In today’s second
reading, from the second Pastoral Epistle of Paul to Timothy, Timothy is told
to guard the trust[1].
St. Paul says that Timothy needs to stir up into a flame the gift that he
received through the imposition of hands, his ordination, and take as his norms
the words he heard about the faith and love of the Lord. The passage is meant
for more than the ordained. It is pointed to the great gifts we have all
received. We need to guard these gifts, guard the trust given to us.
I want to begin
by speaking about three of the many gifts we have received. The first great gift came at our
baptism when we were given the Life of God. We need to guard this Life[2]. We can’t let ourselves be exposed to the
immorality that destroys the Life within us. The second great gift is the gift of the Word of God. The Bible is
not just another book, it is God’s Word. It is God telling us about Himself,
His Life, and how we are to live His Life. The
third great gift is the Eucharist.
Jesus Christ transformed bread and wine into His Body and Blood and
entrusted us with this Great Mystery. We need to guard this mystery against
those elements within ourselves that would downgrade the Eucharist into a pious
religious action. The Eucharist is the source and the summit of our faith. It is Jesus Christ!
By guarding the
trust, I do not mean turning into ourselves. Jesus did not come for only some
people, but for all people. He commissioned us to go out and proclaim the
Kingdom of God to the whole world.
We particularly
need to proclaim His Presence to our countrymen. When the President of the United States
delivers a speech to a joint session of Congress, be it the State of the Union
or some issue he wants to address with as much solemnity as possible, he stands
in front of the motto of our country. The motto of our country is: In God We Trust. Freedom of Religion is the First Amendment to
the Constitution, the first of the Bill of Rights. But our country has moved
from Freedom of Religion to Freedom from Religion. Far more than respecting a
person’s religion, our society has gotten into a hole whereby it doesn’t just
support a person right not to believe, but it promotes and fosters
atheism. Over 90% of the media is
atheistic, doing its best to advance their view. The media says that religion
is in the decline in the United States. It is interesting how those in the
minority promote their position with the lie that they are in the
majority. If religion were in the
decline, then who is going to all these Churches, Synagogues and Mosques that
surround us?[3] We who are committed to the Kingdom of God
need to stand up for the faith.
There is a deep
malaise in our society. The right to make a choice has been given precedence over
the morality of the choice. This can be applied to all areas of our life. The
most important, though, is that area that we are remembering today, the area of Respect Life. Many feel
that it is acceptable to choose to abort a child because the right to choose
itself is more important that the morality of abortion. To protect themselves
from defending immorality, they declare that the whole concept that abortion is
immoral was created by the Church. They then argue that the Church does not
have the right to impose its beliefs on others. The trouble with their argument
is that the right to life is a right of the natural law. The natural law is the
law that flows from reason. It is not specific to any faith. It is found in all
societies, including the most primitive societies. It recognizes that murder is
wrong, that incest is wrong, that stealing is wrong, etc. The natural law
supercedes any and all particular faiths. The Preamble of the Declaration of
Independence was based on the natural
law stating that all people have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
The
determination of our country to promote abortion within the country and
throughout the world has crippled the fabric of our society. Along with the
killing of babies, abortion results in the destruction of the lives of countless
American women who have been convinced into having an abortion by friends,
counselors, medical personnel, and even members of their own families. Many of
our women and young girls have allowed life within them to be destroyed because
they were told that this is the best thing for them to do. The so-called
authorities in their lives don’t have to live with the results of the abortion.
The women do. They are the ones who cannot think about a child without being
immersed in pain. They are the ones is
in turmoil...
To cure our
society, we need to consider the women and girls we have destroyed. We have to
encourage women suffering the trauma of the abortion to put themselves in God’s
hands. To quote Blessed Pope John Paul
II: “These women can become stronger than before because they recognize the
value of human life.” He also said to
these suffering Moms, “You can be among the most eloquent defenders of
everyone’s right to life. Through your
commitment to life, whether by accepting the birth of other children or by
welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you
will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life.”[4]
To cure our
society, we have to fight against the pervading selfishness that makes the
concept of abortion feasible. A society that is so selfish that it refuses to
respect life will implode. For too long we have treated abortion as just one of
many political issues. Forget about politics. This issue goes to the core of
our society. We cannot be people of faith, placing our trust in God, and
continue to support this horrible immorality! Respect Life demands that respect
all life, at whatever age, in whatever circumstance!
An elderly lady
in our parish told me about an experience she recently had. The lady lives in an assisted living
facility, but is in good health for her age. She went for a routine doctor’s
visit. Her doctor asked her, “How much longer do you wish to live?” She said,
“What type of question is that?” and got up and stormed out of the doctor’s
office, never to return. She did not
want a doctor whose quality of care would be determined by the age of the
patient. That doctor was voicing the immorality of a society that does not
respect life. We are just a small step from promoting euthanasia. Furthermore,
if the quality of care is dependent on what society considers the quality of
life, the whole question of care for the physically and mentally challenged
comes into play. This is where the abortion mentality has led our nation.
We have been
entrusted with the faith. We need to take stands for all that is right and
true. And we need to trust in God. There is Power in our faith. There is Power
in our prayer. There is Power in people who are willing to accept being
rejected by the so-called mainstream of society for the sake of standing for
all life, whether that life is about to be born or about to come to its natural
conclusion or anywhere in between.
We pray today
for the courage to Guard the Trust, Guard the Faith, and stand for life ■
[1] 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time C,
October 6, 2013, Reading I: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4, Responsorial Psalm: 95:1-2,
6-7, 8-9, Reading II: 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14, Gospel: Luke 17:5-10
[2] The Respect Life Program
begins anew each year on Respect Life Sunday, the first
Sunday in October. The program is highlighted in liturgies and marked by
special events.
[3] The 2012 statistical abstract of
the US Census Bureau showed that of 228,182,000 adults, only 34,169,000 or 15%
of the country claims to be atheists, agnostics or have no religion.
[4] Cfr Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), n. 99.
