Showing posts with label Pro-Life. Show all posts

Be Not Afraid – Be Prolife!

On October 22, 1978, then Pope John Paul II (newly elected) said in his first homily:
"Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. ... So often today man does not know what is within him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair. We ask you therefore, we beg you with humility and trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life, yes, of eternal life." - emphasis mine
This short sentence has had a profound effect on my life (hence the name for my blog), and I think it is applicable to the topic that I want to address today, namely being active, courageous, on-fire, witnesses to Christ in our world.  Before I get started, a little background:  Yesterday night a bunch of the guys from Bruté (including myself), went to the annual pro-life dinner here in Indy.  The dinner was delicious, but the thing that had the bigger impact on me was the speeches.  The first, given by a high-school student who had won the pro-life oratory award for the year, and the second, given by Abby Johnson, who several years back had directed an abortion “clinic” before converting and becoming a pro-life advocate, were both pro-life speeches (go figure…)  However, what struck me was that neither of these speeches were patting us on the back.  We weren’t being praised for being pro-life; we were being called out, prodded, galvanized, to be more pro-life, more outspoken, more Christian.  I guess I was expecting them to just say that we all were doing a great job, that the people at the dinner were really generous donors, that they had more people at the March for Life than ever, etc.  However, instead the main message was “Wake Up!”, “Get To Work”, “Sacrifice”.  During the speeches I was like “huzzah - that’s what I’m talking about!”, but then I started to think about it and started to apply the speeches to me (instead of to everybody else), and I saw that I have a lot of work to do.  Hopefully, this post will turn out really good, but before I get going I want to give tons of credit to C.J. and Corey, who both have written exceptional (and I mean that) posts about this very topic.  They are faster at getting these things written than I am, so I am probably going to pull ideas from them (read their posts!).


OK, I began this post with the great quote from Blessed John Paul II, Be Not Afraid!  Folks, this is the heart of what it means to life out the Gospel, especially the Gospel of life, today.  Of course, I could boil it down the Gospel to something different (love comes to mind…), but here I am talking about the human side of things.  What keeps us from doing everything we need to in order to spread, protect, and relate the Gospel of life?  Fear.  We are afraid that others won’t listen, or won’t like what we are saying, or will persecute us because of it.  We are afraid that we will lost money, status, power, time, or friends, if we stand up for something that isn’t accepted.  We are afraid that we will lose something if we follow Christ.  Well folks, we will.  Christianity isn’t easy.  Jesus said pick up your cross and follow me.  Crosses were torture instruments.  (So yeah, not easy)  But, and this is a huge point, we will gain so much more than we will lose.  Look at Christ.  He became man, suffered horribly, and died – but then the resurrection happened.  Without the resurrection Christianity is nothing.  Not only would it seem that Jesus wasn’t divine (kind of a big thing, don’t you think?), our hope in an eventual afterlife and perfect happiness with God would be lost, and death and sin would be the victors.  The resurrection means that we can look to beyond this world, we can know that God has the final say, not evil, and that pain in this life can lead to everlasting bliss in the next.  Now, I’m not saying that suffering is a good thing in itself, but I think that when we pick up our cross, in this case our fear of loss (of money, power, or prestige) or doubt (of not knowing if we are capable), in order to follow Christ this is when He can bring about a resurrection, He can give us a 100-fold harvest, and He can bring us the tremendous joy of following Him.


Now wait a second, you say, – you just said Christianity was hard, it involved picking up crosses, and facing our fears for Christ, and then you immediately said that this can turn into joy – that doesn’t really follow…  But this is the deeply crazy truth of the resurrection; God can bring good out of evil, great positive out of great negative, great joy out of great sadness, great peace out of great fear.  This is where trust comes in; it’s not easy to surrender to God and say, sure, you can have my entire life, I’ll ignore the typical fears that I have and follow You.  The resurrection gives us this faith.  It is totally miraculous, supernatural, outside what we can expect, and in the same way, God’s ability to bring a greater good out of every evil, is something that takes supernatural faith.

