The Nineteenth
Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
Have
you ever looked up into the night sky and wondered which star God made to burn
for you? Centuries ago, the Lord
God took Abraham – while his name was still Abram – “outside and said: Look up
at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so, he added, will your
descendants be” (Genesis 15:5). You and I, dear brothers and sisters, are
children of Abraham through faith, as Saint Paul teaches us (cf. Galatians 3:7). If we are, then, Abraham’s descendants, then one of those stars in the
sky shines for you and another for me. What is more, because Christ the Lord
has commanded us to “make disciples of all nations,” we might say a star shines
for every person ever conceived (Matthew 28:11).
Abraham
did because “faith is man’s response to God, who reveals himself and gives
himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he
searches for the ultimate meaning of his life” (CCC, 26).
Yet
faith is also more than this. It is “a personal adherence of man to God,” an
adherence of the whole person to the revelation of God in Christ (CCC, 150). While it is true that
“believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy
Spirit,” it is also true that “believing is an authentically human act” (CCC, 154). Indeed, the knowledge that
comes from faith “is more certain than all human knowledge because it is
founded on the very word of God who cannot lie” (CCC, 157). Moreover, because faith is a human act, because it is
“the free response of the human person to the initiative of God…, faith is not
an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone” (CCC, 166).
The
faith we profess, the faith to which we cling and that motivates our actions,
comes from the Church, and “because we receive the life of faith through the
Church, she is our mother;” “because she is our mother, she is also our teacher
in the faith” (CCC, 169). Holy Mother
Church teaches us how to live out the double command of loving God and our
neighbor so that, when the Lord comes, he will finds us faithful and prudent
stewards of his love (cf. Luke 12:42).
This
past Thursday, we in Springfield saw a new affront on the dignity of our
neighbors and a stubborn refusal to live out the love of neighbor when the
Planned Parenthood facility began performing surgical abortions, that is, the
purposeful killing of babies inside their mother’s wombs using forceps and
suctions. This will now be done in this Capitol City every Thursday. If we are honest, we know
that abortion is, as Dr. Peter Kreeft has said, nothing less than “the
anti-Christ’s demonic parody of the eucharist. That’s why it uses the same holy
words, ‘This is my body,’ with the blasphemous opposite meaning.” Certainly, not everyone
who has an abortion has this intention, but the intention of the Evil One – of
the tempter and deceiver – remains the same.
Up
until Thursday, the Springfield Planned Parenthood only dispensed pills for
chemical abortions, up to 300 per year, which is itself horrendous; but now, as
it were, they have upped the ante against the beauty, wonder, and dignity of
human life. We cannot simply stand by and watch this happen! We must act to
protect the unborn, to welcome them and their mothers, to support them,
encourage them, and help them know the love of God. It is not enough to pray
for them; we must reach out to them; we must open our hearts and even our homes
to them; we must embrace them with the love of Jesus Christ. He extended his
arms on the Cross to embrace them and we must do the same! We must show them a
better way, a loving way, a beautiful way!
Rich
Mullins, one of my favorite musicians, in his song “Sometimes By Step,”
reflected on this verse about the descendants of Abraham being as countless as
the stars of the sky. He sang to God:
Sometimes I think
of Abraham
How one star he
saw had been lit for me
He was a stranger
in this land
And I am that, no
less than he
And on this road
to righteousness
Sometimes the
climb can be so steep
I may falter in my
steps
But never beyond
Your reach
These
are powerful lyrics from a man who understood well what it means to adhere his
life to God, who knew the merciful love of God, and who knew he was only a
stranger in this land. He knew what it means to walk, to live, and to love by
faith.
To
those who have had an abortion, I wish to offer a word of hope. I know this
homily is not easy for you to hear, and I am truly sorry if my words reopen old
wounds; this is not my intention. However, I know that, as Pope Francis has
said, “the tragedy of abortion is experienced by some with a superficial
awareness, as if not realizing the extreme harm that such an act
entails.” This is too often the case
and we cannot allow this to continue; we must realize the extreme harm that
abortion has on the innocent, the physical and psychological harm it does to
women, and we must work to overcome and heal it as best we can.
