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We live in times and in a culture where maturity is often significantly delayed. In fact there are many in our culture who never grow up. I have argued elsewhere that one paradigm of our culture is to that it is fixated on teenage years. Fixation is a psychological description of a person who has not successfully navigated one of the stages of infancy and youth and thus remains stuck in the thinking and patterns of that stage, to one degree or another. Out culture’s fixation on teenage issues and attitudes is manifest in some of the following:

1. Irrational aversion to authority
2. Refusal to use legitimately use the authority one has
3. Titillation and irresponsibility regarding sexuality
4. General irresponsibility and a lack of personal accountability
5. Demanding all of one’s rights but avoiding most of one’s responsibilities
6. Blaming others for one’s own personal failings
7. Being dominated by one’s emotions and carried away easily by the passions
8. Obsession with fairness evidenced by the frequent cry, “It’s not fair!”
9. Expecting others and government agencies to do for me what I should do for myself
10. Aversion to instruction
11. Irrational rejection of the wisdom of elders and tradition
12. Obsession with being and looking young, aversion to becoming or appearing old
13. Lack of respect for elders
14. Obsession with having thin and young looking bodies
15. Glorification of irresponsible teenage idols
16. Inordinate delay of marriage, widespread preference for the single life

Now it is true that some of the things above have proper adult version. For example, the “obsession with fairness” matures and becomes a commitment to work for justice. Aversion to authority can be matured to a healthy and respectful insistence that those in authority be accountable to those they serve. And so forth. You may choose to take issue with one of more of the above and you may wish to add some distinctions. It is also a fact that not every teenager has all the issues listed above. All that is fine, but the point here is that the culture in which we live seems stuck on a lot of teenage attitudes and maturity is significantly delayed on account of it.

Some may also allege a kind of arrogance in my description of our culture as teenage. I accept that it is a less than flattering portrait of our culture and welcome your discussion of it. But I ask, if you reject the image of “teenage,” how would you describe our culture? Do you think that we live in an overall healthy and mature culture?

The Call to Maturity and the role of the Church – In the midst of all this is the expectation of the God through his Scriptures that we grow up, that we come to maturity, to the fullness of faith, to an adult faith. Further, the Church is expected, as an essential part of her ministry, to bring this about in us through God’s grace.

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul has this to say:

And [Christ] gave some as Apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming. Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ(Eph 4:11-15)

Coming to maturity is a basic task in the Christian walk. We are expected grow and come to an adult faith. The Letter to the Hebrews has something very similar to say:

You are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Heb 5:11-14)

Notice that the Ephesians text says that Christ has given Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones unto this. The Church is thus expected in a certain sense to be “the adult in the room.” She is to summon us to live responsible, mature lives. She summons us to be accountable before others, to be sober, serious, and deeply respectful of God’s authority over us by living lives that are obedient to the faith. She teaches us, by God’s grace, to master our emotions and gain authority over our passions. She holds forth for us the wisdom of tradition and teachings of the Scriptures and insists on reverence for these. She insists on correct doctrine and (as the text from Ephesians says) that we no longer be infants, tossed by the waves of the latest fads and stinking thinking, and that we not be swept along by every wind of false teaching arising from human illusions. We are to be stable and mature in our faith and judge the world by it.

Yes, the Church has the rather unpleasant but necessary task of being the adult in the room when the world is mired in things teenage and will often exhibit aversion to authority, rules, and cry out that orthodox teaching is “unfair” or “old fashioned.”

But here we encounter something of an internal problem. For the Church has faced the grave temptation to “put on jeans” and adopt the teenage fixations. Sadly, not all leaders in the Church have taken seriously their obligation to “equip the holy ones for the work of ministry….until we all attain to the unity of faith and….to mature manhood and the…..full stature of Christ.” Preferring popularity to the negative cries of how one or more Biblical teaching is “unfair!,” many teachers and pastors of the faith have succumbed to the temptation to water down the faith and to tolerate grave immaturity on the part of fellow Catholics.

It would seem that things are improving but we have a long way to go in terms of vigorously reasserting the call to maturity within the Church. Corruptio optimi pessima– the corruption of the best, is the worst. Clergy and other Church leaders, catechists and teachers, must insist on their own personal maturity and hold each other accountable in attaining to it. We must fulfill our role of equipping the faithful unto mature faith by first journeying to an adult faith ourselves.

