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Biblical Charge to Preach Pro-Life Sermons
There is a lot of pain in our midst - pain regarding the tragedy of abortion. We as pastors share in that pain. We are also called to address it. Dealing with it is an essential aspect of our call to serve the needs of our people. Some of the pain of abortion comes from having been involved in one. Some of the pain, on the other hand, comes from simply knowing it happens. Most people understand abortion is wrong. But because they know that doing something to stop it will involve sacrifices they would rather not make, they don't really make an effort to learn more about it. Facing abortion directly, after all, will make them feel worse about not doing something about it. In the midst of this dilemma, we are called and sent as pastors. We are called to bring hope, reconciliation, and healing to those who have procured or cooperated in abortions. We are also called to encourage and equip our people to make positive changes in society, so that respect and protection for the lives of our unborn brothers and sisters will flourish. A pastor is a minister of truth and compassion, two realities which, far from being contrary to each other, are essential aspects of each other. God, after all, is both Truth and Compassion itself, and He is One. To fail in compassion for the weakness and suffering of our people is to fail to reflect the truth about their lives and the truth about God's love. To fail to bear witness to the truth, in all its clarity and vigor, is to fail in compassion, because people have a need for truth. It is as necessary for the growth of the spirit as food is for the body. His justice, ultimately, is "to undo the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). Those works, as Christ declared, are lies and murder (see John 8:44; Psalm 72 said "fraud and violence"). Nowhere is the alliance between lying and murdering more clear than in the abortion industry. Women are told their child is a "blob of tissue." They are told the abortion procedure is "safe," whereas in truth it carries untold burdens of physical and mental anguish. The pro-abortion lies are an echo of the original lie told to the first woman, "You certainly will not die" (Gen. 3:4b). Nowhere besides the abortion mills are there larger numbers of more defenseless people crying out for our intervention. A man or woman of Christ must intervene; a pastor must "make justice his aim" (see Is. 1:17). People need to know that we are on their side. A discussion of abortion, whether in private or public, should acknowledge the pain that most of us feel about it, whether we describe ourselves as pro-life or not. The psychological attitude to take and to convey is, "You are not my enemy. We are in this painful situation together, and need to help each other out of it." The individual who may react angrily to a pro-life homily is best approached with a frame of mind similar to which we care for those afflicted by personal disasters. We are dealing with good people who have pain, not with enemies. People need to know that to be pro-life is to be pro-woman. The difference between "pro-life" and "pro-choice" is not that pro-lifers love the baby and pro-choicers love the woman. The difference is that the "pro-choice" message says you can separate the two and the pro-life message says you cannot. Pro-lifers are criticized for being "fetus-lovers" who are insensitive to women. But one cannot, and pro-lifers do not, love the child without loving the mother. Abortion defenders claim they are loving women, even as they admit they are killing their children. But one cannot love the woman without loving the child. Nor can one harm the child without harming the mother. The message must be clear that to be pro-life means to be pro-woman, and that the challenge the pro-life movement gives to society is, "Why can’t we love them both?" One reason why many who think abortion is wrong will not actively oppose it is that they think they have to make a choice between defending the rights of the baby or those of the mother, or that they have to consider the baby as more important than the mother. But the authentic pro-life message is a message of equality. It is a challenge to expand the circle of our love, welcome, and protection. This insight helps resolve the conflict of the "conflicted middle" who see the evil of abortion but think it benefits women. People need to know that to oppose abortion does not mean to oppose those who have them. An aspect of the pro-woman theme of our pro-life preaching is the healing and forgiveness the Church and the pro-life movement offer to those who have been involved in abortion. The Church has the perfect spiritual and psychological balance necessary for those who have been involved in an abortion. The last thing such a person needs to here is, "What you did is no big deal." The nature of post-abortion grief is that the individual involved in the abortion has begun to realize precisely what a big deal it was! Now this person needs someone to tell her that she should not feel silly for feeling sad, that there is indeed reason for the grief in her heart, and that what her heart is telling her is true: her child was killed. A great disservice was done both to her and her child when someone convinced her that the abortion would be "no big deal." Accepting that line was a major act of denial. Healing now begins when she breaks out of denial and calls the evil what it is. The clear preaching of the Church about abortion helps her to do this. At the same time, the other line she does not need to hear is, "You are rejected; there is no hope." As she realizes the evil that has occurred, she will be tempted to say this to herself. The Church, however, contradicts that despair with the clear message of forgiveness, echoed recently by the Holy Father in Evangelium Vitae #99. The Church accompanies all who have been involved in abortion, whether the mother, father, grandparents, or even the abortion provider, to the forgiveness and healing Christ offers. Those in the pain of abortion are not helped by silence. Some refrain from preaching about abortion out of the sincere motive of not hurting women who have had abortions. Yet that silence does not interpret itself. The person grieving over abortion can infer from our silence that we do not know her pain, or that we do not care, or that there is no hope. None of this is true. By our clear and compassionate sermons we can break through the silence which led her to this disastrous choice in the first place. People need to know that abortion is their business. The key challenge in presenting our people with the abortion issue is not so much convincing them that it is wrong, but rather convincing them that it is any of their business. Abortion defenders will say, "If you are against abortion, fine…don't have one. But leave the rest of us alone to exercise our own beliefs and make our own choices." Many people who oppose abortion will therefore lament it, but will feel out of place trying to stop it. They see it as wrong, but as a private wrong, with which it is none of their business to interfere. One of the key tasks necessary here is to de-isolate the issue. People understand that we have to intervene to help the poor, the AIDS victim, the drug addict, the victim of crime and war. Even if we do not know their names, or have never seen the faces of these victims, we know it is our business to help them. We do not hear people say, "I would never abuse my child, but if the other person wants to do so, that’s her choice." The reason people do not say that is that they realize that some choices have victims. When somebody’s choice destroys or threatens somebody else’s life, that’s everyone’s business. It is, after all, the business of love, which intervenes to save our brothers and sisters in need. There, precisely, is the reason it is both our business and our privilege to work to stop abortions. People need to know that there is something they can do to stop abortion. All of the above is not yet enough. Many oppose abortion but do not think anything can be done. If we awaken people to the evil but do not guide their response, they will either end up depressed or perhaps act irresponsibly. The problem is not that there is nothing that can be done, but that there are not enough people doing the perfectly legal, peaceful and effective activities they can do to end abortion. Presenting such options in the sermon, and following up on them through well-organized parish respect life programs, will overcome another obstacle to the involvement of many in this cause: they think of the pro-life movement as an extreme and fanatical movement characterized by activities they want nothing to do with.
Please answer the call to preach to end the Culture of Death.
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