"Every Life is Sacred"

Last Sunday was Pro-Life Day in Italy.  With that in mind, Pope Francis chose for his February “Urgent Prayer Intention” that the sacredness of human life be recognized.  At the end of his Angelus Address he asked that “we pray for the children who are in danger of the interruption of pregnancy, as well as for persons who are at the end of life — every life is sacred! — so that no one is left alone and that love may defend the meaning of life.” 

From the beginning of his papacy Pope Francis has expressed his concern that all human life—from the womb to a natural death—be protected and honored.  In his first Apostolic Exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” he wrote: 

 “Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenseless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this.”

He went on to link the unborn child’s right to life with all human rights, saying:

 “Frequently, as a way of ridiculing the Church’s effort to defend their lives, attempts are made to present her position as ideological, obscurantist and conservative. Yet this defense of unborn life is closely linked to the defense of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development. Human beings are ends in themselves and never a means of resolving other problems.”

In his Encyclical on creation Pope Francis also wrote:

 “Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?”

The theme for Italy’s Pro-Life Day this year was “Pro-Life Women and Men in the Wake of Saint Teresa of Calcutta.”  Mother Teresa frequently said that if the basic right to life of unborn children was not safeguarded, all human rights were at risk.  In her acceptance speech for the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa connected world peace to ending abortion, saying:

 “And I feel one thing I want to share with you all, the greatest destroyer of peace today is the cry of the innocent unborn child. For if a mother can murder her own child in her womb, what is left for you and for me to kill each other? … I ask His Majesties here before you all who come from different countries, let us all pray that we have the courage to stand by the unborn child, and give the child an opportunity to love and to be loved, and I think with God's grace we will be able to bring peace in the world.” 

As we pray with Pope Francis this month that all human life be recognized as sacred, we ask for hearts like the Heart of Jesus which saw each person as precious and died for all.

World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation

Today is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.  In 1989 the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Dimitrios I initiated this special day of prayer for September 1 because on this day the Orthodox liturgical year begins with a reading and commemoration of God’s creation of the world.  In 2015 Pope Francis asked that the Catholic Church join in this special day of prayer.

In 2007 a proposal was made and accepted at the Third European Ecumenical Assembly to foster a greater awareness of the need to care for creation during a special five week period from September 1 to October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. 

This fits in very well with Pope Francis’ Universal Prayer Intention for the month of September.  We are praying that each person “may contribute to the common good and to the building of a society that places the human person at the center.”  Some may think that by focusing on the care of creation we are making the earth more important than human beings.  That is clearly not the case.

The earth, creation, is the home of the entire human family. It provides what we need to live.  Protecting the earth is necessary for the health and well-being of the human person.  And this means every human person, for all are made in the image and likeness of God.

This is what is meant by “the common good,”  which refers to the good of all people. The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” #1907 states that “the common good presupposes respect for the person as such.” 

Concern for the common good of every human being counteracts the exaggerated individualism of modern culture.  In his encyclical “Laudato Si” #204 Pope Francis wrote: “When people become self-centered and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume.”

Concern for the common home in which we live is an essential part of reverencing human life in all

its stages.  Pope Francis clearly stated: “”Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?” (#120).

On this annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation we join billions of Christians and other people of good will in committing ourselves to pray and work for the care of God’s gift, creation—not just one day or five weeks, but always!

Reparation for Abortion

Today is the 41^st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision that legalized abortion in the United States. For Catholics it is a Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. The March for Life is being held in Washington, DC and the Apostleship of Prayer’s Youth and Young Adult Director, Jesuit scholastic Santiago Rodriguez, has gone to represent us there. 

Last year Pope Benedict XVI tweeted a message of support to the March, saying that he would “join all those marching for life from afar, and pray that political leaders will protect the unborn and promote a culture of life.”  This year Pope Francis tweeted: “I join the March for Life in Washington with my prayers. May God help us respect all life, especially the most vulnerable.”

