or unwed mothers
choosing to keep their babies?
Do
we care for the hungry, the starving? At
three of our masses this weekend, another Father Paul, from Florida, is here on
behalf of Food for the Poor, a wonderful organization which houses, feeds and
provides water to the poor in seventeen countries, right here in our own
hemisphere.
So
let us each examine our hearts. Ask ourselves
– do I respect and reverence every, single, human life? Or are some more important than others? Am I open and welcoming to every one? And will I speak out, and pray, and work for
a more just, more truly pro-life nation and world?
Saint
John Paul closed Evangelium Vitae
with these powerful words and this prayer to the Blessed Mother:
“Mary
is a living word of comfort for the Church in her struggle against death.
Showing us the Son, the Church assures us that in Him the forces of death have
already been defeated. The Lamb who was
slain is alive, bearing the marks of his Passion in the splendour of the Resurrection.
He proclaims, in time and beyond, the power of life over death.
“As
we, the pilgrim people, the people of life and for life, make our way in
confidence towards ‘a new heaven and a new earth’, we look to her who is for us
‘a sign of sure hope and solace.’ So let
us pray:
“O
Mary,
bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we
entrust the cause of life. Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of
babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly
and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
“Grant
that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life with
honesty and love to the people of our time.
“Obtain
for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new, the
joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives and the
courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build, together with
all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love, to the
praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life. Amen.”
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