Some have said to me (on several occasions) that they hate it when the Church gets political about abortion. I had to chuckle at this as abortion and all moral ethics are the realm of God, not politics. Abortion has been condemned as early as the 1st century with the writing of The Twelve Apostle (The Didache), and to this day the taking of innocent human life remains a grave sin before God (Thou shall not murder). Abortion is not a political stand, it is a moral one. Because political parties have reduced this issue to a “right” doesn’t negate the obligation of the Church to stand in the public square opposed to such thinking and giving to others a positive view of human life and respect for the human person from conception to natural death.
The Church is not a one note singer, unable to harmonize and swell into a chorus of majesty and dignity. What the Church sings is joy, forgiveness, common sense, and Truth (Who is God as expressed in our Sacred Scriptures and Divine Teachings). So, when we speak of being Pro-Life, we see the broader vision of the human person and how one ought to respect such life. The Church has always cared for the child, the family, the poor, the hungry and the lost. We don’t relegate the human person to a compartmentalized body part. No, we see the human person as bearing a real dignity and destiny, worthy of respect whether in the womb or on a death bed. The Church must always speak boldly in the public square about being for life in all its stages. Life is God’s to give, it is His blessing. It is not ours to arbitrarily dispense with out of convenience or through coercion. Sometimes the Church presents to some what is an inconvenient truth: That all life matters. It doesn’t see skin color, or cultural experience, or ideology, or agenda. She sees a person who is wonderfully made, unique in their creation and destined to live, breathe and have happiness in this life, always helping the human person to see beyond themself, to act with love in the hope that such charity will find blessing with God and speak well for them at their final judgment.
To be Pro-Life is to be for life, to be for the living of a good life that begins at conception and ends when God chooses. Abortion, and by extension all moral living, is not at all a matter of politics. It is a matter of Faith! A responsibility given to us by God! So, we courageously stand in the public square and say, “No more”, ”Respect life”, “Love the other as you love yourself”. We always offer to others what is freely given us: mercy, love, compassion, forgiveness, grace, and, yes, even a challenge to conversion and repentance.
Let us strive as the Body of Christ to step back from the precipice, desirous of a world that sees living as a joy. Be Pro-Life, be courageous in defense of the human person, and live God’s point of view, not man’s.