By FR. THOMAS SULLIVAN
(Editor’s Note: This is a talk given by Fr. Thomas Sullivan of St. Catherine Parish in Norwood, Mass., to mark the National Day of Remembrance for victims of abortion on September 14, 2019. He spoke at the Monument to the Unborn in front of the Knights of Columbus Hall in Norwood. James Drummey, author of the Catholic Replies column, provided The Wanderer with the text. All rights reserved.)
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Proponents of abortion seem to be getting bolder by the day. On the surface that can be discouraging, and certainly the real consequences for countless unborn children are very grave, but I think we can find some hope in the darkness. Those who support and promote this barbaric practice are moving to the extreme.
I don’t think it’s because they have a public mandate and are confident in victory. Quite the contrary. I think the new laws they have advanced in certain states are the wild flailings of a wounded animal. They have lost the argument. They have no appeal to reasoned discourse, and so they appeal to emotion and fear-mongering instead.
To maintain the ground they have already, they have become even more radical. Abortions up to the moment of birth! And if the child survives the initial attempt and is born alive, she’s left to die alone.
These advocates for abortion are sowing the seeds of their own defeat. They have overreached and they will fall. Sin is ultimately self-defeating. That’s no more dramatically manifested than on Calvary.
I can think of no more fitting day for this prayer service for the unborn than this Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. As Deacon Miller said at Mass this morning, the Cross is an implement of torture, and humiliation, and death. A sign of warning to those subject to a pagan Roman authority not to step out of line. And yet, Christ takes up His own Cross and reverses the symbolism. His Holy Cross replaces hatred with Love…terror with Hope…death with New Life.
On Calvary, Satan’s greatest victory becomes his very undoing. We all know what a catastrophe is . . . some sudden disaster causing terrible damage. The Crucifixion is what we call a eucatastrophe . . . when things seem at their worst, there is a sudden and unexpected happy resolution. It’s hard to think of something more disastrous than the Death of God. Certainly that was true for the disciples who fled from Christ in His Passion. This man they had come to believe in, this man they recognized as the Messiah, goes down to horrible and bloody defeat.
The Eternal Son of God becomes man, taking on our human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, He teaches and heals and performs great miracles, only to be nailed to a cross. The very thing Satan desired in his hatred of God, he achieves! And in that moment secures his own defeat.
The loving self-sacrifice of the Cross shatters deaths power over man. The gates of Heaven that Satan delighted in closing when he tempted Adam and Eve into the Original Sin, are now flung open never to be locked again. Catastrophe is really eucatastrophe. There’s a great shot in Gibson’s Passion of the Christ: Satan has been stalking Jesus throughout the film, but the moment Jesus dies on the Cross it cuts to the Devil screaming in impotent rage, alone in the wilderness. He’s done his damnedest to beat Christ and his pyrrhic victory has been swallowed up by God’s Providence.
Satan is that wounded animal now. His time is coming to an end. He knows he has lost, but he will still try to lash out at us and take down as many souls as possible. A wounded animal is a dangerous animal. So it is with the abortion industry.
Much To Be Proud Of
We know Christ has the final victory, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t casualties to avoid in the meantime. Little children cruelly deprived of life, even more cruelly deprived of the ordinary means of salvation in Baptism. We entrust their souls to God’s mercy through the intercession of the Holy Innocents. God can save apart from Baptism by Water, so we ask Him to save the victims of abortion by their Baptism by Blood.
We pray, too, for the conversion and spiritual and emotional healing of those who have procured abortions, we pray for those who have facilitated and performed those abortions, we pray for the conversion of politicians and judges who advance and protect the laws that permit this legalized murder.
I’ve said it from the pulpit recently, and I’ll repeat myself now: As Catholics we have much to be proud of in this fight for Life. There would be no Pro-Life movement to speak of in this country without the Catholic Church and her faithful sons and daughters.
But we have much to be ashamed of, too. There would not be the extreme abortion regime in this country were it not for Quisling Catholics in our government, and even duplicitous clergy who betray our just cause and give cover to Catholics who would reject the Church’s counsel and teaching.
That’s not to say our most effective argument is a Biblical one. Quoting Scripture to opponents who reject Scripture’s authority isn’t likely to get us anywhere, though it can be used to refute those people who absurdly claim that the Bible is silent on the topic. We can make an airtight argument on our opponent’s grounds. They like to pretend that we are just religious fanatics trying to impose our superstitions on the whole country. Meanwhile, they claim the high ground of being people of science and reason. Nonsense! The science is on our side . . . the truth is on our side.
I remember the Speaker of the House, a self-professed Catholic, making the argument for abortion based on Augustine’s and Aquinas’ writings on when ensoulment occurs. It would be laughable if it weren’t so infuriating. Here’s a woman twisting the words of saints who were operating on the scientific understanding of the fifth and thirteenth centuries as to when life begins.
But we’re the ones who are supposedly anti-science! It is irrefutable that human life begins at conception. In that very moment a new human being comes into existence, distinct from its mother and its father. And that child is innocent of any crime, any offense. The supporters of abortion would be forced to say that it’s not always wrong to deliberately take an innocent human life. Most don’t want to say that, so instead they dodge the argument, they ignore the scientific fact, and they launch ad hominem attacks instead. “You hate women!” “You don’t care about the child once she’s born!”