There are several options for the prayers and readings at Mass today and one of them involves wearing the violet vestments that are seen during the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent. This is also a day of penance and reparation for sins against life. 

Reparation is what Jesus came to do. It means repairing the damage that sin has caused, balancing the evil that has been done with prayer, sacrifice, and works of charity. Jesus suffered and died on the cross and in that way took away the sins of the world. We can join him in that ongoing work as we offer our sacrifices, inconveniences, and hardships.

St. Faustina, the Polish nun and apostle of Divine Mercy, wrote in her diary about making reparation for the sin of abortion.  The following is section 1276:

“September 16, 1937. I wanted very much to make a Holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament today. But God’s will was otherwise. At eight o’clock I was seized with such violent pains that I had to go to bed at once. I was convulsed with pain for three hours; that is, until eleven o’clock at night. No medicine had any effect on me, and whatever I swallowed I threw up. At times, the pains caused me to lose consciousness. Jesus had me realize that in this way I took part in His Agony in the Garden, and that He Himself allowed these sufferings in order to offer reparation to God for the souls murdered in the wombs of wicked mothers. I have gone through these sufferings three times now. They always start at eight o’clock in the evening and last until eleven. No medicine can lessen these sufferings. When eleven o’clock comes, they cease by themselves, and I fall asleep at that moment. The following day, I feel very weak. 

“This happened to me for the first time when I was at the sanatorium. The doctors couldn’t get to the bottom of it, and no injection or medicine helped me at all or did I myself have any idea of what the sufferings were about. I told the doctor that never before in my life had I experienced such sufferings, and he declared he did not know what sort of pains they are. But now I understand the nature of these pains, because the Lord himself has made this known to me. Yet when I think that I may perhaps suffer in this way again, I tremble. But I don’t know whether I’ll ever again suffer in this way; I leave that to God. What it pleases God to send, I will accept with submission and love. If only I could save even one soul from murder by means of these sufferings!”

Several weeks ago, on December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, during my weekly radio show on Radio Maria, I interviewed Peggy Hamill, the director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, who is a regular participant in the monthly All Night Vigil of Prayer and Reparation that is held on First Fridays in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. We talked about the importance of prayer and making reparation for the evil of abortion.  You can hear the interview at the Radio Maria website here.

The Heart of Jesus in the Womb

I like to imagine the moment when Mary told the Archangel Gabriel, “let it be done to me according to your word.” At that moment the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and a new life, the likes of which the world had never seen, was conceived in her womb. Cell by cell the child developed. Within three weeks the first organ appeared. His Heart—human and divine—started beating right under the Immaculate Heart of His Mother. 

At Christmas we imagine the Christ Child, just born and lying in a manger. But what about Advent? Can we imagine the Christ Child in the womb of His Mother Mary?  Can we have a devotion to the Child Jesus at this stage of His life? And couldn’t such a devotion help us reverence human life at all its stages?

George A. Peate thinks so. His book, Unborn Jesus Our Hope, reflects on the first nine months of Jesus’ life

as He lived and grew in Mary’s womb. It’s filled with references by Christians of all times and places and denominations. It includes prayers: a Litany of the Unborn Christ Child and a Litany in Honor of Mary, the First Christian. And it makes a strong connection between Sacred Heart devotion and the Pro-Life Movement. Here’s an excerpt:

“And so we picture the unborn baby Jesus within His mother’s womb, skin almost transparent in these early weeks of human life, and His Heart, not yet hidden by a thicker, more developed skin, but visible, actually throbbing, pulsing with divine love for us! This is the miniature reservoir of that one commodity that could purchase the salvation of the entire human race, the blood of God Himself! This Precious Blood is separate and different from His mother’s. A small delicate vial of heavenly medicine. It is a tiny Heart, but proportionately—compared to the rest of its body, during the first and second months—it measures up to nine times the size of the adult heart. Appropriately, the Heart of Unborn Jesus (and His head) dominated His Body: for the incarnation is about God’s Love for us.”

