By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
A society which will not do all in its power to defend the smallest and most vulnerable among us encourages the kind of disrespect for life which leads to violence and destruction of life in all its stages, such as we have seen recently in Colorado Springs and elsewhere.
As Mother Teresa said so well, “It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” It turns out that the poverty for which we have wished in our murderous society is precisely the atmosphere of more violence, more deaths of children and others in the scourge of murders across our country outside of Planned Parenthood abortuaries as well as inside of them.
Until we shut down every last abortuary our entire country will become more and more a place of death which targets human life at every age.
Fr. Bill Carmody, pro-life director for the Diocese of Colorado Springs where the widely reported shootings took place, spoke out in the wake of the attacks. As reported by Catholic News Service, he said, “We want the conversion of Planned Parenthood, not their destruction. The pro-life movement has no place for violence.”
As he stated so well, let us always be clear that we reject violence and murder of every kind out of deepest respect and love for all human life, from conception until natural death in all its stages and conditions.
The condition of life in which we find those who procure or assist in abortions is a hidden perversion, a twisting of the human soul into a sinful loss of graced likeness to God. Mother Teresa also helped us in regard to this challenge to loving others when she called us to love the Lord Jesus in every distressing disguise. He is disguised not only in those whose physical appearance may cause us to hesitate in our embraces and loving concern, such as St. Francis did when he encountered the leper, but also those who nurture desires to murder the unborn or any other human life.
The womb should be a legally protected “safe space” for the most vulnerable: unborn boys and girls.
College students have been reminded lately by courageous college presidents that their adult educational milieu is not a “day care” or “safe space.” Protests arose at campuses across the nation in opposition to perceived emotional injustices and alleged racial grievances.
At one particular Christian college a student confronted a preacher after a religious service to accuse him of wrongdoing. The preacher’s message had resulted in the student feeling less than fully satisfied with himself, as if he needed to improve his moral rectitude in one or another area of his life. He reacted by pushing back on the preacher to accuse him instead of wrongdoing. The minister responded by reminding him that it was his conscience that was speaking to him and that such is the purpose of moral teaching: to prick our moral capacity so as to increase its likeness to the only perfect One in God.
The desire for security is programmed deep within the human psyche. But the truth remains that the only “safe space” in this life is the state of grace. When the womb is not safe even for the most innocent human lives of our unborn children, it is hypocrisy to demand safety within the web of lies that maintains this injustice while leaving our consciences conveniently untroubled.
In this season of Advent, we remember once again the “safe space” for our salvation in Mary’s womb. We can all learn from the humility of a lowly handmaiden who said “yes” to our all-holy God and His will. Jesus Christ is the safe space that God has given to all of humanity through Mary’s “fiat.” We can learn from her example how to also welcome God more fully into our lives by saying “yes” as she did to God’s will.
What’s more we are never alone, because of the grace Jesus Christ won for us: because of His life, Passion, and death He lives now for us. When we struggle with the darkness of temptation the goodness of Jesus invites us to also embrace the Father’s will, crucifying our own in order to live in the “safe space” of a state of grace.
The grace of Advent is also a doorway to discovering Marian humility. Perhaps returning to the practice of daily Mass, Scripture reading and meditation, or the prayer of the rosary can be our way of accepting more fully the annual invitation of Advent for growing more deeply into the graces of God-with-us.
St. Therese was the baby of the family and, one year looking forward to Christmas, was crushed to overhear the older members of the family talking among themselves and saying, “Thank goodness this is the last year we have to do this.” Her childish delight at the prospect of the visit of an imaginary Pere Noel was gone forever but replaced by the grace of spiritual childhood instead. She heroically accepted the real Fatherhood of God as she had learned about it in her catechism lessons. You might say that for her the experience of grace in that moment was “the line that broke the circle.” The annual Church cycle of seasons such as Advent revealed their true and highest purpose as she accepted the eternity of God in the salvation of Christ.
May each of us discover the true freedom of grace for which we came forth from our own mothers’ wombs. May the safe space of Jesus Christ through grace be the beginning of eternal life, and the annual Advent ritual that open for us more fully the Fatherhood in God that never ends.
Thank you for reading. Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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(Reverendo Padre-Kevin Michael Cusick on Facebook and @MCITLFrAphorism on Twitter.)
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