By DONALD DeMARCO
Abortion means that aborted babies will not inherit the Earth. Herein is an unequivocal tragedy. But this notion of not being eligible to inherit the Earth is being extended even to those who oppose abortion. In one rather flagrant example, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in an interview with Jessica Chasmar, stated that “extreme conservatives who are right-to-life…have no place in New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are” (The Washington Post, Sunday, January 19, 2014).
This remark, outrageously inhospitable to a significant percentage of New York state residents, did not prevent him from being elected to a third term in 2018. Apparently many New Yorkers share their governor’s disdain for anyone who is pro-life.
The state’s governor does not, in fact, know who New Yorkers are. If he did, he would find that many of them are decent law-abiding human beings who pay their taxes and support life. He would even find nominally pro-life people who elected him to office three times. Instead, he creates a political fiction and imposes that imaginary concept of what he thinks a New Yorker should be. As a result, he is really more of a traitor to his citizenry than a bona fide leader.
Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, remarked: “My governor thinks there is no place in NY for people like me. Can I get a state grant to relocate?”
Another person caught in the fire of Cuomo’s sweeping condemnation, said that “I was planning a trip to NY. But since the Governor has labeled me an Extremist, and told me I am not welcome in NY, I will go to Arizona and spend my money there.”
Some New Yorkers were willing to turn the tables on their governor. Said one distraught citizen: “If pro-life authentic Catholics have no place in New York, then a governor who supports the murder of children, the destruction of the family, and practices cohabitation/adultery who calls himself ‘Catholic’ has no place in the Church, especially receiving Holy Communion.”
If other governors share Cuomo’s position, one wonders where pro-lifers could go where they would be admitted. Their predicament would be most dire since, unlike the Jews, they would not entertain the hope of a Promised Land.
Banishment has a long, sad, and tragic history. Yet it seems particularly odd in a society that allegedly prized itself on diversity, tolerance, and pluralism. It also seems odd that those who defend life run the risk of having fundamental human rights taken away from them.
Gov. Cuomo’s theoretical expatriation of pro-lifers was brought into the public light recently by Maria Maffucci, editor-in-chief of The Human Life Review. At the Fifteenth Annual Great Defender of Life Dinner in New York City on October 4, 2018, Mrs. Maffucci, looking out at an audience of roughly 250 pro-lifers, reiterated the obvious wrongheadedness of Andrew Cuomo’s statement. It was refuted not only by an appeal to logic, but by a body count. New York’s governor has neither the right nor the power to determine who shall and who shall not inherit the Earth.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth” (Matt. 5:5). In this context, the word “meek” does not signify passivity or weakness. It is derived from the Greek term, praus, denoting strength under control. In the biblical sense, therefore, meekness is a virtue indicating that one is willing to channel his strengths in the service of God.
Pro-lifers certainly have their enemies, many of whom act in violent ways, attacking individuals, vandalizing churches, destroying pro-life literature, and so on. How should pro-life people respond to these assaults against their rights? Christ’s message in the Sermon on the Mount is advising them to bear these injustices with calmness, and to treat their enemies and detractors with patience. Christ’s message is consistent with several passages in Scripture:
“The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever” (Psalm 37:29). “Be careful to observe every command that I’m instructing you today, in order that you may live, increase, and enter and take possession of the land that the Lord promised by an oath to your ancestors” (Deut. 8:1). “Then all your people will be righteous and they will possess the land forever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor” (Isaiah 60:21).
The meek shall inherit the Earth as a gift from the Father. The Earth is not something to be seized through power. It is the birthright of the meek, those who love God and refrain from hating their enemies. The Sermon on the Mount draws a sharp distinction between the children of God and the citizens of the secular world, between the meek and the proud.
In his book, Life of Christ, Fulton J. Sheen regards this distinction as elementary, but also as conveying a powerful, perhaps even frightening, implication: “The Sermon on the Mount is so much at variance with all that our world holds dear that the world will crucify anyone who tries to live up to its values. Because Christ preached them, He had to die.”
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth” is a Beatitude that contains a most timely and important message for pro-lifers. As defenders of life, they are doing God’s work.
Nonetheless, they will be misunderstood, calumniated, vilified, and persecuted. Yet, they are not to imitate their enemies but love them. Their meekness will ultimately prove triumphant. There is much work for them to do, but they must carry out their mission with patience, determination, and love.
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(Dr. Donald DeMarco is a professor emeritus of St. Jerome’s University and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College. He is a regular columnist for St. Austin Review. His latest two books, How to Navigate Through Life and Apostles of the Culture of Life, are posted on amazon.com.)
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