Unborn Jesus Our Hope was published by Life Cycle Books in 2006 and is available at the Unborn WordAlliance. 

The Holy Innocents

Today the Church remembers with a feast the massacre of children in Bethlehem shortly after the birth of Jesus.  According to the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who lived shortly after the time of Jesus, King Herod was a “man of great barbarity.” King Herod was the puppet king of Israel when Jesus was born. Afraid of losing his power when he heard from three mysterious visitors from the East that a new king had been born, he “ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under” (Matthew 2: 16). Jesus escaped when His parents fled with Him to Egypt. Thus the Son of God began His earthly life under the threat of murder and as a refugee.

These innocent boys are honored today as martyrs; the vestments at Mass are red in their memory. The word "martyr" means "witness" and so the question naturally arises, how can the victims of King Herod's fear and jealousy be venerated as martyrs? How can they be considered witnesses to Christ? They had not reached the age of reason. Moreover, they died at the beginning of the earthly life of Jesus; how could they have given witness to and died for the faith?

St. Quodvultus answers those questions in the second reading in the Office of Readings today:

"The children die for Christ, though they do not know it.  The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The [Christ] child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. See the kind of kingdom that is his, coming as he did in order to be this kind of king. See how the deliverer is already working deliverance, the savior already working salvation. ... To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory." 
The children died for Christ.  They died in place of Christ.  Surely the One whose life was saved as their lives were taken blesses their short lives with the gift of eternal life which He won for all through His death and resurrection.  Here's how the British author Frank Sheed put it in his book To Know Christ Jesus:

"There is anguish for us, twenty centuries later, in thinking of the slain babies and their parents. For the babies the agony was soon over; in the next world they would come to know the one they had died to save and for all eternity they would have that glory. For the parents, the pain would have lasted longer; but at death they too must have found that there was a special sense in which God was in their debt, as he had never been indebted to any. They and their children were the only ones who ever agonized in order to save God’s life."

 

The violent deaths of innocent children have not ended in what many think is a more civilized time.  Families are grieving in Connecticut because a man shot their children.  People speculate on the reasons, but the ultimate reason can be found in our culture. Blessed John Paul II called the culture of the contemporary world a "culture of death."  People are treated as objects and the "virtual reality" of our media and games encourages us to see them as such.  Fear still drives people, as it drove King Herod, to kill children who are seen as threats to our freedom, our life style, our happiness.  Growing and developing outside or inside the womb, children are viewed as property that can be discarded for convenience or in anger.  I am praying for the families of the Innocents of Connecticut today and offering Mass for an end to abortion. 

Unborn Jesus Our Hope

Several years ago George Peate sent me the manuscript for a book that he was about to publish with Life Cycle Books. He asked me to look it over and write a review that could be used in the advertising that appears on book covers and jackets. After reading his book I was happy to help. The book is entitled "Unborn Jesus Our Hope" and it is a wonderfully diverse and ecumenical reflection on the first nine months of Jesus' life. The full review can be found on his web site for the Unborn Word Alliance. George and his wife Michele also have a blog called "Unborn Word of the Day" in which they offer insightful commentary, inspiring spiritual reflections, and great art.

I met George and Michele on a trip to California some years back. They told me that on one of the annual March for Life events, the Archdiocese of New York had purchased cards with their "Litany of the Unborn Christ Child" so that everyone going to the March would be able to pray with this devotion to the Christ Child in the womb of Mary. I thought of this when I was preparing for yesterday's Mass and march sponsored by Pro-Life Wisconsin and I decided to take along my copy of the Litany to pray in front of the abortion mill.

As we prepare for the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision known as "Roe v. Wade", I think it would be a good idea to download this Litany for our prayer. I also highly recommend getting George's book and cards with the Litany and other materials, all available on his web site.