With
Pope Francis, “I know that it is an existential and moral ordeal. I have met so
many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonizing and painful
decision. What has happened is profoundly unjust; yet only understanding the
truth of it can enable one not to lose hope.” We know that “the
forgiveness of God cannot be denied to one who has repented, especially when
that person approaches the Sacrament of Confession with a sincere heart in
order to obtain reconciliation with the Father.” With contrite hearts, we
cannot falter beyond God’s reach.
I
urge you to enter the confessional; pour out your heart to the Father of
Mercies, and let him heal your heart. Do not forget that “the Cross of Christ
is God’s judgment on all of us and on the whole world, because through it he
offers the certitude of love and new life.” See the arms of Jesus
extended on the Cross to embrace you; draw near to him in the confessional and
let him wrap you in his merciful love. Let him grant you his forgiveness and
hear him say to you, “I absolve you of your sins.” Know that you are mothers still and your love and grief are real. Each
of us here today must acknowledge this. We must never assume we know the nature
of another’s sin or the place repentance has in their life. We must love others
exactly as we would want them to love us if they knew our own faults.
I
turn now to you parents, especially those of young
children. I know this is a hard truth to present to your children and I know
some of you are likely now squirming in your pews. I understand your discomfort
and I do not want to frighten anyone or take away from your role as the primary
teachers of your children, but I must preach the Gospel clearly; must has been
entrusted to me and much will be demanded of me (cf. Luke 12:48). I urge you to
be cautious: do not hide the truth from your children, however revolting it may
be; we cannot overcome evil by ignoring it or by hiding it. Strive, instead, to
teach your children that the purposeful killing of an innocent human being –
especially the most vulnerable – is always both wrong and evil, no matter the
method or the euphemistic terms used to describe it.
Each one of us bears the
responsibility of defending the weak. Do not make your children victims;
rather, make them defenders of the weak and defenders of truth, teach them to
be heroes, and help them understand that we are “strangers and aliens on earth”
who “desire a better homeland, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:13, 16).
If this means you have to learn for
yourselves what is truly going on, if you have to study what actually takes
place during the different kinds of abortions, then do so. Do so even if it
makes you uncomfortable; do so because
it makes you uncomfortable; let your hearts speak to you! This is your
responsibility as parents. You owe it to your children to teach them the truth,
how to reject falsehood, and how to fight against evil; you must teach them how
to love both God and neighbor, how to love every
neighbor and not just some. As parents, you have the difficult
task of judging how best to do this, what ages and what ways will best help
your children both understand and face the truth. Because your children look
first to you for models of right conduct, you are the ones who do this best and
so you must do it. As
a star shines for your own children, so, too, does a star shine for the victims
of abortion, the children, the mothers, and the fathers.
I turn now to you young adults, to
you who give so much hope to the world. The strength of your voices united
together against abortion continues to grow. Your unity frightens the likes of
Planned Parenthood because they suspect, as do I, that your generation will be
the one to overturn Roe v. Wade. Abortions among your demographic continue to
decrease because you recognize – if only implicitly – that you are the ones who
survived the age of abortion, whereas one third of your generation did not. Do
not lose heart, but keep bearing witness to the beauty of life and you can heal
much of the harm that has been done.
Jesus
says to us today, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock” (Luke 12:32).
This is not the time for fear, but for heroic and courageous love, the same
self-less love we see displayed on the Cross. May the Lord embolden us – each
of us – to proclaim his Gospel of Life so that hearts broken by fear and pain –
including our own - may be healed by his love! Amen.
Reverend Daren J. Zehnle is appointed Pastor of Saint Augustine Parish, Ashland, Illinois, and Adjutant Judicial Vicar, while retaining duties as Judge of the Diocesan Tribunal, and as Bishop’s Delegate for Matrimonial Concerns, from Parochial Vicar of Saint Agnes Parish, Springfield, Illinois, and Chief Master of Ceremonies to the Bishop, effective August 1, 2017. He is also appointed Director of the Office for Divine Worship and the Catechumenate, and to post-graduate studies in the summer program for the degree of Master of Arts in Liturgy at theLiturgical Institute of the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Illinois, effective May 1, 2017.
