Homily Father Shroff March 17 2018

March 17th, as you know, is the feast day of St. Patrick. Saint Patrick

is the secondary patron of the Archdiocese of Ottawa. It is rather

providential that this feast day falls on a Saturday when we have one of

our monthly Pro-Life Masses. The readings from today’s Mass are proper

to the feast day. The Gospel, as you just heard, recalls how Jesus calls his

12 Apostles and sends them into the world to be Fishers of Men. This

expression, “Fishers of Men,” refers of course to the Apostolic Mission

given by Christ to the Twelve. They were sent by the Lord to proclaim the

Gospel of Salvation to the whole human race: in other words, to bring the

True Faith to a world that did not know Christ or His mission of redemption

— just as St. Patrick was sent to Ireland to bring the True Faith to the

peoples of the Emerald Isle.

We come together every month to offer a Mass for the success of

the Pro-Life Movement and for the establishment of a Pro-Life medical

centre right here in Ottawa. We pray in a special way for our health care

providers (doctors, nurses, medical assistants), that they may be

respected in their right to follow their conscience and to not perform

procedures that go against their innermost beliefs. We fight the culture of

death through the natural means that are afforded us: through political

activism, through education, and by increasing awareness of the dignity of

the human person, created in the image and likeness of God. However,

these natural means often fall short of their intended results, for the simple

reason that the battle that we are fighting is not just a battle that takes

place at the natural level. The greatest opponent to the culture of life is not

our civil authorities, the mainstream media, or the secular schools and

university campuses of our country. These are just the instruments used

by the true Opponent of Life. The true Enemy of Life is the one Whom we

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know as the Prince of Death. Life, truth, and love are all things that come

from God. God is not just the author or source of these things: God is the

fulness of them in His very Being! God IS Life; God IS Truth; God IS Love!

So, let us not be mistaken: any attack against life, against truth, or against

love is a direct attack against God.

The anti-life movement, therefore, can only be conquered in one

way. Because it is fundamentally an anti-God movement -- and more

specifically, an anti-Christ movement (because Christ is the Way, the Truth,

and the Life) -- the only way of overcoming it is by a return to God, a return

to Jesus Christ and to His Gospel. And this is why we need today, more

than ever before, Apostles and missionaries like St. Patrick, who will

voluntarily give their lives in order to spread the truth of the Gospel and to

lead a humanity that has wilfully fallen astray back to the source and origin

of all Truth, all Beauty, and all Goodness: that is, to lead the human race

back to GOD! Although there are self-proclaimed atheists who say that

they are "pro-life," the reality is that we CANNOT be pro-life unless we

stand on the side of God and of Jesus Christ. A society or an individual

that rejects Christ, by the very fact, rejects Life itself. And so the only

solution to recovering a culture of life is to restore a culture of Faith.

Faith gives us eyes to see what we could never possibly see without

it. The reason why the pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, pro-contraception

and pro-unnatural marriage movements cannot see why their position is

wrong is because they reject Faith, and especially, Christian Faith: in

rejecting Jesus and His Gospel, they have become blind to the truth (for

after all, Christ Himself is the fulness of Truth). Truth then, for them,

becomes something that is relative: you have your truth and I have mine.

And because we each have our truth, the only thing that really matters is

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what you choose to do, what I choose to do. Thus, truth becomes reduced

to my personal choices — even if I choose to do wrong, to do evil. Even if I

choose to kill. But brothers and sisters, what if your truth contradicts my

truth? Which one is right? How can two mutually exclusive and

contradictory ideas both be true? Either abortion is wrong or else it is ok.

Either euthanasia is morally evil or else it is not. Truth is not just relative; it

does not just depend on one’s personal opinion: there are certain absolute

truths. Some of them can be known by the light of natural reason; but

many of them only become clear by the assistance of divine revelation:

that is, through Faith.

We are pro-life because Jesus said, "I am the Life." We are pro-life

because Christ taught us that death is not from God. Human mortality is

the direct consequence of sin, or disobedience to God. And therefore to

wilfully choose death is a direct rejection of everything that God stands for.

To choose death is to choose to be on the side of the Enemy of God:

Satan. The very name "Satan" (sa-tàn), in fact, means "Adversary." Satan

is the adversary of God and therefore he is the adversary of life.

On this feast day of St. Patrick, let us pray that through the

intercession of this great Apostle of Ireland (and the secondary patron

saint of the Archdiocese of Ottawa), the Lord may send forth into His

Church Apostles and missionaries burning with zeal to proclaim the One,

Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith! If we want to restore a culture of life to

Canada, we must return Canada to that Faith that was present from the

very moment our country was colonized. When the French arrived in New

France, they brought with them governors and civil authorities; but they

also brought with them missionaries: men and women who would implant

the light of Faith on Canadian soil. If we wish to save Canada from the

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culture of death and restore a culture of life in this country, then the only

way of doing it is by placing our nation under the Kingship of the Author of

Eternal Life. There is no other way of restoring life than by restoring Faith.

A world, a nation, a society that rejects Jesus will necessarily reject Truth,

Beauty, and Goodness, and embrace a culture of lies, of ugliness, and of

evil.

May glorious St. Patrick intercede for us this day from Heaven, and

strengthen us in our resolve to fight for what is true, what is good, what is

noble: what is of God and that leads to the Kingdom of God!

I leave you, dear brethren in Christ, with these words from the great

St. Patrick of Ireland. May they strengthen us in our resolve to hold on

firmly to what is pleasing to God:

May the Strength of God pilot us.

May the Power of God preserve us.

May the Wisdom of God instruct us.

May the Hand of God protect us.

May the Way of God direct us.

May the Shield of God defend us.

May the Host of God guard us.

From the snares and temptations of the world.

May Christ be with us,

And Christ before us.

May Christ be in us,

And Christ be o’er us.

Christ to comfort us,

Christ to restore us.

This day, O Blessed Trinity, and for evermore.

Amen.