Pro Life Conference 2017- homily Father Shroff

It was Mary who brought into this world the very Author of Life. Death could not keep Him in the tomb. Death had no power over Him, Patron of the Pro-Life Movement. May Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (the HolyFamily) pray for us and for our families, and may they help us to defend life of these: the right to live!

Woe to those who call good evil and evil good,” the Scriptures warn Today, on this First Saturday of the month, let us confide our work of Today, on this First Saturday of the month, let us confide our work of remain blind and to impose the same blindness on all its members. Finally, the Lord Jesus Himself (in today’s Gospel) gives us another. Brothers and sisters, let us never be discouraged when we see the Brothers and sisters, let us never be discouraged when we see the not abandon His heritage.” spiritual arms are truth, righteousness, prayer. and sin once and for all.

Humility is also the greatest spiritual weapon for us force could not do it, humility and meekness could — and in fact, did. who said: “You will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free!” folly is defined as the refusal to acknowledge or failure to recognize objective truth. A crazy man is a man who denies objective reality, who failsto see things as they are. Analogously, a crazy society (one that has literally “gone mad”) is one that denies objective truth. It is a society that calls black, white; hatred, love; and ultimately evil, good. The Old Testament warns us about this in the 5th Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! ... Woe to those who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!” Depriving the innocent of his right: Does that sound familiar to you? It should, because that is exactly what we are witnessing in our society today.

Canada was once known as a peacekeeping nation, one with strong moral values and ethics, one where the rights of all were upheld and recognized: this same Canada has become known today as a nation that engages in what the well-known Nigerian civil rights activist Obianuju Ekeocha calls“neo-colonialization.” In an address given last year here in Ottawa, foreign aid given to African nations to the unsolicited funding of abortion in those countries will be seen “by millions across Africa as an assault on women, men, innocent children, and families.” “This is an abuse of power,” she goes on to say, “and in many ways it is a cruel form of oppression of the poor.” That’s a wonderful definition of what abortion really is:

it is an oppression of the poor, of the poorest members of our society, of those who have no voice to defend themselves — of those who, even under Canadian law, are denied the status of “persons,” for the simple reason that they are still being carried in the maternal womb. How a civilized society can believe that a “non-person” all of a sudden magically becomes a person when he or she passes from the maternal womb into the outside world is somethinthat is beyond any rational conception.

Fundamentally, what is occurring is the denial of an objective and self-evident truth: namely that the fetus in the mother’s womb is already a person, and therefore has all the constitutional rights attached to personhood, including the most fundamental and basic us, “and who deprive the innocent of his right.” The anti-life movement in this country (and indeed, around the world) is a prime example of the folly or craziness of the modern West. When fundamental, objective truths are ignored or denied, that is what constitutes the very definition of madness.

A society that refuses to see the obvious. A society that wilfully chooses to are a people of hope! Our hope comes not from our own power and ability to change the world and worldly mentalities. Rather, our hope comes from God and from Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. As the responsorial psalm at today’s Mass says, “The Lord will not forsake His people; He will us? How are we called to restore a culture of life and reverence for all human beings, created in the image and likeness of God? Well, the first thing is to recognize that our battle is not against flesh and blood alone, but rather, as St. Paul says, “against the principalities, the powers, the rulers of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians, Ch. 6). The Apostle goes on to tell us what we must do to fight this spiritual battle against evil: “Put on the armour of God, fasten around your waist the belt of truth, and don the breastplate of righteousness.”

He then goes on to add, “And remember, brethren, pray at all times in the Holy Spirit, making supplication to all the Saints.” Thus, our very powerful way to respond to the evil that surrounds us in the world. That way is the path of humility. “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled,” says the Lord, “but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Humility is God’s answer to evil. For Our Lord and Saviour, it was the humility of the Cross. It was His Passion and suffering and cruel death that conquered evil in our battle against the culture of death. The culture of death is orchestrated by the Prince of Pride, Satan. One cannot destroy him or his work with pride; the only weapon powerful enough to destroy pride is humility. It has often been said by the Saints that Satan can mimic many of the virtues, but that the one virtue he could never even pretend to possess is humility. Humility is the virtue of God par excellence, a God who humbled pride of Satan. Our humility, joined to Christ’s, is what will conquer the culture of death and restore a culture of life! The great paradox of our Faith is that it is in dying that Christ destroyed death. Whereas power and brute evil around us. Evil is not nearly as powerful as good (despite what Satan would have us believe); darkness has no power over light; and in the end, lies and fallacies will never stand up against the truth. It was Jesus Himself defending the sanctity of human life to the Blessed Virgin and to her because He is the Resurrection and the Life. And therefore He is true the from the womb to the tomb, from its origins to its natural end.

May God bless you all, and may Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn, strengthen you in your holy work of proclaiming the Gospel of Life to every living being In the Name + of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.