BEING PRO-LIFE

BEING PRO-LIFE

Fr Luke A Veronis

Pro-Life. What does that mean? Before anyone tunes me out because they think I’m getting too political, this isn’t about politics or about hot button cultural issues. It is about the Good News of Great Joy that we celebrated on Christmas Day and which our Lord Jesus Christ ushers into the world.

Pro-Life meaning valuing life, true life the way that God meant us to live. “I have come to give you life and to give it to you abundantly,” Jesus promised, and He does give an abundant life to all those who choose to live under the Light He brought into the world 2000 years ago. And yet, so many people choose instead to live unhappy, unfulfilled, and even miserable lives. Too many people tend to exist but do not truly live. They complain about all they don’t have or about how unfair life has been to them. They focus on the negative and on the difficult challenges of life they’ve faced. They live every day simply trying to get by or survive, instead of truly living with the Good News of Great Joy guiding us.

Life is a beautiful gift of love that we embrace and with which we bless and enrich others. Life is filled with wonder and joy, with beauty and blessings if we have the eyes to see. The shepherds and the wise men understood this gift of life while the people of Bethlehem remained oblivious  to life in their midst and King Herod himself chose ignorance and darkness over life.

Think about the contrast we see in today’s Gospel story. We have the story beginning with the wise men, the Persian scientists/scholars/priests who came to adore the Christ child and offered Him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These foreigners followed a star based on faith and discovered the greatest treasure of life – the newborn King, the Christ-child. After worshipping Him, they departed to their homes with a new understanding of life.

Meanwhile, King Herod feels tricked by the wise men when they don’t return to Jerusalem to report where they found the child. In his blind fury and rage, in his insecurity and pride, he orders the massacre of thousands of innocent infants in order to preserve his earthly kingship.

The wise men chose life. King Herod chose death. The wise men discovered the greatest treasure of life, the newborn Christ-child. King Herod remained in utter darkness and evil, wrestling with His meaningless pride and ego, resulting in the horror of violence and death.

Well, today, on the 5^th day of Christmas, we honor and remember the Holy Innocents. These little children killed by King Herod are living among the saints in heaven today, joining the angelic powers and the Church triumphant in praising God for the past two millenia since their horrible deaths. Their tragedy didn’t end in death but in eternal life, and they are still alive and remembered by the Church every year. Meanwhile, King Herod with all his earthly power and temporary pseudo-glory, is simply a despised memory of history’s insane and violent tyrants, lost in the darkness of their ego which led to their eternal death. Imagine that he is memorialized in history for his slaughter of the Holy Innocents.

Followers of the newborn Christ-child are Pro-Life and discover the deepest meaning of life, even when that life is cut short. We choose to live the life God gives us and fulfill our divine potential as God meant us to become. We rejoice in this gift of life. however long or short it may be.

Being pro-life takes on its greatest meaning when we discover life in Jesus Christ the newborn Savior, and this takes on even greater meaning when we learn to respect life at every stage of our being, from the moment of our conception in the womb to the moment of our natural death whenever it comes. During this Christmas season, some of the hymns highlight how our salvation begins from the moment of Jesus’ conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Almighty God condescended Himself and began our salvation as a tiny developing fetus in the womb of Mary. What incomprehensible humility, and yet what a humble lesson for us to understand the beginning of life.

Because of this, as we honor the thousands of Holy Innocents of Bethlehem today, we should also pause and remember the millions of Holy Innocents who have died through abortions and reflect on how they joined the heavenly host of saints eternally praising the Almighty, despite the horror and violence they faced in the cruel end of their brief lives.

Being pro-life, however, doesn’t stop with honoring the Holy Innocents before birth. Being pro-life means respecting life at every stage from birth to natural death for all humanity. It means supporting the young infants and children throughout society and the world who face violence and war, abuse and abandonment, the inequalities of the world, or the dysfunctions of families and societies. Are we doing all we can to help these children experience the fullness of life?

Being pro-life implies having compassionate eyes to see the suffering of people all around us whatever their age may be and reaching out to them and helping them know they are not alone in life’s struggles. It means sharing the blessings we have received, both spiritually and physically, to enrich the lives of others.

Being pro-life means we see the value in every human being and never place labels on any group of people as a means to separate them from ourselves, to dehumanize them. Just as we want to live, others want to live the fullness of life as well. We need to respect and love all of humanity.

Being pro-life implies seeing the good in others even when they’ve made mistakes in their lives. Our Church has begun a winter coat/sweater/gloves drive for women in the Correctional Institution in Chicopee. Yes, people in prison may have made terrible choices in their lives, and yet, we still are called to love them and help them to recover a healthy understanding of life.

Being pro-life means rejecting capital punishment, even for those who have committed heinous crimes. Yes, society may need to imprison people to protect society but we should never choose to take a life away as a means of retribution. Life is a treasure always to be valued.

Being pro-life implies respecting life even into old age with all its challenges and struggles. We respect life to the point of natural death, whenever the Lord may call us to our eternal home. We should never support the premature death of people, even as they face the mystery of suffering.

This season of Christmas with all the depth of its celebration – from the nativity of the Christ-child, to the honoring of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, to the upcoming celebration of the New Year and the feast of Theophany/Epiphany – let us celebrate the gift of life. Let us enter into the joy and wonder of this precious gift of life and help all people discover what being pro-life truly means in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.