The Church does not simply include clergy and religious. Lay people must also take up their proper role as mature, adult Christians active in renewing the temporal order. Many already have done this magnificently. More must follow and be formed in this regard. Our culture is in need of well-formed Christians to restore a greater maturity, sobriety and responsibility to our culture.

By God’s grace we are called to be the adult in the room.

I and twelve other pastors, have been meeting recently to embark on a period and plan for renewal in our parishes. which focuses back on the fundamental mission of the Church, and of our parishes, and which seeks to restore a kind of back to basics approach to Church life.

For too often many parishes are reduced from being lighthouses to clubhouses; from being thermostats which set the temperature of culture, to thermometers that merely record the temperature; from being places where Christ is central, and it is his wedding,  to being places where Christ is merely an invited guest at our wedding feast.

Too often we maximize the minimum and minimize the maximum. We spend all sorts of energy and resources arranging spaghetti dinners and Superbowl fellowships, and too little time feeding our souls and taking heed of the true spiritual contest between life and death.We argue with each other over minutia such as what color to paint the Ladies restroom or who didn’t clean the kitchen, and and have no real answers to the world’s arguments against us. We contend against each other instead of instead of the principalities and powers in the high places.

Well you get the point. So easily we get lost in the weeds. And even as numbers continue to erode in most parishes, we just do “business as usual.” It’s time for some renewal and to act differently. Thus twelve parishes are coming together to begin to pray and reflect on our central mission and how to act both locally and regionally to better live our of our mission and get back more whole-heartedly to the the basics pillars of Church life.

And what is the central mission of the Church? Stated briefly it is to bring people to a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ; it to disciple them in such a way that they enter into a life changing and transformative relationship with Jesus Christ. This is our fundamental task. It is not merely to have meetings in the hall, dinners in the cafeteria, sponsor fundraisers etc. As the Pope recently warned, it is not enough to give turkeys to the poor at Christmas, we have to give Christ, and feed the poor not just materially but spiritually.

Our fundamental mission as a Church is to lead people to encounter Jesus Christ in such a way that they are changed. The life of the Christian and the Church. This personal and communal encounter with Christ is offered through Word, Sacrament, fellowship and prayer. And that leads us to the fact that the transformative relationship with Christ rests on four pillars or practices.

These four pillars, a kind of four-point plan, are found in Acts 2. Peter has just preached a sermon where he warns his listeners to repent and believe the Good News. In effect he has led them to encounter Jesus Christ. They, having encountered him in his Word, are now cut tot he quick and ask what they must do to be saved. He said to them: “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:40-41).

Now they are baptized and in the Church of the Living of God. And unlike some of our Protestant brethren who hold a kind of “once saved, always saved” mentality, the text does not stop there. These new disciples now have a life to lead that will help them be ready to meet God, that will help them to set their house in order. And so in the very next verse we read:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

So here is our “four-point plan” for setting our house in order once we have come to faith. There are four components listed below, four pillars if you will:

1. The Apostles Teaching
2. Fellowship
3. The Breaking of the Bread
4. Prayer

Please note that the text says that they “devoted” themselves to these four pillars of the Christian life. The Greek word is προσκαρτερέω (próskartereo) which means means to continue to do something with intense effort, despite difficulty. It means to devote oneself to, to keep on, to persist in. It is from prós = “towards,  and krátos, = “prevailing strength”). Thus what is described here is that they are consistently showing strength which prevails. They are staying in a fixed direction. They did not merely practice the four pillars occasionally, or when they felt like it, or when the time seemed right. They were consistent, they were devoted to this four-fold rule of life. Lets look at each pillar in turn as we consider how to set our house in order:

