Why are we gathered here this morning? Surely, we are not here to be convinced that abortion is evil and immoral, that partial-birth abortion is the killing of a baby within centimeters of being born, that physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are likewise evil and immoral, and that the cases in which the execution of an offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent in contemporary society. No, we are not here to be convinced of these facts because we are already convinced.
We are already convinced that all human life is sacred and worthy of respect from its first moment at conception all the way through to its last moment at natural death. It is precisely because of our conviction regarding human life that we are gathered here to pray together before we march together in our nation's capital. We are gathered here in these dawning days of the third Christian millennium to bear witness to the dignity and sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. The theme for today's gathering echoes this conviction and our commitment: “Respecting Life in the New Millennium.”
Yes, we are here to renew in the prayerful celebration of this Eucharistic Sacrifice our clear and unambiguous witness to life. We witness through prayer, education, action and sacrifice. In Greek, the word “martyr” means “witness.” In today's liturgy, we see depicted before us the deacon and martyr St. Vincent, who endured “torture and death for the Gospel” (cf. Opening Prayer). Most of us will probably not be called to pour out our blood in martyrdom, but all of us are definitely being called to pour out our life in daily witness to the dignity and sanctity of all human life.
We witness through prayer. It is in prayer — and only in prayer — that we are continually converted to being and to remaining pro-life. Prayer is the sine qua non element in our pro-life witness and work.
We witness through education. We must educate ourselves and others. Read the Holy Father's encyclical letter The Gospel of Life. Read our US Bishops' document Living the Gospel of Life. Understand the gospel message of love which our Lord so vividly portrayed in the story of the Good Shepherd. We must never stop learning. Understand why it is immoral to create life in the laboratory. Understand why it is immoral to use human embryos for research and development. Understand why it is immoral to develop pills that will allow a woman to abort her child in the privacy of her home. Understand why it is immoral to perform an act which is intended only within marriage. Education devoid of morality is propaganda.
We witness through action. On each anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision permitting abortion on demand, people from across this country have gathered in Washington for the March for Life. At the conclusion of this Mass, we will join our sisters and brothers in this tangible expression of support for human life, especially for life at its most vulnerable stage of attack, at its beginning at conception. We march to make public our determined commitment towards life, to bring to public attention by our witness that taking innocent and defenseless human life is always morally wrong and to seek the ultimate reversal of that 1973 Supreme Court decision, so that the culture of life may more realistically and clearly be created and sustained in our times and within our society. We march to give tangible evidence that we will not go away in our pursuit for the protection of all human life, and that we will not accept as a litmus test for candidates for public office a required support for Roe v. Wade and a host of so-called abortion rights.
We witness through sacrifice. The Lord told us that some demons can be overcome only through prayer and fasting. I echo in our midst the invitation to fast voluntarily on Fridays which Cardinal Keeler made last evening at the Basilica of the National Shrine. Therefore, I ask you to join me and the other US bishops in fasting voluntarily on Fridays — no eating in between meals, eating less, even abstaining from foods which we especially like. Yes, through prayer and fasting, the demon of abortion can be conquered. We can also sacrifice by giving our most treasured commodity — time. Take time to join me and other parishioners in this diocese as we pray before an abortion facility each month. A schedule is on the reverse side of the program for this Mass. Take time to work towards electing responsible pro-life persons to represent us at the local, state and federal levels.
Yes, in these opening days of the new millennium, strengthened and sustained by the grace of the Great Jubilee, we are renewed in our commitment to witness for life. As the Holy Father put it, “we are a people of life and for life — and that is how we present ourselves to everyone” (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 78). In his recently-published Apostolic Letter, entitled At the Beginning of the New Millennium, Pope John Paul II states, “A special commitment is needed with regard to certain aspects of the Gospel's radical message which are often less well understood even to the point of making the Church's presence unpopular, but which nevertheless must be part of her mission of charity. I am speaking of the duty to be committed to respect for the life of every human being from conception until natural death". For Christian witness to be effective, especially in these delicate and controversial areas, it is important that special efforts be made to explain properly the reasons for the Church's position, stressing that it is not a case of imposing on non-believers a vision based on faith, but of interpreting and defending the values rooted in the very nature of the human person” (no. 51).
There is no more worthy cause than the defense of human life! We must raise our voices in non-strident tones, to bring attention to the atrocity of abortion in our land and in our world. There is not one convincing argument against life's existence at conception. We can now even observe this life principle through various means of technology. The scientific community is making miraculous strides in pre-natal treatments. It is time to end the holocaust and start healing our nation, especially those who suffer so intensely after experiencing abortion.
We may have done much to enhance the cause of life in the Jubilee Year, but we must do more. Our Holy Father challenges us to “'Put out into the deep'". We"cannot justify a sense of complacency [or]"relax our commitment” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 15).
Today, as we meet the Lord Jesus in this Eucharist, we seek the grace to “choose life” so that we may truly live. We open our hearts to Him, who “came that we might have life and have it to the full.” In Him, we are renewed to be witnesses through prayer, education, action and sacrifice. We are convinced that the culture of death will give way to the culture of life and that we are to be instruments of this not-yet but certain victory of life.
And so, we turn to our Blessed Mother and echo part of a prayer with which Pope John Paul II ended his Encyclical Letter The Gospel of Life. “O Mary, bright dawn of the new world,"[l]ook down"upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of men and women who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy. Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of Life with honesty and love to the people of our time. Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel"to bear witness to it"in order to build"a civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of time. Amen” (no. 105).
