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October 30, 2010

Homily: Respect Life Mass

Bishop Conley delivered the following homily during the Archdiocese of Denver's annual Respect Life Mass. In previous years, the Mass was celebrated on the anniversary of the passage of Roe v. Wade, and in reparation for sins against human life. Beginning in 2010, the Mass was moved to October, which is celebrated as Respect Life Month, thus enabling the celebration to honor all pro-life issues, not just the issue of abortion. 

Every child... brings us God’s smile and invites us to recognize that life is his gift,
a gift to be welcomed with love and preserved with care always and at every moment. 

On behalf of Archbishop Chaput, Msgr. Fryar and my brother priests, I would like to welcome all of you today to the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, for our annual Respect Life Mass of the Archdiocese of Denver. We have been coming together as an archdiocesan family of faith since 1974, the year after the tragic supreme court decision of Roe vs. Wade, to pray and to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the restoration of the right to life for all of Christ’s brothers and sisters from the very first moment of their existence to natural death and to pray for an end to the abortion holocaust.

In the past, this Mass had always coincided with the week of the Right to Life Rally held at the state capital. This annual Mass was always celebrated on the Saturday before the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade which is always commemorated on January 22. Last year the U.S. Catholic bishops received approval from Rome for a special Day of Prayer and Penance on January 22 each year, penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. So in accord with the U.S. Bishops’ request, a solemn mass will be held on Saturday, January 22, 2011, at 10:00 a.m. here at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and I urge all of you to join us for this Solemn Mass. Since January 22 falls on a Saturday this coming year, there is no reason why we cannot fill this Basilica on that morning. The annual Right to Life Rally at the capital will be held on Friday, January 21, during the legislative session.

Because of the newly approved Day of Prayer and Penance for Life, we decided to move this annual Respect Life Mass to the month of October, the month dedicated by the Church in the United States to the issues of life. Today we are celebrating a special Votive Mass on honor of Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, from the special Marian Missal, calling upon Our Lady to strengthen us in our resolve “to love without measure” in our defense of human life.

Each week during Respect Life Month the Denver Catholic Register has been featuring articles on all the many life issues: the beginning of life issues of abortion, contraception, embryonic stem cell experimentation, infertility and adoption, to the end of life issues of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, the death penalty, suicide in general, care for the elderly and dying, and all the life issues in between, the family, same sex unions and marriage between one man and one woman, sex trafficking, post abortion reconciliation and healing, people living with disabilities, crisis pregnancy ministry, population control and manipulation, and youth involvement in the pro-life movement and many other issues.

This annual Respect Life Mass, thanks be to God, has grown in size over the years and we have added the pro-vitae awards to clergy and the lay faithful who witness for life within their communities. Also the Respect Life Essay contest for 7th and 8th graders was added to provide the opportunity for middle school students to learn, understand and then articulate and defend our Catholic teachings on the sanctity and dignity of human life. These young people, one of whom we will hear today, are the future of the pro-life movement and we are proud to honor them.

The ministries of the Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Denver, the Gabriel Project and Project Rachel along with ENDOW (Education on the Nature and Dignity of Women), the Bridge Community, the Hispanic Community, Mullen Home for the elderly, the tremendous and absolutely vital initiatives to promote, teach and learn the beauty of Natural Family Planning and Natural Procreative Technologies in our parishes and health care facilities as the only alternative to contraception, will all be recognized and honored today.

The theme for this year’s Respect Life program is “The Measure of Love is to love without Measure” and the quote which I began this homily is from Pope Benedict XVI:

Every child... brings us God’s smile and invites us to recognize that life is his gift, a gift to be welcomed with love and preserved with care always and at every moment.

These beautiful words spoken by our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, remind us of the central truth, the undeniable reality of the human person. We all know this. Who could deny the beauty of the smile of a baby? Who could not recognize that life is a gift, “a gift to be welcomed with love and preserved with care always and at every moment?” And yet, we know all too well, that something is horribly wrong in our culture and in our nation. We have bought into a culture of death!

Every person is a child of someone and always will be, and we all reflect and image God in the world. Each of us is a unique messenger of God and his creative love, simply by our presence in this world. We each bring God to our neighbor and possess an immeasurable value, not only those who are chronologically children, but every human being regardless of their level dependence or ability.