1. The Apostles Teaching– This first pillar of the Christian life is fascinating not only for what it says but also what it does not say. When we think of the “Apostles’ Teaching” we first think of the four Gospels and the the New Testament Epistles. And these would surely be true components of the Apostles’ teaching for a modern Christian. But notice that the text does not say that they devoted themselves to Scripture, but rather to the Apostles’ Teaching. For a Catholic, the Apostolic Teaching consists not only in the New Testament Scriptures but also the Sacred Tradition which comes to us from the Apostles and which has been understood and articulated by the living Magisterium of the Church. The Protestants would largely interpret this first pillar as an exhortation to read our Bible every day and base our lives on it. This is a true understanding but only partial . The early Christians as you recall did not have the New Testament in final form from day one and could not have lived this text in such as way. The Bible as we now have it was not yet completed edited or canonized. Yet they had received the Apostolic teaching through having it preached to them by the Apostles and their deputed representatives, the bishops, priests and deacons. St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter (2 Thess 2:15). Therefore the Catholic application of this first pillar is truer and fuller wherein we are devoted to the Apostles teaching not in Scripture alone but also in Sacred Tradition as passed down and interpreted by the living magisterium of the Church. To live this first pillar with devotion means to set our house in order by carefully and diligently studying what the apostles handed on to us. We do this by the daily and devoted reading of Scripture and/or the diligent study of the faith through the Catechism or other approved manuals. We should make it a daily habit that we are reading scripture and studying the faith, attempting to grow in our knowledge of what God has revealed through his prophets and apostles and then basing our life on what we learn and repenting of what is not in line with the revealed truth. Pillar number 1 is being devoted to the Apostles teaching.
2. The Fellowship – the word fellowship may be a little weak here as a translation of the Greek: τῇ κοινωνίᾳ (te koinonia). The more theological or sacred way of translating this word is probably ” a communion.” It would seem that members of a bowling league could have fellowship but the sacred gathering of the faithful in the reality called the “ekklesia” or “Church” is better termed a “communion.” or in Latin “communio.” It is a gathering into one of the members of Christ’s Body the Church, a communion also of Christ with his Bride the Church. The early Christians, according to this text devoted themselves to this communal gathering. Hence the second pillar of the Christian life whereby we are helped to get our house in order is “fellowship,” or better, “communio.” The Commandment is clear: Keep holy the Sabbath. It doesn’t make sense to think that we can disregard one of the Ten Commandments and then claim our house is in order. Some argue that this commandment does not say explicitly that we should be in Church on Sunday. But Leviticus 23:3 says regarding this Commandment, “You shall do no work and you shall keep sacred assembly, it is the Sabbath of the Lord.” Sacred assembly means “Church” it is the fellowship, the koinonia, the communio. No way around it. God expects us to be in his house on our Sabbath which is Sunday. The Book of Hebrews also says, “And let us not neglect to meet together regularly and to encourage one another, all the more since the Day draws near.” See here how the Last “Day” and being prepared for it is linked to “meeting together regularly.” So the second pillar of the Christian life is to get our house in order by getting to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day. In the Mass we both encourage others and are encouraged by them. We also receive instruction in the Word of God by the anointed and deputed ministers of that Word, the bishops, priests and deacons. We also fulfill the third pillar to which we now turn our attention
3. The Breaking of the Bread – The phrase “the breaking of the bread” in the New Testament usually meant the reception of Holy Communion, or the Eucharist. The worthy reception of Holy communion is directly connected to having our House in Order for there are wonderful promises made to those who are faithful in this regard. Jesus makes a promise in John 6:40 that Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I will raise him up on the last day. That’s quite a promise in terms of being ready! Jesus is saying that frequent reception of the Eucharist is essential preparation for the Last Day. Jesus also warns us not to stay away from “the breaking of the bread” or Holy communion: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in you (Jn 6:53). Without Holy Communion we’re not going to make it. Gotta receive regularly to be ready! We cannot claim that our house is in order i we willfully stay away from Holy Communion. By extension we must allow this reference to one sacrament (Holy Communion) to be a reference to all the Sacraments. Clearly a Catholic approach to this third pillar of preparation would include being baptized and confirmed. It would include weekly reception of Holy Communion, regular confession, anointing of the sick when necessary, and, where possible, the reception of Holy Matrimony or Holy Orders. The Sacraments are our spiritual medicine. We have a bad condition called concupiscence (a string inclination to sin). It is like spiritual high blood pressure or diabetes. Hence we have to take our medicine and be properly nourished. The sacraments, as our medicine help us to avoid dying from our sinful condition. So the Third pillar of the Christian life is to get our house in order by receiving Holy Communion worthily every Sunday and the other Sacraments at proper times.
4. Prayer– This final pillar requires more of us than just saying our prayers in some sort of ritual sense. The Greek word here is προσευχαῖς (Proseuchais) and is best translated just as we have it here: “Prayers” However the Greek root proseuche is from pros = toward or immediately before + euchomai= to pray or vow. But the prefix pros would convey the sense of being immediately before Him and hence the ideas of adoration, devotion, and worship are included. So prayer is understood more than just verbally uttering or saying one’s prayers. What is called for is worshipful, attentive and adoring prayer. Prayer is experiencing God’s presence. Jesus says of prayer that it is necessary for us lest we fall: Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation (Matt 26:41). Hence the fourth pillar is prayer whereby we putt our house in order through regular, worshipful, attentive and adoring prayer of God which serves as a kind of medicine lest we fall deeply into temptation.

