Tomorrow, August 22nd is the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary it will be also a day when people of good will and hope will stand in prayer in protest against the violence done to the unborn seeking and end to the support of federal funds supporting Planned Parenthood.
Although many of those who stand in prayer will not be Catholic, I believe, it is an important foundation for us to begin with, this Memorial of Mary, as we look at the issue of life and how we are called to be a people of life united with our Lord Jesus in the example and blessing of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
I know that I do not often write about such serious subjects but this post has been on my mind and heart for several weeks. As I was reading the Papal Bull of Pope Francis announcing the Jubilee Year of Mercy I could not help but ponder some of the words and images that have been produced in uncovering the banality and brutality of the practice of this procedure. As I follow Live Action and their founder Lila Rose on Facebook and Twitter I have been brought to tears hearing the callousness of word, thought and action in the casual destruction of human life.
It is a reminder to each of us that in the faith of our Blessed Mother the life of the world was placed in our midst. The in her visitation to Elizabeth, the unborn life of John the Baptist leapt for joy. And in the birth of our Savior Jesus the shepherds joined the Angels in proclaiming God’s glory in our broken humanity.
As a person who is proud of my German heritage I am all to aware of the evil that surrounded the actions of the Nazi regime and in reading, studying and speaking to people who lived through that time it is almost to easy to make the comparison. But in truth it is when we refuse to engage in the honest and moral conversations of the hard issues and realities of life that we find ourselves slipping slowly towards our very destruction. As Hannah Arendt wrote, “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” In this we must “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” (Mt5:37)
It is the call to justice, mercy and forgiveness that we must all respond to as sons and daughters of the one true God. As Pope Francis writes in The Face of Mercy “(M)ere justice is not enough. Experience shows that an appeal to justice alone will result in its destruction. This is why God goes beyond justice with his mercy and forgiveness. Yet this does not mean that justice should be devalued or rendered superfluous. On the contrary: anyone who makes a mistake must pay the price. However, this is just the beginning of conversion, not its end, because one begins to feel the tenderness and mercy of God. God does not deny justice. He rather envelops it and surpasses it with an even greater event in which we experience love as the foundation of true justice.”(21)
I invite you tomorrow to pray Psalm 136 for the conversion of our hearts and the hearts of all as we pray that all life, from the moment of conception to natural death, will be treated with the dignity of sacredness of God’s love for us.
God Bless
Fr. Mark