March Sanity

I sit once again in warmth, gratefully contemplating this 25th of January 2013, the fortieth March for Life in Washington, D.C.  Youth and adults from our parish filled two busses.  We were especially grateful for the presence of several Knights of Columbus, who have played an important role in the March since its inception.  Our seventh and eighth graders got to see that many, many people in our nation do take the sanctity of human life very seriously.  If they or their parents would have watched the mainstream media coverage of the March, they might have learned that it happened.

This was the first year I recall having been so close to the dais where the speeches took place.  If I had to select four noteworthy participants, it would be these:

1. A 19 year old man who was conceived in rape, whose continued existence testifies to the courage of his biological mother and adoptive parents--a good spokesman for our increasingly pro-life youth and for the preservation of all babies, however conceived
2. Georgette Forney, the founder of the "Silent No More Awareness Campaign," whose members--male as well as female--speak openly about their participation in abortion, and the repentance and healing that have taken place since
3. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, whose youngest daughter, Bella, was born with Trisomy 18 and remains a miracle and a gift to her family despite doctors' suggestions to abort her
4. The director of a crisis pregnancy center, who helps to provide women with viable abortion alternatives in a safe and caring environment

I could bet that, within a 100-yard radius of wherever a person was standing, he might have encountered someone in each category: a person who was conceived in, or subjected to, rape; a post-abortive woman who has begun to share her story or who may yet do so, whenever or however appropriate; a couple who decided to carry to term and raise their genetically-compromised baby amid medical and familial suspicions; and a woman who benefited from the services of a pregnancy center, which perhaps made the difference for her child's life and helped give the woman herself a more hopeful future.

The speakers put flesh on a reality that for many people is nothing more than an issue to argue about at the neighborhood pool or at the office.  May the truth continue to be spoken in love so that no unborn child might die in vain.

"You gave them Bread from Heaven, which contains all sweetness"

Not at all incidental to today's March is the liturgical celebration, viz., the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle.  The second reading of the Liturgy of the Hours Office of Readings is an excerpt from a homily of St. John Chrysostom (full text here, though you must scroll nearly to the end).  My choice for a line/passage "for the win" is this description of the Apostle:

The most important thing of all to him...was that he knew himself to be loved by Christ.

Would that such words could be said of each of us; would that we could say them of ourselves!  Humble security in the awareness of divine love just might save a few, or a few million, lives--before or after their involvement in a sinful choice.