So here are four basic pillars of preparation for the day of Judgment. It is a kind of back to basics plan for the Christian and for the Church. This serves as a basic vision for twelve parishes that can benefit from getting focused and learning to share a common vision so as to work together regionally and better serve our area. Parochialism is less possible today given the steady erosion of parishes. We have to have a common plan and work together. Pray for us.

Archdiocese of Washington: Year of Faith series

Written by:

Dominican Brothers of the Province of St. Joseph

The Archdiocese of Washington, DC is hosting daily reflections on its Facebook page for the Year of Faith.  Have you missed them?  Today we are starting the next weekly series on faith.  Please visit our page and “like” us, so you can follow along with the rest of the series.

Theme: Friendship.

1.  Can we be friends with God?

Friendship is the very basis of our relationship with God in Jesus Christ: “I no longer call you slaves…I have called you friends.” (Jn 15:15) One quality of friendship is an exchange of personal knowledge and openness. As St. Thomas Aquinas says, “It is proper to friendship that a man reveal his secrets to his friend: because friendship unites their affections, and of two hearts makes one.” Couldn’t you use a good friend right about now? Friends talk to one another; friends listen to one another. When was the last time you spoke to Jesus as a true friend and from your heart? He is listening.

2.  Why is it good to share things with our friends?

Another mark of friendship is that we share our belongings with our friends. “A friend is another self,” so we help a friend as we would ourselves–which is part of willing and doing good for our friend. St. John asks, “But if any one has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (1 Jn 3:17) Think too of the great love God has for us. When we were His enemies, He cleansed and sanctified our hearts by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and thus made us His friends.

3.  Do you find delight in the presence of God?

“It also belongs to friendship that a man delight in the presence of his friend, and rejoice in his words and deeds: also that he find in him consolation in all his troubles: hence it is especially to our friends that we have recourse in time of sorrow.” How true this is of our friendship with Jesus! When we look upon God in prayer with a loving gaze true delight arises in our hearts, and we are able to admire His goodness. This type of prayer is called contemplation. It makes us lovers of God, and it brings us amazing joy. Do you find delight in the presence of God? Does your friendship with Jesus bring you joy?

4. What if our friends hurt us?

At their best, friends are always trying to build one another up and seeking the others good. But we are not always at our best, and all too often we end up offending those we truly care about. Still, the bond of friendship can overcome even serious human failings because “love covers all offenses.” (Pr 10:21) Of course God’s love for us is the ultimate friendship, and likewise the ultimate example of forgiveness. Despite our countless offenses against Him, by His love we are pardoned and we can be restored to our undeserved status as friends of God. What is more, by our love for God we are called to love all who are His–all people, both our friends and our enemies.

5.  Does friendship mean agreeing with my friend?

Another part of friendship is harmony with your friend. Friends often and easily unite their wills, even in the smallest things, and even if they are very different personalities. We are also friends with God. Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15). Friendship with God means aligning our wills to His. But there is nothing burdensome or weary about agreeing with friends. In friendship, we aren’t oppressed by obligation, but moved by the weight of love. The Holy Spirit moves us to follow God’s commandments from the heart, with love. St. Paul says, “Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).

Please don’t forget to visit our Facebook page and “like” it to follow this week’s daily reflections on the theme “faith.”

