‘I came so that they might have life’
September 29, 2024 at 10:00 p.m.
The atmosphere in society today is charged with words and with the realities conveyed by these words: change, accountability, responsibility and, above all, hope! The people of life and for life (cf. Evangelium Vitae, n. 78) are fundamentally a people of hope! We are people of life and for life because we are a people of hope.
The hope of which I speak is not rooted or anchored in an ideal or even in a dream or vision, although the Scriptures speak of old men dreaming dreams and young men seeing visions (cf. Joel 2:28). The hope of which I speak is a Person, the Person of Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, the one and only Savior of humanity. He alone is the source of authentic and enduring hope! He is, in fact, Hope Incarnate!
The Lord Jesus is our hope because He is our Savior. By His Cross and Resurrection, He has put an end to the permanence of evil, sin, suffering and human death; He has opened for us the fountain of life-giving water, in a word, salvation! As He Himself has told us, “I came so that they might have life … and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10).
This hope in Him is described so beautifully by St. Paul in his Letter initially to the Christians of Rome and now to us. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Trial, distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? ... For I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Rom 8:35, 38-39). This word of hope both reminds us of and energizes us to be, in name and in fact, pro-life. Precisely because we are a people of life and for life, we necessarily oppose anything and everything which unjustly takes away human life from its first moment at conception all the way through its various stages of development to its last moment at natural death.
The names are varied and all too familiar, including abortion, partial-birth abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, mercy-killing, and physician-assisted suicide, and so forth – but the reality is always the same: the unjust taking away of human life, God’s greatest gift to us on the human level. Especially heinous and heart-rending is the unjust taking away of the life of an innocent, defenseless, pre-born human being.
There is no greater act of injustice than to take away deliberately and intentionally human life at its very beginning in the womb. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have stated, “the threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed (USCCB, Faithful Citizenship).”
Abortion for any reason throughout all nine months of pregnancy, abortion on demand, whatever form abortion takes, whatever excuse it offers, deprives an entire class of human beings – the unborn – the most fundamental right of all rights, the right to life. So, the most basic and immediate restoration of justice must be guaranteeing, upholding and protecting the right to life of every human being, beginning with the most vulnerable of all, the child in the womb.
Our faith requires us to oppose evil and to do good, to oppose abortion on demand and to provide help to mothers facing challenging pregnancies. Moreover, we are being urged by politicians to concentrate only on reducing the number of abortions, making them “legal, safe and rare.” Our response must remain unequivocal and absolutely clear: our goal is not merely the reduction of abortions but the elimination of all abortions!
We are called to be “pro-life,” and we proclaim that boldly in the month of October. In his Letter to the Philippians, St. Paul writes, “Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.” We have heard and received the Gospel of Life! Our witness to life and for life is ongoing, because the people of hope do not give up! Hope sustains us to persevere and to prevail!
Not only in this month but always, we must be relentless in our support of and witness to life
Our hope is not in an ideal or in a dream or a vision, but in a Person: The Lord Jesus Christ! This is why first, last and everywhere in between, we turn to the Lord in prayer: prayer at home, personal and communal; prayer in the Church, public and liturgical. To this prayer, we add penance, for we recall Jesus’ words: “This kind of evil you can drive out only by prayer and fasting” (cf. Mk 9:29).
As Christian Catholics, we are seeking a massive conversion of hearts! Although laws prohibiting abortion are vanishing – and deliberately so – throughout our country, in the end, the conversion of hearts is crucial! We must continue to storm heaven, asking for this grace above all other graces: the grace of conversion of hearts to support life in all its stages!
Our prayers will be answered. We must not relinquish that conviction of faith. Hope comes to us, beyond words: the Lord Jesus Himself, Hope Incarnate! He embraces us in Holy Communion: He sends us forth, so that by word and deed, we may live the Gospel of Life and witness to Him, Christ Our Hope. “I came so that they might have life!” We are sent forth to proclaim hope, the hope that forgives and heals, the hope that strengthens and enables all of us in our efforts to eliminate abortion and to promote life! This is the hope that, through God’s grace and only with His grace, will empower us to overturn the current culture of death and to restore and to intensify a renewed culture of life.
This is our time, this October and every day beyond, the time to become even more a people of life and for life, because we are, in Christ and with Christ, a people of hope – today, tomorrow and all days until the victory of life is won and triumphs – for the glory of God and the salvation of the world! Amen.
