Yesterday I preached a homily that drew heavily from Bl Pope John Paul II encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, as there was a conference organised by the Holy See on this encyclical and its relationship to the New Evangelisation. In fact my homily was my attempt at a summary of the Blessed pope's encyclical. Here it is:
Every
household must be a sanctuary of life – this is God's plan –
everyone, at every level of society needs to support the family in
order to make this happen … EV
As
we know the family, the sanctuary of life, is being further attacked
even from the time of the encyclical of Bl JP II, Evangelium
Vitae, in 1995. Who could have
thought that all round the world, as if coordinated, the very
definition of marriage is being changed? No longer the sanctuary of
life, but the place for personal fulfilment and the gratification of
desires.
Bl.
John Paul II wrote, in consultation with all the Bishops of the
Church, this teaching of the Gospel of Life – because of the
urgency and the seriousness by which civilised human society is
reverting to barbarism. Not only did he list all the enormously
varied and tragic ways in which life is being attacked and destroyed,
with legal protection and societal approval, but showed how all the
forces at work were in fact a coordinated attack against man. Man –
now blinded by very grave sin, and thus also blinded to the presence
of God. This isn't merely people just getting things badly wrong and
getting very confused; it is a concert of many, seemingly,
disconnected factors coming together to attack human life and create
a culture of death.
Barbarism is returning – we are in the midst of it! But we also
need to realise that the rise of the culture of death is directly
connected with secularisation – the Church's mission is thus
directly related to fighting the culture of death.
Christianity
is a culture of life,
for Christ came that we might have life, the fullness of life,
eternal life. Death was not willed for us by God. Death entered human
life through sin, and came swiftly. As the culture of death has
swiftly spread its tentacles, so the capacity to discern God's living
and saving presence has diminished. But alas it is only
before God, it is only being conscious of God's presence and of His
just judgement, that we can name our sin and recognise its full
seriousness. This was the experience of King David who had “committed
evil in the sight of the Lord.” Nathan the prophet, reminder of the
presence of the Lord in their midst, rebuked King David, and King
David exclaimed, “My offences, truly I know them; my sin is always
before me. Against you alone have I sinned; what is evil in your
sight I have done.” (Ps 51) With the culture
of death comes
a darkening of vision of God, and an incapacity to recognise the
preciousness and sanctity of all human life. People in the culture of
death do not even recognise sin.
The culture of death brings also despondency for those who are
Christian: can good be powerful enough to triumph over evil?
At
such times the People of God is called to profess, in humility and
courage, its faith in Jesus Christ, the Word
of Life
(1 Jn 1:1). For the Gospel
of Life
is not commandments, nor a programme of awareness raising, nor an
illusory promise of a better future. No, the Gospel
of Life
is the proclamation of the Person of Jesus Christ. For He declares
to us all, “I am
the way, the truth and the life.” What He said to St Martha in her
mourning, He says to us all: “I
am
the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die,
yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never
die.” For Christ, the Son of God, eternally receives Life from the
Father, and He comes from the Father with this gift of Life to share
with all men. “I came that they might have life, and have it
abundantly.” (Jn 10:10)
For the woman in the gospel today, whose sins we are told were many,
came to the Lord of Life knowing He was the Lord of life. She
acknowledged her many sins by her devotion and her tears. And the
Lord of Life gave her forgiveness. She was released from the bondage
to sin and death. This is the mission of the Church. By the power of
the Holy Spirit, through the Apostolic ministry of the Church, the
Church is called to forgive sins in the name of God. And this is a
gift of restoring men and women to Life.
The Church has received the Gospel of Life as a proclamation and a
source of joy and life. We have received it from Christ who received
it from the Father. We have received it through the Apostles who were
sent to proclaim it to the world. And so we hear daily St Paul's
words:- “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”
We
are the People of Life because God has given us
the Gospel of Life and by the Gospel of Life we have been transformed
and saved. (EV 78) We have been ransomed by Christ at the price of
His precious Blood. By Baptism we are made part of Him, as branches
in a vine deriving nourishment and fruitfulness from the One true
vine. Renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Lord the Giver of
Life, we have become a people
for Life.
And we are called to act accordingly. We have been sent. We are God's
own people. Everyone has an obligation to be at the service of life.
“That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you.” (1
Jn 1:3)
We
must listen to and know the Gospel of Life, and proclaim it in deed
and in every word
we
say -
that we might bring everyone to the Truth, who is Life. St James
wrote, “What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has
faith but has not works?” And it is a pressing need at the moment.
When the culture
of death
so forcefully opposes the
culture of life,
witnesses for the Gospel of Life are needed. We cannot rest on our
laurels. It is no good us just saying, “Isn't it nice being
Catholic” but then do nothing about proclaiming the Gospel of Life.
This is our mission. We are called to be witnesses to the Gospel of
Life – and as we know the word “martyr” is literally “witness”.
This missionary call is a call to sacrifice oneself for the
proclamation of the Gospel of Life. We must die to ourselves, that
others may live to Christ. Proclaiming the Gospel of Life in our own
time can at times be scary, provoke very negative reactions and can
cause us suffering. But thus have the witnesses of the Church ever
been – uniting their suffering with Christ's.
We must learn to stand with Our Lady at the foot of the Cross of the
suffering Christ, but which is the Tree of Life. We look to Our Lady
for inspiration and help. In the Book of Revelation she is a great
portent in the heavens, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon
under her feet and a crown of twelve stars. And in the apocalyptic
vision she is with child. She bears Life. The Motherhood of Mary
makes possible the mission of the Church. She is the “New Eve”
and truly the mother of all the living (literal trans of 'Eve'). The
portent of the woman clothed with the sun, is accompanied with
another portent: a great red dragon, which is Satan, the personal
power of evil.
Life
is always at the centre of a great cosmic battle. The dragon desires
to devour the child. The child is Christ of course, but also every
precious human life is that
child, for our Lord says, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to
one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” (Mt
25:40) We are to hear what Mary heard from the Angel, “Do not be
afraid Mary … with God nothing is impossible.”
O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living,
to you do
we entrust the cause of life.
Look down, O Mother, upon the vast
numbers of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives
are made difficult,
of men and women who are victims of brutal
violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or
out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who
believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty
and love to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the
grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new,
the joy of
celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives
and the
courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilization of
truth and love, to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and
lover of life. Amen.