I like many of you heard of a recent Pew Research Center survey on Abortion (released just before the March for Life) that presents discouraging results. The very title of their release was trumpeted by secular Media: Most Oppose Overturning Abortion Decision. That was the lead and really the only thing the secular media wanted to hear.

The actual Pew report is a lot more difficult to read and the results are hard to compare with other surveys since the wording of the questions is never held constant. For example, the exclusion of rape/incest clauses makes for different results. Like it or not most Americans are more sanguine about abortions in cases of rape and incest (rare though such cases are). Whether respondents are given such distinctions makes a difference, as do other factors. For example, many if not most Americans favor any number of restrictions on Abortion short of a total ban and, depending on how the questions are asked, the restrictions they favor come close to a general exclusion of Abortion as a legal option. Thus there are many subtleties in the context and wording of questions.

You can see the full Pew Report here: Roe v. Wade at 40 Frankly the report is bewildering to my eyes, pointing in many different directions and broken into so many categories. It is hard to draw any real conclusions at least to my amateur statistician eyes.

Ramesh Ponnuru writing in National review on-line has some of the following observations of the Pew Report that also help place the survey in context and which raise the problem of leading questions flawed premises that plague such surveys. His remarks are in bold black italics, my comments are plain red text. His full article is Here: How Not to Read Abortion Polls

Actually, Pew did not find that support for Roe has been increasing. It found less support for Roe than it did in 2005, which appears to be the last time it asked the question. The ABC/Washington Post poll also found declining support for Roe between 2005 and 2010.

But of course the lead headlines all suggest that support for legal abortion was growing, not declining. The impression on radio and TV news was that over 70% Americans want Roe to stay just as it is.

But the fact is that Roe and subsequent rulings that brought us Abortion on mere demand for all nine months of pregnancy has been steadily eroding as an unabridged legal right. This is because Americans, at many state levels, are insisting on and getting increasing restrictions both on the abortion industry, and the right to unrestricted abortion for all nine months.

Americans do not in practice provide unqualified support for Roe and abortion on demand away from the poll takers survey. Late term abortion are far more repugnant to Americans, as are abortions for crass reasons such as sex-selection. There are many things that will influence how a person answers the survey.

Other polling does not find any leftward shift. The University of Michigan’s polling finds no clear change from 1990 through 2008. The CBS/New York Times poll shows no movement between 2003 and 2012. Gallup shows no clear change in either direction from 2002 to 2012. (It also finds no pro-choice majority: In May of 2012, 59 percent of respondents told Gallup abortion should be legal in a few circumstances or illegal in all circumstances, while 38 percent said it should be legal in “all” or “most” circumstances.) Harris’s numbers show a movement in the pro-life direction from 1993 to 2009 on the question of under what circumstances abortion should be legal.

And here is a key point that makes surveys hard to read. Some surveys ask the question of support for Roe in an all or nothing, up or down fashion. Other surveys introduce circumstances. And it would appear that the circumstances make a lot of difference.

And when poll takers do not add any circumstances or qualifiers to the question it is less clear what qualifiers the respondents read into the question. For example, if a person is asked to vote up or down on Roe it is important to know if they think Roe allows abortion only in the first three months or if they know that Roe permits abortion right up to the last moment in the womb. Far fewer Americans support abortion in month 8 than in week 4. Further, far fewer Americans support abortion for sex-selection than due to the health of the mother.

Simply reporting that a percentage of Americans support or don’t support Roe is not really very informative.

Pollsters [often] include misinformation in their questions about Roe, as both the Pew and NBC/WSJ polls do. They suggest falsely that Roe limits the abortion license to the first three months of pregnancy. (The combined effect of Roe and its companion case Doe v. Bolton is to make abortion legal at any stage of pregnancy.) The latter poll even uses the phrase “completely overturn” in its question, a qualifier that can be expected to lower support for the option….what the Roe polls are probably picking up is that a strong majority of the public does not favor a ban on all first-trimester abortions.

Exactly, and while we may wish that Americans rejected abortion under ALL circumstances, we may have to be content to change hearts incrementally in this matter. It is at the outer edges that the pro-life progress is most evident. For, as noted above there is a steady string of legislative and legal victories at state levels that have sought to limit abortions. Gradually Americans are more comfortable that access to abortion at any stage for any reason should not be unrestricted. This may then lay the groundwork for further progress in a total change of heart and rejection of abortion at all stages for more and more Americans.

