HOMILY FOR PRO-LIFE SUNDAY 2008
Jesus’ very first words to His disciples after He rose from the dead were these: “Peace be with you.” Peace is a very precious and seemingly rare commodity these days. We all want peace in the world among nations, and we want peace in our families and with our friends as well as in our personal lives. What can prevent peace or disturb us is sin, fear, and lack of security among other things. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D. C. on Feb. 3rd, 1994 Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that: “the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself, and if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”
In the parishes of the Archdiocese of Ottawa this weekend we are marking pro-life Sunday and our homilies will highlight the necessity for all Catholics to respect and nurture human life from its beginning at conception in the womb to its natural end in death. Just a few years ago Pope John Paul 11 issued an encyclical letter to the world entitled: “The Gospel of Life” in which he emphasized the fact that all people of good will must labour to oppose the many things that contribute to what he called the “culture of death” in our world these days. He was referring to things that negatively impact on the dignity and beauty of God’s creation and especially things that tend to destroy or degrade human life in the world today. Obviously, war and the atrocities that go with it, terrorist attacks, suicide bombings, rampant diseases like Aids and E-Coli, the promotion of abortion on demand, planned genocide, the stockpiling of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, dealing in illegal, addictive and harmful drugs and alcohol, the brutal prostitution of men and women and even children, euthanasia and denial of basic human rights to persons all contribute to the “culture of death.” Of course all of these things come under the label of “sin” as do many other evils we sometimes see even deep within ourselves like racial and other prejudices, greed, jealousy, lust, anger, feelings of revenge or ill-will towards others, and failure to forgive those who have hurt us. On the other hand, to promote the culture of life is to live our lives by the Gospel of Jesus Who is the God of Life, Who has risen and Who said: “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.” Just as death destroys and kills, so life vivifies and enlivens us. As Christians, and therefore committed followers of Jesus we must strive daily to live our lives guided by His teachings, His moral values that promote life and not death in the world. We must stand in solidarity with Jesus Who tells us that we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and we must trust that He will always help us to overcome evil and to foster life.
To be true to Jesus in today’s environment demands courage and steadfastness on our parts in the face of so many complex and difficult problems in society today. There are times when one might be tempted to say: “ Well what can I do about these horrendous problems. I am only one person and we are talking about major issues of life and death that seem far beyond my capacity to solve?” However, each one of us can do our own little part to promote life, to nurture life, to defend life and so together we can make a difference. To begin we need motivation, we need to be convinced that Jesus is right and with Him we too are right. We need to believe in some clear and basic truths of our faith starting with the fact that we believe that every human life, without exception, is sacred and important. It is so because every human life comes from God the Author of life. Each one of us has been created by God in His own image and likeness, with a body and a soul, with intelligence and with free will. Whether someone believes in God or not that person is loved by God and chosen by God to belong to Him and do His will for good in the world. In Sacred Scripture God puts it this way when He says to each person: “I have carved you on the palm of My hand.” In writing to the Christians at Corinth who lived in a place infected by immorality and pagan worship Paul said: “Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit?” Human life is sacred and special because it is the creation of God, gift from God to us to be defended, nourished and lived as God intends.
Another principle we must live by is that we are called to be brothers and sisters in Jesus under the Fathership of God. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians that God is the “Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name” (3:15). As sons and daughters of God our Father we are to live in love and to care for one another especially for those who are weaker. Just as loving parents will pay special attention to the needs of their weakest child, so we must pay special attention to protect and help the weakest members of society like the unborn and defenceless child in the womb, or the sick and elderly who need our care.. As members of one human family under God we must recognize the truth that every human being has a right to be treated at all times with dignity and respect.
It clear in the Gospels that Jesus had a special love and concern for the oppressed, for the poor, for the outcasts of society, for sinners. We too must have a genuine love and concern for the needy if we are to foster life and not death. Many people today have heavy burdens of various kinds to carry in life. Let us support them as best we can. Some are struggling to care for sick and aged parents. Others are caring for a severely handicapped child. Let us help them when we can. Some young women are in great spiritual and psychological pain carrying a heavy burden of guilt because they have had an abortion, or because they have been physically or sexually abused. We need to help, not condemn, young single mothers who see no way out of their situation. We must help them find positive ways to bring to birth and nurture the new life they have conceived . Making a choice for life takes a lot of courage because the young single mother’s own life will not be the same, but greatly changed with this new responsibility. We need to encourage everyone and at all times to make loving choices for life, and not for death. It is not easy being in the public eye these days. Politicians and others in public office must do their best to promote life too in our society. As Catholics elected to office it takes much courage to stand up for the truth and to defend the teachings of Jesus as we understand them. It is wrong, in my view, for someone in public life to say that he or she is personally against abortion or against same-sex unions, for example, but at the same time does not want to impose his or her moral beliefs on others. That kind of stance is wrong I believe because we are not two persons but one and we cannot turn on and off our moral values like a switch being for something at one time and when convenient be against it at another. Catholics serving in public life must do so as any other Catholic, and that is follow at all times the teachings of Jesus as we receive them from the Church. You remember perhaps what happened to Sir Thomas More, chancellor of England under King Henry VIII. He steadfastly refused to compromise his Catholic faith and preferred to die a martyr rather than go against his beliefs. As he was condemned to die St. Thomas More proclaimed: “I die, the king’s good servant, but God’s first.”
May the God of Life, may Jesus His Divine Son, Who conquered death for us all, strengthen us as we struggle to live life to the full and to defend and promote all human life wherever we are.