Catholics have ‘duty to protect’ all human life, Bishop says at Mass for Life
Saturday, December 21, 2024
E-Editions
Events
The atmosphere in society today is charged with words and with the realities conveyed by these words: change, accountability, responsibility and, above all, hope! The people of life and for life (cf. Evangelium Vitae, n. 78) are fundamentally a people of hope! We are people of life and for life because we are a people of hope.
The hope of which I speak is not rooted or anchored in an ideal or even in a dream or vision, although the Scriptures speak of old men dreaming dreams and young men seeing visions (cf. Joel 2:28). The hope of which I speak is a Person, the Person of Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, the one and only Savior of humanity. He alone is the source of authentic and enduring hope! He is, in fact, Hope Incarnate!
The Lord Jesus is our hope because He is our Savior. By His Cross and Resurrection, He has put an end to the permanence of evil, sin, suffering and human death; He has opened for us the fountain of life-giving water, in a word, salvation! As He Himself has told us, “I came so that they might have life … and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10).
This hope in Him is described so beautifully by St. Paul in his Letter initially to the Christians of Rome and now to us. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Trial, distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? ... For I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depth nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Rom 8:35, 38-39). This word of hope both reminds us of and energizes us to be, in name and in fact, pro-life. Precisely because we are a people of life and for life, we necessarily oppose anything and everything which unjustly takes away human life from its first moment at conception all the way through its various stages of development to its last moment at natural death.
The names are varied and all too familiar, including abortion, partial-birth abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, mercy-killing, and physician-assisted suicide, and so forth – but the reality is always the same: the unjust taking away of human life, God’s greatest gift to us on the human level. Especially heinous and heart-rending is the unjust taking away of the life of an innocent, defenseless, pre-born human being.
There is no greater act of injustice than to take away deliberately and intentionally human life at its very beginning in the womb. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have stated, “the threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed (USCCB, Faithful Citizenship).”
Abortion for any reason throughout all nine months of pregnancy, abortion on demand, whatever form abortion takes, whatever excuse it offers, deprives an entire class of human beings – the unborn – the most fundamental right of all rights, the right to life. So, the most basic and immediate restoration of justice must be guaranteeing, upholding and protecting the right to life of every human being, beginning with the most vulnerable of all, the child in the womb.
Our faith requires us to oppose evil and to do good, to oppose abortion on demand and to provide help to mothers facing challenging pregnancies. Moreover, we are being urged by politicians to concentrate only on reducing the number of abortions, making them “legal, safe and rare.” Our response must remain unequivocal and absolutely clear: our goal is not merely the reduction of abortions but the elimination of all abortions!
We are called to be “pro-life,” and we proclaim that boldly in the month of October. In his Letter to the Philippians, St. Paul writes, “Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.” We have heard and received the Gospel of Life! Our witness to life and for life is ongoing, because the people of hope do not give up! Hope sustains us to persevere and to prevail!
Not only in this month but always, we must be relentless in our support of and witness to life
Our hope is not in an ideal or in a dream or a vision, but in a Person: The Lord Jesus Christ! This is why first, last and everywhere in between, we turn to the Lord in prayer: prayer at home, personal and communal; prayer in the Church, public and liturgical. To this prayer, we add penance, for we recall Jesus’ words: “This kind of evil you can drive out only by prayer and fasting” (cf. Mk 9:29).
As Christian Catholics, we are seeking a massive conversion of hearts! Although laws prohibiting abortion are vanishing – and deliberately so – throughout our country, in the end, the conversion of hearts is crucial! We must continue to storm heaven, asking for this grace above all other graces: the grace of conversion of hearts to support life in all its stages!
Our prayers will be answered. We must not relinquish that conviction of faith. Hope comes to us, beyond words: the Lord Jesus Himself, Hope Incarnate! He embraces us in Holy Communion: He sends us forth, so that by word and deed, we may live the Gospel of Life and witness to Him, Christ Our Hope. “I came so that they might have life!” We are sent forth to proclaim hope, the hope that forgives and heals, the hope that strengthens and enables all of us in our efforts to eliminate abortion and to promote life! This is the hope that, through God’s grace and only with His grace, will empower us to overturn the current culture of death and to restore and to intensify a renewed culture of life.
This is our time, this October and every day beyond, the time to become even more a people of life and for life, because we are, in Christ and with Christ, a people of hope – today, tomorrow and all days until the victory of life is won and triumphs – for the glory of God and the salvation of the world! Amen.