Maybe it will turn out that the public is becoming more supportive of abortion. I’d wait to see more evidence before calling that trend, which may not exist at all, “clear.”

Yes, it seems clear that the media rush to publicize the Pew results simplistically was likely more illustrative of their own views than of what this limited result actually shows. Shame on Pew as well for their leading headline which probably was aimed more at publicity than careful analysis.

More the complexity of this issue was discussed a year and half ago on this blog when a Gallup Poll released then said that 61% of Americans want all, or most abortions, to be declared illegal. Even there, the nature of the questions had to be carefully factored in. You can read more of my blog from then Here: Americans Want most Abortion to be Illegal.

Fair is fair. We continue to have a battle on our hands, be I still contend that we are steadily eroding support for abortion at the edges and more Americans want more restrictions. We are heading in the right direction. Further embryology and medical science in general are on our side. Increasingly, with 3-D sonograms and the like the reality of life in the womb is evident to all but the most hardened.

Onward fellow pro-lifers. Time + evidence favor our cause. Do not be discouraged by misleading reports and undistinguished data.

For those of us in pro-life work there are important precedents to be seen in the fight against slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and even in the anti-smoking campaign. Consistent, persistent and organized action brings eventual results. This is often a battle for inches, but inches become yards, and yards, miles. Keep a inching alone like a poor old inch worm, Jesus will come by and by.

As I have remarked before, to March for Life is experience life. So many joyful Christians and others who support life gather and celebrate the glory and dignity of human life. The March is ever young, with the ranks of so many young people growing every year.

Here at my rectory are 15 fine seminarians from the Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit. Fine orthodox, and zealous men who love God and the Church and are eager to preach the Gospel and celebrate the sacraments. Almost 700 seminarians marched into the Basilica Thursday evening along with hundreds of priests, and as many as 8000 lay people, standing room only in the Great Upper Church, and also filling the chapels of the undercroft.

Today at the Cathedral I was privileged to preach to a full Church and hear powerful witness talks from Project Rachel leaders prior to the Mass. Despite cold and some light snow, I would say the crowd was close in size to last year’s 400,000.

Yes, such life, such faith and joy.

I must say however, that my joy is often tempered each year toward the end of the march when I go and try to witness to the “pro-choice” demonstrators who stand in front of the Supreme Court. I often experience great pain in this work.

To be sure they are the hardened cases, but I experience such grief after talking with them. Here are a couple of conversations as I remember them.

1. A man with a sign that says, “Pro-Abortion without apology.”
2. Me: “Well, at least you say like it is, “Pro-abortion” instead of “pro-choice.” But listen, man, no one here asks for your apology, we’re praying for a your change of heart.
3. Him, laughter, a profanity and some mumbled references about priests belonging to a criminal class.
4. Me: well think about it, deep down you have to know its wrong.
5. Him: Ridiculing laughter, turns to talk to another pro-abortion demonstrator.

Another, even sadder conversation.

1. She, holding a sign that says, “Stop the war on Women.”
2. Me: listen I want you know that I don’t hate women and I’m not waging a war against you. I love women. We all love women here today. We’re fighting to save women. Think about it, half the children killed in abortion are women.
3. She: They’re not women and they’re not victims.
4. Me: Well that’s just bad biology.
5. Me: Come on, think about it. Deep down you know its wrong.
6. She: No I don’t. Don’t tell me what I think. You do know what I think.
7. Me: Well, I’m talking about your conscience, that’s deeper than your thoughts. I know you have a conscience and God wrote his law in your heart. So you do know, deep down, you know it’s wrong. Listen carefully to that still small voice.
8. She, walking away, “Your little make-believe God didn’t write anything in me. Your God is fairy-tale. Besides you’re a man, don’t even talk to me abortion.
9. Me: Well but I know a lot of women who don’t support abortion, It’s not just a man thing.
10. She: Well I don’t care about them. I only care about me.
11. Me: Do you think that’s a good way to live?
12. She: I don’t care. (Moving forward to end the conversation).

