I am not a vegetarian – I happen to
be a big fan of steak and burgers – however, at the same time, I’ve never been
to a slaughter house. They say that when
some people visit a slaughter house and see with their own eyes where the meat
comes from, they have a change of heart and reconsider their love of meat. There is only one way to do it – an impressive
looking cow must be killed – with all the violence that comes with it, and then
sent through various processes before it ends up in the grocery store – or even
further removed – sizzling on your plate before you. If it was our ancestors in the old country,
they would not have been fazed by this even a little. But in our modern culture, we have been able
to isolate ourselves from it. The
slaughter takes place in the background – and we receive a nice and neat package.
We know it
in theory – as an abstraction. I ask my
nieces and nephews: “what sound does your burger make?” and they giggle and say
moo. But we don’t have the experience of
it – we are detached from the reality.
It is
interesting that much of our modern culture is about detaching us from the
harsher realities. Our homes are heated
in the winter & cooled in the summer.
We accept paper money, which really just represents a promise, in
exchange for our work. All of these
things have made life easier, more convenient, and in some cases, even
safer. And yet this detachment has a
dark underbelly. By staying detached, we
are able to live with ourselves while a grave evil is taking place. An “out of sight, out of mind” mentality
leads to complacency, and sometimes even cooperation with evil.
The evil, of
course, which is most grave and most hidden in our society is that of
abortion. Those in favor of it have been
very successful in hiding what is going on with veiled language and neat
offices they call clinics. The truth is:
abortion kills children, an abortionist is a baby killer. That is the reality – the frightening truth
that continues because not enough voices speak out against it. And the reason not enough voices are speaking
is that it doesn’t affect them. They say
they are personally opposed but don’t want to get too controversial.
Sometimes we
need to be wakened from slumber to save ourselves from destruction. The basic example is if a building is on fire
and the children are sleeping. So do we
let them sleep so as not to disturb them?
No, we scream to wake them. Some
parents have children who have gotten involved in drugs and other similar problems. They know that being a good parent sometimes
requires tough love – they don’t just permit the behavior – they lay down rules,
and refuse to give them money. They do
this, not to be mean, but because they love them, to arouse them from their
slumber so they realize what they are doing.
Our society
needs to be awakened from our slumber about the truth of abortion – just like it
finally did awake 160 years ago about the evil of slavery and changed that evil
institution. What woke the people up 160
years ago? Well among many things,
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
In it, she opened up the eyes of millions to the brutalities of
slavery. What was originally tolerated
as an evil most were personally opposed to, was finally seen for the true evil
that it was. Something had to be done
about it. Abortion and slavery are
similar in that they require a transformation of society in order to overcome.
Animal
rights groups hold very effective campaigns to open up people’s eyes to the
cruel treatment of animals. They show
pictures of poorly fed pets, or farm animals that have no room to roam. Through these effective techniques they have
made progress in legislation and people’s hearts. There is no moral equivalence between
abortion and animal cruelty, but there is actually a similar sentiment among
animal rights groups as there is among pro-life groups. We all want people to open up their eyes to
cruelty and evil. Sometimes we see
pro-lifers hold up frightening pictures – they are hard to look and must be age
appropriate – but they are often far more powerful than words.
The Catholic
Church is eminently pro-life today because she always has been so. When the Church was in her infancy during the
first several centuries – the Roman Empire was the dominant society at the
time. One horrible practice was the
abandonment of newborn babies outside the city walls – particularly of unwed
mothers. The Catholic Church would not
allow these babies to die – and so they took them in, protected them, and
watched them grow in the families who adopted them. The only difference between now and then, is
that the Church is not given the opportunity to protect these babies anymore. But we still have a mission to carry out and
our ways. We call this Sunday – Respect
Life Sunday – as the Church continues strongly to defend life – especially the
most vulnerable in the womb. Because we
cannot pick the children up at the city gates anymore – we must speak out and
open up eyes and hearts. We also go down
to Washington DC every year on or around January 22, the anniversary of the
unjust court decision – Roe versus Wade.
Not only does the March for Life consistently have the greatest number
of marchers – but also the youngest crowd – tens of thousands of teenagers
every year – a good sign of things to come.
Today’s Gospel, particularly the
second half should speak directly to our hearts about this issue. Jesus says: “Let the children come to me and
do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” I often use this Gospel when I celebrate
baptism – it stirs up a simple image in our imagination of Jesus welcoming the
children with open arms and blessing them.
Back in the 60s, there was a message
against war that you still see today: “Give peace a chance.” It had a powerful impact on a whole
generation. We need to have similar
impact to change our society to reject abortion. So we can change the message a little and
say: “Give life a chance.”
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