This month we observe the lamentable anniversary of the legalization of abortion on demand in this country. As we continue to work for the protection of the unborn child against the forces that sustain the culture of death, I am reminded of an important scripture passage in the Gospel according to John (16, 33): “These things I have spoken to you, that indeed, you have peace. In the world you shall have distress. Have confidence, I have overcome the world.” The Lord Jesus desires for us peace, and in the passage he speaks to us of the source of that peace, that is to say his victory. “I have overcome the world,” he says.
This Year of Faith is a call from the Holy Father to reinvigorate what it means to be a believer, what it means to be a man or woman of faith, a young person of faith, to recognize how it sets us apart from the world, to recognize it as a gift. In the context of our renewal of the sense of faith as a gift, it is good to meditate upon the words of the Lord when he says, “I have overcome the world.” To believe this is a gift of faith. It is not always what we see with our eyes or what we perceive by virtue of news reports or other sources of information. Rather, it is a certain confidence rooted in our faith in the Lord Himself. To quote Hopkins' translation of a poetic line from Saint Thomas Aquinas: "Truth himself speaks truly, or there's nothing true." The bedrock of our activities as a people of love, a people of hope, is ultimately our faith in this victory that Christ Jesus speaks of and which he has already won. It is a victory which manifests itself first of all in his victory on the cross over death. He opens eternal life to us, and in so doing he vindicates the goodness of life itself. In the end, death does not win.
In Christ Jesus risen from the dead, we have definitively revealed before our eyes the victory of life over death. This is the sum of everything we believe as Catholics, as Christians. It is not our victory in the sense that we have brought it about. But it is our victory in the sense that his victory is a victory for us, and it is ours exactly to the extent we are associated by grace to the life of the Risen Christ: He has overcome the world. What we must do is seek the grace to refortify our faith so as to live and to act in accord with his victory. To live by faith means that we build our lives around the sure conviction that life is the gift at the heart of reality, that it is good, and that it triumphs over death.
The gift of life is not just a biological reality, though, it is also the sense of joy that comes with life; life is something to be embraced, to be extraordinarily grateful for, something that is meant to be shared, and something that comes from God. To be someone who is pro-life, in the large sense, is to be someone who is "pro" the goodness of life, and to give witness to the fact that this great goodness of life must be defended. For, indeed, we live in a world that is grossly fascinated with the power of death.
The world to which we are called to evangelize is a world that is in many ways mesmerized, almost hypnotized, by the power of death. Death has a way of covering the eyes. It is a power that stubbornly continues to express itself in this world. The world needs to know that it is always better to appreciate the gift of life than it is to be mesmerized by the power of death.
In the trilogy the Hunger Games, the author Suzanne Collins presents a stark world where the mesmerizing power of death is clearly displayed. Death has become a game designed to entertain everybody and control everyone. There are characters in the story who are the innocent victims of the power that makes death into a game and a means of control. The principle victims are children. Bizarre as the set up of these novels is, it is not unthinkable that the world could reach a stage where death is accepted as a spectacle, where the powerful use children as pawns to create a manipulative diversion ultimately aimed at maintaining power and control. I am no literary critic, just a reader, and some of my literary friends find the books painfully discouraging. But I see little glimmers of light in the tail. I am convinced the author is looking to tell the reader that it doesn’t have to be this way; death does not have to win. Despite the unleashing of the full mesmerizing power of death to blind an entire people to the goodness of life, the social order rooted in the teeth of the dragon -- so to speak -- does not triumph in the end. The conclusion does not show us a final victory in favor of life, but it does show the reader that small moments of heroism, rooted in love and in the resiliency of the human conscience can set the stage for a better way.
There is a lesson here for us. We are here to say, ‘it doesn’t have to be this way." We don’t have to sacrifice an unborn child for somebody else to be happy. We don’t have to let utilitarian criterion govern all the decisions we make in nation, our families and in our homes. It takes a heroic, a courageous breaking-through and waking-up, though, to break the spell that death can weave in a world that so easily falls into the attitude that says “well this is how the game works; death is in charge.” But it doesn’t have to be this way. When Blessed Pope John Paul II called us to build a culture of life, he was calling us to give witness to the fact that life triumphs over death and that it is possible to build a civilization where society acts in favor of the goodness of life, from the unborn child to the aging person who is dying of a terminal illness.
In this Year of Faith, we must strengthen our own sense of the victory of life and the power of Christ to break through the mesmerizing effect, this fascination the world has with the morose. Jesus says, “I have overcome the world.” Like lightning on a cloudy night, the victory that God wins through the passion, death and resurrection of Christ the Lord is the break-through of the power of life into a world darkened by the aggressive power of death. We must be reconfirmed in our faith because we do sometimes get discouraged. That too is part of the power of death, it's power to discourage. It is important to cultivate our faith in the victory of Christ and to invite the the light of the Lord’s life and his victory of life to take greater possession of each one of us.
This gift of faith we have received is the only hope of the world; it breaks through the culture of death. Out culture desperately needs an infusion of faith in the goodness of life. In this context, we can hear the Lord speak these words, “Take care little flock for I have overcome the world,” for we are often afraid. Sometimes we think we are outnumbered, but numbers never matter with God. What matters is the conviction of his grace working through those who do believe.
That’s exactly why the witness of the pro-life procession scheduled this January 19th, here in the Diocese of Brownsville, and so much that happens throughout the year to promote life, is an expression that comes out of our faith. What we are really doing is planting the victory. The victory is present: “Take care little flock. Do not be afraid.” Our witness must be sincere and based on our faith in the victory of life. Never underestimate the power of your prayers. Some things can only be dealt with, Jesus said, with much prayer and fasting. Continue your witness of prayer. It is possible for us to push back the tide that seems to think, “Oh well, we cannot win over the forces of death.” But we know better, because the force of life has already won. “Take care little flock. I have overcome the world.”