Most of my conversations went that way. I wasn’t very effective to be sure. My hope was to engage their conscience. I know they’ll never admit to me that they do know it is wrong, but deep down under all the rationalizations and stinking thinking, I am convinced that they do know, they know. I tried to reach there, but this year no apparent sign, not even a glimmer. Perhaps I planted seeds. But each year the soil seems harder and rockier. I leave those conversations quite downcast, I must say.

Luckily the day ended with a Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Bishop Perry was celebrant and gave a fine and encouraging sermon. Sitting in choir I was able to pray quietly for those with whom I spoke today. I offered Mass for their intentions and also in reparation in case I handled anything poorly. Witnessing is hard work and I don’t always get it right, so have mercy Lord on me too.

A day of life to be sure, and also of a heavy heart. But in the end, at the Latin Mass the restorative mercy of God and the reminder of life as I looked at another packed Church, standing-room only.God be praised.

A Taize song says, “Within Our darkest night you kindle a fire that never dies away.” It was nice to enjoy that light today shining on the faces of so many who came to celebrate life. I pray too that those to whom I tried to witness will also discover that light that never dies away.

The magnificence of life is really too wonderful too describe. But I found this description some years ago which summons reverence by its very ability to baffle the mind:

MIRACLE OF LIFE– Consider the miracle of the human body. Its chemistry is just as extraordinarily well tuned as is the physics of the cosmos. Our world on bothsides of the divide that separates life from lifelessness is filled with wonder. Each human cell has a double helix library of three billion base pairs providing fifty thousand genes. These three billion base pairs and fifty thousand genes somehow engineer 100 trillion neural connections in the brain—-enough points of information to store all the data and information contained in a fifty-million-volume encyclopedia. And then after that, these fifty thousand genes set forth a million fibers in the optic nerves, retinae having ten million pixels per centimeter, some ten billion in all, ten thousand taste buds, ten million nerve endings for smell, cells that exude a chemical come-on to lure an embryo’s lengthening neurons from spinal cord to target cell, each one of the millions of target cells attracting the proper nerve from the particular needed function. And all this three-dimensional structure arises somehow from the linear, one-dimensional information contained along the DNA helix. Did all this happen by chance or do you see the hand of God?

Today, many of us march for life, here in Washington, on the West Coast, and in other communities. Today we ponder the great mystery that is expressed in the 139th psalm:

For it was you who created my being, knit me together in my mother’s womb. I thank you for the wonder of my being…Already you knew my soul my body held no secret from you when I was being fashioned in secret….every one of my days was decreed before one of them came into being. To me, how mysterious your thoughts, the sum of them not to be numbered! (Psalm 139 varia)

No human being is an accident, no conception a surprise or inconvenience to God. Mysteriously he knew and loved us long before we were ever conceived, for he says, Before I ever formed you in the womb I knew you (Jer 1:4). And, as the psalm says above, God has always known everything we would ever do or be.

It is often mysterious to us why human life is, at times, conceived in difficult circumstances such as poverty, times of family struggle or crisis, or even conceived with disability and disadvantage. But in the end we see so very little and must ponder the mystery of God’s reminder that many who are “last” now are going to be first in the kingdom (e.g. Matt 20:16; Luke 1:52-53).

So today, many will march, and all are called to remember the sacred lives that have been lost. We acknowledge our loss, for the gifts of these children and their lives have been swept from us as well. We pray for women who struggle to bring children to term and experience pressure to considerabortion. We pray for the immediate and sudden conversion of all support legalized abortion for any reason and for a dedication to assist women facing any difficulty in giving birth to or raising their children.

The following video is a shortened version of the masterpiece video called “Genesis” by Ramos David. It magnificently depicts fetal development. I have taken the liberty of adding a different music track since this is a shortened version. The Music is William Byrd: Optimam Partem Elegit (She has Chosen the Best Part), a text most fitting since we pray all mothers will choose life. The full length video is found in higher definition on YouTube by searching under “Genesis Ramos David”

It’s late January in Washington DC. It is the (dreadful) 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade A little snow, and surely a chill.

But this time every year is also marked by the warmth of tens of thousands who come to DC for the March for Life. I have marched just about every year, except when I was sick or away from the city.