Witness for Life

My good friend Peggy Hamill, the director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, asked me to preside and preach at a special Mass today. After Mass we marched to a local abortion mill where we prayed. In my homily I said the following:

Today's first reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (4: 12-16) says that the "Word of God is living and effective." The Word of God is the Scriptures. It is also the proclamation of the Gospel at every Mass where Jesus is present speaking to us. But it is more. The beginning of John's Gospel says that "the Word became flesh."

Jesus is this Word that is "living and effective." He is, as Hebrews says, "able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart." He knows what is in our hearts and the hearts of all people. And, reading our thoughts, He is, as the first reading says, a compassionate high priest who is able "to sympathize with our weaknesses." The Word became flesh and lived our human life. Sharing our human nature, He "has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin." Jesus knows the temptations and struggles of our hearts.

After His baptism, Jesus went into the desert where He was tempted. We read about this every year on the First Sunday of Lent. Jesus was tempted as we are tempted.

In the midst of forty days of fasting, Jesus was hungry and was tempted to turn stones into bread to satisfy His hunger. This was against the plan of God, the natural law that God has built into creation. In our world today we see a similar temptation to reject God's plan for creation and to go against the natural law, to define marriage and life in our own way rather than to accept God's definition.

Next, Jesus was tempted to throw Himself off the temple, to do something flashy to get people's attention so that He could manipulate them for His own purposes. In this way He could amass an army of followers who would be pawns for His purposes. But humans are not pawns, not objects to be manipulated and used. Our world is tempted to use the media in ways to manipulate people. We're tempted to view others--babies in the womb, the terminally ill, "the other side," our enemies--as objects to be disposed.

Thirdly, Satan tempted Jesus to fall down and worship him, to make an idol of a creature, to honor the rebel and his rebellion. And so are we tempted to make creatures and our own desires greater than God, to follow the original rebel and to make his plans for the destruction of humanity our own.

Sharing our human nature and tempted in every way that we are, Jesus understands us. He understands our battle. This is why we see Him in today's Gospel (Mark 2: 13-17) going out to sinners, to those who are self-destructing through sin. He came to them and spoke the truth with love. He came to call and to heal sinners. He continues to speak to us, to our world. He continues to reach out to sinners and to heal us and our broken world.

He comes into our world today through us. St. Augustine once said that Mary first received into her Immaculate Heart what she would later conceive in her womb--the Word. She gave flesh to the Word in this way. When we receive Jesus in Word and in Sacrament, as we do at this Mass, we too give flesh to the Word. Pope John Paul II, who will be beatified next May 1--Divine Mercy Sunday and the first day of Mary's month (there are no coincidences when it comes to God)--wrote in his encyclical "Ecclesia de Eucharistia":

"At the Annunciation Mary conceived the Son of God in the physical reality of his body and blood, thus anticipating within herself what to some degree happens sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord's body and blood. ... As a result, there is a profound analogy between the Fiat which Mary said in reply to the angel, and the Amen which every believer says when receiving the body of the Lord." (#55)

Before we receive our Lord's Body and Blood in Holy Communion, we say "Amen." Yes, I believe. Yes, I believe I am sent now to bring You into the world.

In a little while we will go forth to bring Jesus into the world. We will bring Him present in ourselves to a place of death. Like Jesus we will pray for conversion. Like Him we will sacrifice. Of course our sacrifice--the time we spend in the cold and wind--are as nothing compared to what He suffered on the cross for the salvation of sinners. But our prayers and sacrifices, joined to His perfect sacrifice, have great power, and so we go forth with confidence.

In closing, let us be strengthened in our hope and confidence by the words of Pope John Paul II from the conclusion of his encyclical "The Gospel of Life."

"The angel's Annunciation to Mary is framed by these reassuring words: "Do not be afraid, Mary" and "with God nothing will be impossible" (Lk 1:30, 37). The whole of the Virgin Mother's life is in fact pervaded by the certainty that God is near to her and that he accompanies her with his providential care. The same is true of the Church…. 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."