Homily: Respect Life
Commissioning Mass

November 4 , 2002

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Auxiliary Bishop of Denver

We are gathered here tonight to renew our commitment to the Gospel of life asking God for His grace to help us to spread the culture of life in our society.

Today is also the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop and true pastor of his flock. In today’s Liturgy of the Hours we read a sermon given by St. Charles Borromeo during the last Synod he attended. His words still apply: “If teaching and preaching is your job, then study diligently and apply yourself to whatever is necessary for doing the job well. Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head”.

We are called to preach by the way we live. 

Today’s readings give us some practical tools to help us grow in our journey of faith and  apostolic mission.

The first reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians reminds us of the importance of practicing the virtue of humility. “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important that yourselves, each looking out not for his own interest, but also everyone for those of others”.

The Respect life ministry requires much humility from its workers. It is easy to get discouraged, to think we are wasting our time or that our efforts are in vain. We try our best to get the message of sanctity of life across to everyone, and still there are some who do not understand the gravity of abortion.

This brings to mind a true story I heard about a mother who went to her doctor seeking an abortion. It happened in a remote village in a Central American Country. The doctor asked her why she wanted the abortion. She replied that she had five children and could not afford another. The doctor became quite pensive, and, after a few minutes, looked at the woman and said:  You have five children and I understand that the oldest is the costliest to raise. Bring me your oldest child. We’ll kill that child and let the one in your womb live. You can imagine the reaction of the woman.  Of course she didn’t want her oldest child to die and so she changed her mind regarding the abortion.

This story shows us the need for humility and the importance of finding different ways of saying the same things in order to help people better understand those things that are clear and obvious to us, and at the same time, to speak the truth in a charitable way. “… each looking out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others”

As the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, says in Gospel of life, 77: “It is therefore a service of love which we are all committed to ensure to our neighbor, that his or her life may be always defended and promoted, …

The practice of humility makes it easier for us to have the right intention in our respect life ministry. The passage in the Gospel reminds us that we are to do things for the Glory of God and not for reward.

Humility and rectitude of intention are essential in our mission as people of life and for life. As Pope John Paul II says in his Encyclical letter, The Gospel of Life...  People of life because God has given us the Gospel of life. "Together we all sense our duty to preach the Gospel of life, to celebrate it in the Liturgy and in our whole existence, and to serve it with the various programs and structures which support and promote life". (n. 79)

St. Charles Borromeo tells us: “We must meditate before, during and after everything we do”. The prophet says: ‘I will pray, and then I will understand’. This will help us overcome the countless difficulties we face day after day, which, after all, are part of our work. In meditation we find the strength to bring Christ to birth in ourselves and in others.

“Society as a whole must respect, defend and promote the dignity of every human person, at every moment and in every condition of that person’s life." (81)

With this we pray, "O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life... Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love to the people of our time. Amen.”