We’ve heard the accusations before. They can’t defend the unreasonable with reason, so they appeal to emotion. They tell tragic stories of difficult cases. Cases of women who deserve our support and care, but not the lie that murder is a solution to their problems. They dehumanize, calling human life a cluster of cells. They speak of a child like it were the enemy of its own mother. They speak of pregnancy like it were a disease. They make themselves the arbiters of good and evil, making something good simply because it’s what they want: whether that be a baby or the abortion of that baby.
Pray For President Trump
We must meet this with patience, and reason, and truth…and Faith in God’s victory. In the political sphere we make our case to convince the undecided. We hold our elected officials accountable for their choices. We encourage Pro-Life legislators and executives to stand firm.
Who’d have thought that Donald Trump would be the most pro-active, solidly pro-life President this country has ever seen? Pray for him and his judicial appointments. Whether you’re a supporter of his or not, it’s tough to deny that he has faced more vitriolic hate than any politician this country has ever seen. That’s due in large part to his stance on life and the type of justices he will continue to nominate. But don’t let political back and forth rob you of your peace. Don’t let victories and defeats get you too high or low in this Vale of Tears. Stay steady.
Final victory was secured on the Cross.
I’d take a few minutes to view this fight for Life through three lenses, three people who kept vigil on Calvary. Mary Magdalene, St. John, and the Blessed Mother. They beheld the consequences of sin with their own eyes, as Christ hung on the Cross. How do we deal with the monstrous sin of abortion on bloody display in this nation?
When you consider St. Mary Magdalene, think about the reality of conversion. She turned away from sin, she was healed of the damage wrought by demonic influence, she became the Apostle to the Apostles, she witnessed the Risen Lord, she is one of our most beloved saints. Conversion happens, and it can happen in the most unlikely of people.
Think about Dr. Bernard Nathanson who founded NARAL and personally performed many abortions. He died a Catholic and a staunch voice for the Pro-Life cause. What grace-filled moment began his conversion? It was seeing an abortion on ultrasound. He saw a baby struggle for life with his own eyes, and it changed him forever.
The technologies that science provides demonstrate the truth of the Pro-Life position. That’s why abortion providers and advocates fight so viciously against laws that would require a mother to see her child on ultrasound. There’s no hiding what it is.
Abby Johnson, a director of a Planned Parenthood Clinic had a similar response to seeing an abortion on ultrasound. And likewise, she too became an advocate for the unborn and a Catholic.
Jane Doe herself, Norma McCorvey, repented of her abortion and died a Catholic convert. All truth leads to the source of truth.
Our opponents are not irredeemable. They can come to a knowledge of the truth about abortion. And when they see that it’s the Church who stands strong on the side of the Unborn, the Church’s witness has even an evangelical power.
St. John, too, stood below the cross, Apostle and Minister of Christ’s Body and Blood.
Never forget your priestly office as one of the Baptized. You are empowered to offer spiritual sacrifices and to ask the Lord to apply that grace to this fight. When you keep vigil outside a clinic, praying the Rosary, offering up the discomfort of heat and cold, meekly accepting the scorn and insults of passers-by, you are acting in a priestly way. You are offering a sacrifice to God on behalf of the victims of abortion. When you have Masses said by the ordained priests of the Church for this intention, you are unleashing the greatest spiritual weapon possible.
In places around the country Adoration Chapels have been set up near these clinics. The Substantial Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament does much to keep at bay those demons that attach themselves to abortion clinics.
We can’t put a number on how many women have turned away from a possible abortion because of the graces given through the Eucharist, through prayer, and through the penances we take on for the sake of the unborn and desperate mothers.
But we know that that grace is effective.
The Witness Of Mothers
And lastly, think of our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary. In our defense of the unborn it is absolutely essential that we also demonstrate the dignity and joy of motherhood. Our “No” to abortion must entail a resounding “YES” to motherhood.
You mothers do much for the unborn simply in being good and loving mothers and wives. The example you model for young women can have an effect. Your honesty about the challenges and sorrows of motherhood can make that frightened girl realize that she’s not alone, and that despite the hardships there is a lasting joy that comes from saying yes to Life.
Mothers console and they counsel, they encourage and they correct. When you stand outside those clinics in prayer, I know many also engage the women looking to go inside. Your kindness and patience, your motherliness, has saved lives. There are children walking around today because of you. Always refer what you do to the Blessed Mother. Take her as your constant guide and the standard of Faith, Hope, and Love to which you strive. She suffered much; her sorrow on Calvary was far greater than anyone else in history, save her Son.
But she braved a hostile crowd to be present to her Son in His agony. And so her Joy at His Resurrection was also greater than anyone else’s.
Christ is Risen . . . Death is defeated . . . we have been snatched out of Satan’s grasp. Be joyful warriors even in the sorrows of this world. We won on Calvary and our victory won’t be taken from us if we remain with Mary, John, and the Magdalene at the foot of the Cross. As we behold the consequences of sin hanging from the Cross, we know that God triumphs in defeat.
Together we can say, “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you…because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.”
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