I’m trying hard to turn this post toward what I really want to talk about – being prolife amid a culture that isn’t.  So, to begin this second section, another quote from JPII: Evangelium Vitae says (paragraph 82):
"In the proclamation of this Gospel [of life], we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and we must refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform us to the world's way of thinking (cf. Rom 12:2). We must be in the world but not of the world (cf. Jn 15:19; 17:16), drawing our strength from Christ, who by his Death and Resurrection has overcome the world (cf. Jn 16:33)." - minor typo correction made
Obviously, I chose a passage that connected the first half of my post to the second, but I think that fear is really a huge obstacle to our following Christ, especially in the area of pro-life activism.  (Actually, I just noticed that Blessed Pope John Paul II connected it to the Resurrection – nice!)  In his post (link up above), C.J. said, echoing Abby Johnson, that the biggest problem that the pro-life movement has to overcome is apathy.  Corey, in his post on the same topic, said that we need to go from prayer and go!  What do these have in common?  Action!  Folks, don’t be afraid, don’t let the apathy that floods our culture infect you, don’t let human respect stop you from doing Christ’s work, don’t let hardship stop you from doing absolutely everything for Christ.  It’s time to be courageous (thanks Corey!), it’s time for action (thanks C.J.!), it’s time to get out there and fight!  Already pray? – Pray more!  Already sacrifice? –  Sacrifice more!  Already work? – Work more!  We are in a battle in which Christ asks us to give everything to Him, to trust Him in the midst of fear, hardship, and struggle, and let Him multiple are (all too often) pitiful bread and fish.  The eternal souls of billions of people are at stake, as are the lives of millions of unborn.  The respect of all life (including yours) is hanging in the balance.  Are you willing to give a bit more to save them?  Ready for a challenge? – Christ has given you the ultimate mission, get out there!  Talk to one extra person, give one extra dollar, pray one more minute after Mass.  Be not afraid!

This is a pretty good song for the occasion…  Enjoy!
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Lord of All Hopefulness

Last Sunday, for the first time, I went with a few other guys and prayed outside the planned parenthood in Indianapolis.  It was an experience that I have wanted to do for a while (just about every other week or so a group of guys head over there), but I hadn't managed to do it until a last week.  Anyway, I was expecting it to be a disheartening afternoon, but it actually turned out to be a very positive experience.  We got there about 1 in the afternoon, it was about 30 degrees and sunny.  There were two ladies already there when we showed up; they showed us how to sign into the log-sheet and where we could get materials (prayer cards, rosaries, etc.).  I guess I didn't think that the pro-lifers would be this organized; very cool!  Actually, they have people signed up to be there 8-5 Monday through Saturday and 12-5 on Sundays; again, very cool! 
 
Anyway, after we got signed in, we took up a position a bit down the road and started by praying the rosary.  Since it was a Sunday in Lent I believe that we prayed the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary.  I found it really moving to be meditating on the suffering that Jesus went through for all of us.  I have always thought of abortion as this heinous sin and this evil that we need to end.  Definitely, abortion is a terrible crime against both God's law (thou shalt not kill) and human rights/laws (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), and I don't want to lessen that aspect of it.  Nevertheless, rather than dwelling on the negative, hellish, aspects of this industry, I instead found myself meditating on the mercy and love of God.  Just about everything we prayed reminded me of God's love for the world, His willingness to be the sacrifice that expiated our sins, His infinite mercy that He gives to all of us. 
 
During the rosary, as we meditated on the agony in the garden, the scourging at the pillar, the crowning with thorns, the carrying of the cross, and the crucifixion, I saw Jesus enduring this torture and death so that our sins, all of them, could be forgiven.  As we prayed the divine mercy chaplet, I again was struck by the presence of God's love and forgiveness everywhere, even where innocent children are aborted every day. 
 
Then we prayed mid-day prayer, and once again God's love really struck me in every line.  We sang "Lord of all Hopefulness" for the hymn, I started it too high, but we squeaked through the high notes.  Here we are in front of an abortion mill, singing "Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy, whose trust, ever childlike, no cares could destroy..."  It's one of those things, where typically I wouldn't have been thinking about God as Lord of all hopefulness, but there it was right in front of my face.  Of course, this pattern continued; the antiphon of the day was "As I life, says the Lord, I do not wish the sinner to die but to turn back to me and live".  Again, the psalm of the day (psalm 118) hit me right between the eyes (here's some good excerpts): "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures for ever...The Lord is at my side; I do not fear.  What can man do against me?...The Lord's right hand has triumphed; his right hand raised me..." 
 
We probably prayed for an hour or so before heading back to Brute.  It was a really interesting, enlightening, wonderful afternoon.  I was floored by how, in prayer, I was constantly reminded of God's love for all of us.  I don't mean to underestimate, or lessen the evil of, abortion, but I think it is important to remain positive, joyful, hopeful, and optimistic while confronting it.  The grace given through Jesus Christ's death and Resurrection is infinite; it can overcome, forgive, and destroy any amount of sin.  Of course our role is to live and pass on that grace, that love, that good news of the resurrection, to our world which seems to be forgetting or ignoring it.  The point is that if we want to pass it on effectively, if we want to spread the gospel of life, we must be full of the same joy and hope that the Apostles had.  Think about it, they were confronting a culture that was more pagan than ours, they were outnumbered on a massive, unthinkable, scale, and they actually went out and preached the gospel.  We seem to have lost their childlike trust in God; He will provide, He will win, He will strengthen, protect, and guide us.  I will conclude with a line from the closing prayer from that day: "when we are discouraged by our weakness, give us confidence in your love."  In other words: Be not afraid!
"I will be with you always"
 
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Sunday Recap

Well, here I am again with a daily recap.  So much is happening around here and I decided to just roll it all into one post.  Hopefully it makes a little bit of sense, but it probably doesn't...

