This coming Wednesday, January 22 marks the 47th anniversary of the historic Roe versus Wade decision to legalize abortion. I suspect that some big things are going to happen this year regarding the abortion issue in our country. I am completely against any abortion at any level, even in cases of rape or incest.
My grounding principle is that all life is sacred. And at the moment of conception, a soul is formed within the woman womb. And the debate of a woman’s right to her body pales in comparison to the belief that no one has the right to dictate what happens to another person’s soul. A woman has only one soul, and the other soul that was formed at conception is God’s property, not ours.
I gave a more extensive talk about this and other life issue at FIRE earlier this month. You can listen to it on a podcast through our parish website.
Anyway, at the beginning of Mass, we had kids draw on various sheets of paper. Those sheets are actually are meant to fit together to make a large picture. Let’s have those kids come up and put the collage together. [have kids bring up their drawings and fit them together on a large poster board].
As you can see, each one of the picture is wonderful, but they don’t represent much. Yet after we combine each with others . . . it becomes a picture. A picture of Jesus. And it needs ALL of the pictures to make the image complete. I would like to think that all these pictures do the same thing that John the Baptist did . . . point to Jesus.
It is the same thing for us as a community. We each have our own masterpiece of knowledge and grace, but it is only when we put them together do we have the complete picture. The community is what is important. That’s why worshipping together is so important, for each of us add to the picture of who THE BODY OF CHRIST is. And without you, or you [I point to various people], the picture is incomplete.
The final product is: Jesus the author of life, the giver of life. And it is in community that life really gets respected and honored. For example, with the abortion issue, it is good to put an end to abortion BUT just as important is to honor all life. And we can do this AS a community, AS the body of Christ.
For as we recognize life (and the soul) begins at conception; but they don’t end there. It is our job to continue to honor ALL life. We say: WOMB TO TOMB. Meaning all aspects of how we can (and should) support life . . . eliminating Capital Punishment and Euthanasia, supporting refugees who are fleeing their countries for fear of being killed, supporting adequate health care and financial support for schools and Senior Dwellings. Of course this all makes sense but how does it impact you?
Well, think of the ways that people, whom you know, are not living FULLY. People that you have heard of that have gone through tough times, such as a job loss, a death, a crime committed, someone jailed, a car accident. There are people who experience trauma of some kind.
Your task is to go out and support them! Go visit them. Don’t just shake your head and sigh, “Isn’t that too bad about so-and-so.” NO, get out there and be community for them, be Christ for them.
In the second reading, St. Paul challenges the church in Corinth to remember that we are all called to be holy. We are called to be put together and, like John the Baptist, point to Christ.
We are called to join together for holiness. As peace activist Dorothy Day (who is on the road to sainthood) said. “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”