You and I are also called to imitate that sacrificial love. Parents daily make sacrifices so their
children may have life and have it abundantly.
There is nothing more beautiful.
But there’s bad news today.
Love’s opposite runs rampant in our land. Some who get the news they are parents ask
the child to sacrifice her life for the comfort of the parent. On this Respect Life Sunday, we acknowledge
that this is the opposite of love. And
it has been legal in our country for 41 years.
And it happens over 3,000 times a day.
Meanwhile married couples waiting to give sacrificial love through
adoption continue waiting.
Today the words of Isaiah from our first reading have
special meaning. “Now the Lord has
spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb.” The Lord formed all of us to be His servants from
the womb. All of us have a unique task
to serve the Lord and each other, no matter if we are wanted or unwanted in the
womb.
No reason will ever justify taking the life of the child in
the womb. Some may say: The mother is poor. She can’t afford a child. We don’t fight poverty by killing born people
who are poor. So we can’t fight poverty
by killing unborn people who are poor. It
can’t happen anymore and we are the ones who have to stop it.
It is up to us to actively change the culture of death into
a culture of life. We can’t be shy about
speaking up about the beauty of sacrificial love. We have to get engaged in
the battle for God’s most precious gift of life. If we don’t know what to say, we have to find
out what to say. We can ask someone
engaged in pro-life work how to get trained.
We have to let our politicians know we are pro-life, and
killing the unborn is not acceptable. It
is our duty to let them know with our voice and with our vote.
Now is the time to pray and act. Please pray for our youth groups who are
traveling to Washington for the March for Life on Wednesday. I’m taking 21 students from Fenwick with 4
other chaperones. These students will
brave the severe cold to give a voice to those whose voice cannot yet be heard. These students will make a sacrifice so that
others may have life. Their love
encourages me. More importantly, pray
for the healing of those who suffer the wounds of past abortions. Many of them were told lies. Many of them were convinced they had no
choice. The burden of regret is becoming
more well-known for both men and women. Nobody
needs to carry that burden. The Lord
will bring them to healing through his Church.