This is what I didn't get to see at Sacred Heart!
Yesterday, as I briefly mentioned I went to Sacred Heart (here in Indianapolis) to take some notes on how their music was for Mass.  We (I'm in the class with 3 other seminarians and other non-seminarians) have an assignment in music class that requires us to go to a Sunday Mass over the next few weekends and write a paper on the music that they do.  (Does the priest chant anything? does the congregation join in?  what songs are chosen?  do they play an organ or something else?  - you get the picture).  Anyway, Sacred Heart, as I was told before I went, is the most beautiful church in the Arch-diocese of Indianapolis, so I was happy to have picked it.  Of course what I didn't know was that they are currently redoing their floors and Mass was in the church hall...  Yep, that was a bummer.

After I got back from Sacred Heart, I joined a group of guys who were making dinner.  On the weekends we don't go to Marian for food, so we have to either eat at Brute or go out someplace.  Being the guy that I am, I typically lean towards eating here rather than spending money elsewhere.  Thus, I was happy to join these guys making dinner, since it would undoubtedly be better than the microwaveable pizza, ramen noodles, or hamburger that I would have made on my own.  It turned out that they were working on a stir-fry with rice, chicken, green peppers, onions, sliced almonds, and a saucy concoction with soy sauce, garlic, and other unidentified spices.  Either way, it turned out delicious!

So, yesterday evening (now it's like 7:30PM), I joined a different group of guys to go ice skating.  Now, I don't think I have ever been ice skating before (maybe some time when an ice storm covered our back yard???), so I was prepared for the worst.  Nevertheless, I quickly got the hand of it, and had a really, really fun evening.  By the end of the hour and a half, I was attempting, unsuccessfully, to learn how to slide to a stop (by flipping your ankles/skates sideways), to skate backwards (I definitely wasn't too elegant doing that either), and racing with the other guys (which, though I didn't win, was relatively successful at).  I only fell down twice and had tons of fun!  (check out my previous post for a video of one of the races).

Now onto today: the first thing on the schedule was Mass at 9:30 AM.  I scheduled myself to cantor it, so on Friday I got together with Aaron, the other guy who is in charge of musical stuff, who also happened to be the organist this weekend, and we picked out the hymns for today.  Unfortunately, at this time I don't remember all of them (opening, offertory  Communion, and recessional) but the opening one was Forty Days and Forty Nights.  - Sorry, my brain is pretty tired, and I'm just drawing a blank -  I managed to pull off everything, even chanting the responsorial psalm without any disasters (it was my 2nd time doing it), except the hymn for the offertory.  Anyway, that was getting on just great; I started on key, with the organ, hitting all the notes correctly, the other guys even joined in singing, and then I got to the 3rd verse, at which point I started singing the fourth...  Yeah, I was oblivious for about a line, then, during the second line, I was trying to figure out why everybody was singing something different from me, and then (3rd line now) Aaron started singing the correct verse, and I finally figured out where I went wrong...  I actually don't know how noticeable it was to everybody else - at Brute the organ/cantor are in the back, so I was possibly drowned out by the organ and everybody else - that's what I'm hoping anyway.  Ah well, it seems as soon as I'm feeling full of myself (just pulled off the responsorial psalm right!), God gives me a dose of humility...  

dessert looked just like this - except not as elegant
For lunch one of they guy's family came in to cook us lunch.  As always it was fantastic; lasagna  salad, garlic bread, and a strawberry-pie-on-a-cookie dessert.  Yeah, it was awesome!

Next, for the first time, I went to pray (with a few guys) in front of the abortion clinic.  I'll just note that it was a wonderful experience and leave the details for another post.  (Gosh, I feel like I keep relegating some tidbit to another post and then never get to it...  Sorry, these things take time, and I just don't have much right now...)