My favorite year was 1985. There was record cold that year. The day before had featured the second inauguration of President Ronald Reagan. However, the temperature for that inauguration morning was -4 Degrees Fahrenheit. Thus the swearing in moved inside the Capitol and the parade was cancelled. The next day was just as cold, and the snow was knee high, but the Pro-life March went off any way. We walked through the bitter cold and snow in testimony to life. The numbers were down but our spirits were high (and our pace was swift!).

Most years have escaped such bitter conditions but its nice to know that many of us march anyway even in the worst weather.

But on this 40th March for life, I must say, I have longed for us to take a fresh look at the march. And while I hope it never comes, I have wondered if we could not perhaps do something powerfully memorable for the 50th Anniversary. Again, I hope that year never comes and that Roe v. Wade will be gone before then. But, I think that what I dream of is going to take about ten years to plan.

I also say this planning may be necessary since this 40th year kinda of caught us off guard. I remember last year being in a couple nationwide conversations to consider what we should do for this 4oth year of the march, (such a biblical number). But honestly we got to work too late and then Mrs. Nellie Gray died mid year (may she rest in peace).

That’s why I say, it may not be too early to start planing now for 2023 and my dream will take some planning. And my dream is born on something of yearning to really ramp up the March.

Regarding the March now, consider that we barely make the news anymore here in DC. And it’s always the same: the media says we have 30-70,000 and the March for life committee estimates over 100,000. Likewise the media always gives equal billing to the dozen or so counter-demonstrators that show up.

Another, more frustrating aspect is that every year the political speeches get longer and longer and the march starts later and later. What once began 1:00pm now often slips to as late as 2:30pm. 90% of the marchers can’t even hear the speeches anyway. Someone tells me that this will be different this year, we’ll see. I realize there is a political dimension to the march but frustrations do rise as we stand for a long period, often in poor and frigid conditions.

I am not sure exactly what to do on a yearly basis to move the march back into the headlines but I do have a dream that we would pick the year 2023, the 50th year of the March, and really pull all the stops to give Washington a March they’d never forget. Here are the aspects of my dream:

1. There are 78 million Catholics in this country according to recent Pew and Gallup Polls. If only 10% of them agreed to come to DC, that would be 7 million people filling the mall, the reflecting pool, the tidal basin area and even across the river to the Pentagon. Now I know that only 25% of Catholics really practice their faith in any meaningful way by coming to Church. But that’s still 19.5 million and if only 10% of them came we’d still have almost 2 million people here.
2. Now how to get that many to come? Well, what if we invited the Pope to lead us? In thirty-eight years of marching have we ever invited the Pope to personally summon us and promise to stand with us?
3. Bring the Pope! And bring with him other religious leaders. If our numbers did swell past 2 million I doubt we could actually march, but I can see the Pope and other religious leaders on the steps of the US Capitol standing at the head of two to three million people lamenting the legality of infanticide (aka abortion) and warning our nation that God’s justice cannot forever wait. Then I see him turn toward the Capitol, staff in hand and millions behind him. (Think of Moses before the Red Sea, staff in hand). And I hear the Pope in prophetic tones calling legislators to conversion, and insisting that the life must be respected. Insisting that it is shameful that the richest and most powerful land in this world cannot find the political courage and the moral fiber to end abortion, that the best it can offer women who face challenges in accepting life is a trip to the abortionist.
4. The speech would have to be very carefully developed because in my dream this speech would need to rank right up there with Dr. Martin Luther King’s Speech in 1963. That was a speech full of hope to be sure but also a speech that indicated no compromise with injustice and insisted that America live up to its vision and do what was right. Not in some distant future, but today.
5. Turnout goals – In the years and months leading up to the rally every Bishop would have goals to meet in terms of catechesis and turnout. Likewise every pastor. Dioceses closer to DC would have higher turnout goals, but every diocese would have to meet turnout goals and be publicly accountable.
6. With this sort of turnout and the presence of the Pope we’d give Washington a March they’d never forget.

I realize that our present Pope (may he live forever) is up in years and that in ten tears we may have another in his post. But the point here is, let’s dream big! Let’s break all records! One for the books. Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream (Amos 5:24). Even if it takes years to plan, lets do it.

Do you have dream? Do you have ideas about the Pro-life March? How can we turn up the volume and wake the sleeping nation?

Nella Fantasia – In my dream….