Today’s Gospel
says that when Jesus heard the news about John, He withdrew to a deserted place
to be by Himself[1].
Jesus often went off someplace where He could pray. What must His prayers have
been after hearing about John’s death? Perhaps He was trying to understand the
will of the Father for John and for Him. Perhaps He was contemplating the meaning
of death. Perhaps, Jesus was considering the mystery of evil. John, the
greatest prophet to live, had been put to death by pure evil. Evil would attack
Jesus also, as well as the people He was gathering to Himself. Certainly Jesus was grieving over the death
of His kinsman, the one who had pointed at Him and called Him the Lamb of God[2].
Jesus would not
be left alone for long, though. People sought Him out. He could not allow His grief to keep Him from
caring for the people. He needed to feed
them, in word and in deed. Like John the Baptist, Jesus would also be put to
death by evil, but He would not allow Himself to be caught up in evil, caught
up in the culture of death. Jesus came
to bring life into the world. He came to invite people, invite us, to join Him
in the Culture of Life.
The Culture of
Life is the way of living that celebrates the life we were given at our
baptism, the life of God. The Culture of Life chooses the way of the Lord over
all other possibilities. It considers how each decision best reflects the Presence
of the Lord. We are called to the Culture of Life. We are people of life,
people of hope, People of God. It is our commitment to the culture of life that
allows us to view the events of our physical lives as only part of the story of
our lives. We live for God. We live for
heaven. We live for eternal life. And we refused to be destroyed by the culture
of death.
The culture of
death only sees the here and now. It does not consider the impact of a person’s
actions on his or her life or on the world in general. It is the culture of death that says, “Have
the abortion.” How many babies are killed? How many great minds were never
allowed to develop? How much beauty has the world lost? How much love? And how
many girls have their lives destroyed? It is the culture of death that says,
“Party on.” It is the culture of death that is so pessimistic that it takes it
for granted that people have no choice but to be condemned to a life that is
ultimately meaningless. It is the culture of death that speaks to the young
about birth control as soon as they announce that they have a girlfriend or
boyfriend. The culture of death presumes that the young will not be able to
control themselves. It is the culture of death that says that retirees should
live together rather than marry because finances are more important than
eternal life. Think about it! It is the culture of death that is the
philosophical basis of the sex industry. Basically speaking, the culture of
death assumes that we are animals, unable to control ourselves.
But we are not
animals. We are sons and daughter of God. We have dignity. We also have a right
to demand that others treat us with the Dignity we have been given at our
baptism. Whether we are thirteen or
Ninety-three, we cannot allow anyone to assume that we are unable to control
ourselves, assume that are condemned to live like animals, condemned to the
Culture of Death.
And God says in our
first reading:
Thus says the LORD:
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread;
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully,
listen, that you may have life.[3]
We have been
called to Life. It is all right there for us. We can choose Christ. We can
choose His Way, the Culture of Life. And we can be happy, now and forever. But we must choose ■
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