When we got back from that around 2:30 we went for a run.  This time we had another guy join the normal group of us (bring the total to 5), who happens to generally run a bit faster than our typical 7:40 pace (more on that in a bit).  It's really funny; I used to always laugh at  those crazy runners that are out pounding the pavement when it's freezing outside.  Well, that's been me for the last week; today was actually a bit warmer than our last run, and it was maybe a bit above 30 degrees.  After a mile or two you do warm up, but until then it's pretty chilly.  Anyway, today was our higher mileage day, so we were doing a four mile loop.  Josh, the "new" guy to our group, really floored the pace when we made the last turn about 2/3 of a mile from Brute (which happens to be 2/3 of a mile uphill) and I drifted slowly off the back.  Thankfully, the other guys were feeling the burn and also began to drift apart, but I only managed to catch up to one of them in the last sprint...  It turned out to be a faster time per mile (under 7:30) then what we typically do for 3 miles, so, yeah, we were cruising.  It was good for me I'm sure, but I'm still pretty sore.

After getting back from the run, I took a hot shower, and then studied with some guys for a theology test on Friday.   (I had avoided doing any schoolwork on Sundays so far this semester, but I was pressed for time, and it was theology, so I did it.)  Then I Skyped with the family until almost 7, when we have a community Holy Hour, and then I ate some dinner, watched a show with the guys, worked on the blog, and now I'm off to bed.  Have a great Monday folks; do something fun!
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Friday in a Nutshell (Ice, Food, and Fun)

Well, today was a blast!  I only had one class (usually I would have 2) because there was 1/2 and inch of ice on everything and it was treacherous to go anywhere (besides being hard), so my only class today was Asian Philosophies at 11.  The last day or two (and part of tomorrow) has been what is called a "come and see" weekend; it's the first time I've heard of it, but basically, this gives some guys a chance to come and spend a few days at Brute to see if they want to come here/become a seminarian in the future.  Anyway, so the four guys that we have visiting get to experience the classes as well, so one of the ones that they went to was Asian Philosophies.  Due to the ice, many of the people were missing from class anyway, so it was actually good that we brought four extra guys - the class didn't fell empty. 
 
After class we headed over to the cafeteria, which mercifully has been serving no meat on Fridays.  So today is was fish and chips.  The chips (waffle fries) were fantastic, enough potato to have body and enough fry to have crunch.  The fish was, well, mostly fry and little to no fish.  Either way it was reasonably tasty and I am very happy that they aren't serving meat (just practically, I, and I'm sure a bunch of other catholics, would forget to not eat the pepperoni pizza, hamburgers, or bacon bits).
 
So, after classes/lunch I came back to Brute and finished a short essay due in Shakespeare on Monday and then I helped out in making dinner.  Usually, on weekdays we would eat over at Marian (or guys would go out someplace), but since it was the vocation weekend, we decided to have dinner here at Brute.  Anyway, I lent a hand in preparing the food (shrimp Alfredo, meatless chili, corn bread, and salad), and boy was it good.  It's one of those things, Marian's food isn't that bad, but it gets old.  Maybe I'm biased but I thought dinner was fantastic.  The Alfredo was cheesy, the chili was meaty (without meat - yeah, bad adjective use...), the corn bread was yummy, and the salad was refreshing.  (I don't think I have ever looked forward to fruits and vegetables until I came here - I guess when you don't get them as much they become more tasty).  So dinner was awesome!
 
Then I had the opportunity to go over the Marian and go to a talk by the Sisters of Life.  I didn't really know what to expect, but I was totally blown away by these sisters.  As soon as we walked in the room they were friendly and smiling and greeting us like we were their favorite people ever.  They were absolutely beaming the entire time.  It's absolutely impossible to explain, but they had this joy that just exuded from them.  One of them gave a talk on being "fully alive in the culture of death".  If I remember some of the good points I'll blog on them, but basically she explained how following Christ's call to love is the primary way to spread the pro-life message.  Why does abortion happen?  Because people don't love the children in their mother's womb, or because people don't love and support the mother.  The sister noted that we are fighting a spiritual battle and that the only way to win is to fight with spiritual weapons.  Well, what are those?  Prayer and Fasting.  Well, what do those do?  The create a personal relationship in us with Christ.  Well, what is that?  Love.  Well, what is that supposed to do?  Flow over to others. 
 
Folks, love is the foundation of every single thing we do as Christians: what we do, how we do it, why we do it.  If love of Christ doesn't flow out to others what's the point?  Sorta on the same thought: are people grumpy when they are loving?  Nope, I didn't think so.
 
Love leads to joy folks - be happy!  (Everything is in God's hands anyway).
 
Then we went back to Brute, I watched the 2nd half of "Miracle on Ice" about the US beating the USSR in the 1980 (?) Olympic hockey match, which was pretty cool, (I guess it's the 34th anniversary or something), then I skyped the family, and now I'm going to bed.
 
With that, good night!
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