By Deacon Jerry Franzen, Cathedral October 17, 2021
Isaiah 53:10-11
Hebrews 4:14-16 Mark 10:35
- 45
Praised Be Jesus Christ. Good Afternoon!
Four weekends ago I was at this very lecturn
at the
7:30 am and 5;30 pm Masses introducing my homily
by
describing how Jesus’ disciples
were
arguing about who among them was the greatest,
as
found in Chapter 9 of St. Mark’s Gospel.
I imagined that they each wanted a top position in
Jesus’ administration,
when He
was victorious and had freed the Israelite nation
from
Roman oppression.
That is what they thought the mission of Jesus was.
Jesus had tried to tell them of the kind of Messiah he
was:
that he
had been sent by the Father to redeem them from their sins.
He would have to suffer, die and rise from the dead
in
order to accomplish that mission.
He told them that if they wanted to be first, they had
to be the servant,
yes,
even the slave, to all.
And, I described how the same is true for us.
I described how being the slave to all means imitating Jesus,
and
that means being obedient to the laws of God
and the teachings of Jesus and the Church.
It also means being humble, being the person God meant
you to be.
And it means death, dying to ourselves in favor of
others.
It appears that I could repeat that homily,
for today’s
selection from St. Mark’s Gospel, Chapter 10.
The disciples, at least James and John, still had not gotten the message
about the true
nature of Jesus as the Messiah;
maybe
they didn’t want to hear the true message.
It seems that they were still thinking that
Jesus
would be the military hero to free them,
and that there would be positions of importance under His rule.
It seems that the disciples did not know Jesus well
enough
to
understand many of His “hard” sayings.
He reminded them again that if they were to be great
among themselves,
they
would be the servant.
If they were to be first, they would be the slave to
all.
Maybe they only heard what they wanted to hear.
Certainly they got to know Jesus better as they served
Him
after
His resurrection and ascension.
We, too, can get to know Jesus better as we serve Him,
and we
serve Jesus by serving his people.
October is Respect Life month.
How do we serve the unborn, the most vulnerable of
God’s people?
Let’s review what we are talking about here.
We are faced with a large number of people who think that because of a
decision by the
Supreme Court almost 50 years ago,
women have a right to an abortion at any stage
of
a pregnancy under the guise that women
have
a right to health care.
Certainly, pregnant women have a right to health care
so as
to promote the health of the mother and the baby
within
the womb.
All women should have the right to health care.
But pregnancy is not a disease to be cured
by
removing the baby from the womb.
I do not see abortion as health care.
Fifty years ago there was much confusion
about
when the life of a baby began.
Some thought that life began at the moment of birth
and
many
find it convenient to continue to believe that today.
They want to believe that the baby in the womb is not
a human being,
just a “clump
of cells”
that
can be removed at the convenience of the mother.
With the scientific advances over the past 50 years,
most
medical and biological professionals now agree
that life begins at conception.
II
So how can we be the servant, a slave, to the unborn?
I will use the three criteria I used four weeks ago:
obedience,
humility and death.
1. We must be obedient to the commandments.
Almost all societies regard murder, “as the unlawful
killing
of a
human being with malice.”
Many will argue that the right to an abortion in this
country
has made
the killing of a baby in the womb lawful.
Whether that is true or not, there the higher law:
“Thou shall not kill.”
That is the law that we must obey.
Most people who are ProChoice will NOT argue against the truth of the
ProLife message that
abortion is the taking of a life
which
began at conception.
They prefer to attack the ProLife messengers saying
that
they are trying to prevent a women’s right to health care.
The truth about abortion is that it is terminating a
life
which
began at conception and it is morally evil.
2. Secondly, we
must be humble.
Last month I defined humility as being the person God
meant you to be.
Women have received the ability and privilege to
nurture a baby
in the
womb until it is ready for birth.
That is what God intended a pregnant woman to do, and
in humility,
that is
what a pregnant woman should do according to God’s plan.
So in order be the slave to that child, the mother
must do everything
she
can, and all that her body is designed to do,
to
nurture that baby developing within her womb.
That is what God planned for mothers.
3. And thirdly, the mother must die to herself.
She must put
the needs of that child above any of her needs.
Rather than kill that baby in her womb, the mother
must die to herself
and to
her desires in love for that baby.
Abortion is the taking of an innocent life,
it is
contrary to God’s plan for impregnated women
and
it is contrary to the teachings of Jesus.
St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who is the shining example of a person
who was the
servant to all that she met said the following:
“Any country that accepts abortion is
not teaching its people to love, but to use violence to get what they want.
That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”
One might say,
“What
if I do not believe in God or the teachings of Jesus?”
My response would be the following:
Do you believe that murder is wrong?
Is the killing of a one day old baby wrong?
Consider mothers who had brought babies to birth and
then decided
that
this was a mistake, too inconvenient to raise this child,
Suppose that they were then given the right to just abandon those babies, let
them die,
within the first month of the life of the child.
Would that be wrong?
I would hope that most would say “Yes” to all those
questions
without
any need to rely on Christian teaching or a belief in God.
What can those of us who have no possibility of becoming pregnant do?
Just shame those who have had an abortion?
That was the thought of one woman as to why
the
Church teaches that abortion is immoral,
to shame those women who have had an abortion,
those who have also been the victims of abortion.
No! The Catholic Church is not about shaming people;
it is
about saving souls, about teaching the truth,
so
as to keep people on the right path to salvation.
So, what can we do?
We can pray that there will be a change of heart in
this country.
so that
abortion will be considered the evil which it is,
the
taking of a human life.
We can do this at ProLife Masses, participating in 40
days for Life,
praying
at abortion clinics, praying the Rosary for Life or
just
praying in any way at any time..
Certainly we can observe and follow all of the laws
and truths
of the Church as good examples
of people who act morally.
Thus we can be general witnesses to the truth of God’s
teachings.
We can help people to realize that just because a
civil decision
deems
that we have a certain right to “something,”
it
doesn’t mean that the “something” is morally good.
We have the right to view pornography,
but
that does not make pornography morally good.
We can also support the efforts of organizations like
Care Net
and the Rose Garden Mission as they encourage women
with inconvenient pregnancies to not
abort the child,
but
bring the baby to birth and for a possible adoption.
We can promote Project Rachael,
a
healing process for women who have had an abortion.
See the bulletin for details.
We can support ProLife candidates for public office.
I am especially distressed by the politicians,
Catholic and non-Catholic,
who say
that they believe that abortion is wrong,
but
do not want to impose their beliefs on others.
When politicians want to change the tax structure,
they
justify the change by telling us that
they
believe that the change will work as they planned.
Aren’t they attempting to impose their beliefs on the
people?
Oh, but they mean religious beliefs.
Now I get it.
Church and state and all that.
Life begins at conception; that is supported by
scientific facts.
Murder is the taking an innocent human life.
Abortion is equivalent to murder.
Where is the religious belief in that simple
collection of statements?
I will close with another quote from St. Mother Teresa
of Calcutta:
"America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts -- a child -- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters" And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend on, and must not be declared to be contingent on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign."
(Mother Teresa
-- "Notable and Quotable," Wall Street Journal, 2/25/94, p. A14)