Respect Life Month offers us the occasion to assess matters related to the sanctity and dignity of human life. Sadly, we see human life being attacked at every angle, and so there is a great need for each of us to be engaged in order to take our part in serving human life. This includes protecting the dignity of every human being and being at the service of others in charity.

We often do not make the connection, but it is vitally important to realize that we cannot respect human life, without also respecting and defending the family. The family is the most basic cell of society and church. It is the best and most stable place for children to be conceived, born, nurtured, and formed to be good citizens and good persons. This is not to minimize the often heroic efforts of those who, through no fault of their own, find themselves without the reality of a traditional family, and strive to do their best. Nevertheless, many of the evils that are deeply anti-life and anti-family, originated as “solutions” to the problems created by the breakdown of the family. Unfortunately, movements are afoot to further undermine and weaken the family.
Efforts continue that seek to redefine the very meaning of marriage, which is the basis of family life. “What God has joined together, no human being must separate.” (Mk 10:9)

No human being has the authority to separate husband from wife and no authority has the right separate the procreative power of married love from the unity of husband and wife. Defending the family is, indeed, a defense of life. Serving and preserving the traditional definition of marriage between a man and a woman serves both life and the truth of the human person.

Catholics are also called by virtue of baptism to serve and protect human life, especially at its most vulnerable and weakest points. This includes human life before birth. Embryonic stem-cell research involves destroying living human beings for speculative medical research. Each year, abortion continues to claim over one million boys and girls in America alone. Fortunately, polls indicate that a majority of Americans are opposed to abortion. It is important to realize that one of the best ways to counter abortion is to reach out to those who are facing the crisis of an unwanted pregnancy, showing that there are options other than killing. Project Gabriel here in Denver is one such organization among others that reaches out to women who find themselves in this desperate situation.

We also cannot forget those women and men who have been traumatized by the abortion experience. They need to know that our God is a merciful God and that the Church stands ready and willing to extend God’s mercy and healing. Project Rachel and Rachel’s Vineyard are two ministries which reach out to women and men with healing and reconciliation.

Human life is weak and vulnerable after birth, too.

Participants of the Oct. 30 Prayer Vigil outside Planned Parenthood went barefoot in solidarity with those lost to abortion, for those babies who will never walk because they were aborted. Photo courtesy of James Baca/DCR

Legally-assisted suicide and euthanasia arise out of the false view that some lives are not worth living, and that some people are not worth protecting. These efforts fall under the false guise of mercy and compassion, but mercy and compassion without the truth, is false mercy and false compassion. It is a lie.

Every person is a child and every child is a precious gem of incalculable worth. Accepting a new life into one’s family, and accepting the lives of every brother and sister in the human family, honors God, the author of every human soul.

As Pope Benedict reminds us, “every child brings us God’s smile.” One researcher found that the average child laughs 400 times a day; the average adult, only 15 times a day. Children also inspire the self-giving, sacrificial love of family members, increasing the happiness and holiness of all. This should tell us something about why we need more children in the world!

We all know this truth in our heart of hearts. Human beings have always sensed these truths, but the advent of contraception in the early 1960's and the legalization of abortion in the 1970's, which is nothing more than a back-up for failed contraception, brought about a very strange and widespread disdain for unborn children. In the United States alone over one million boys and girls, brothers and sisters, are killed by abortion every year. The bodies of many aborted children have been used in fetal research. Fertility clinics manufacture, freeze, and discard tiny human embryos like biological products, and some scientists create and destroy little human beings for embryonic stem cell research. How did we descend to such barbaric depths?

Every child, at every age of development, “brings us God’s smile and invites us to recognize that life is his gift, a gift to be welcomed with love and preserved with care always and at every moment.”

My brothers and sisters, we have our work cut out for us. But we need not be discouraged nor should we despair. Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of the Church, the Seat of Wisdom, is our life, our sweetness and our hope. She who carried our Redeemer, the Life the world, the Son of God, in her womb for nine months, she is with us now.

Among Our Blessed Mother’s many great prerogatives is Hope - she is our life, our sweetness and our hope. And even now, as once in the darkness of Egypt, when the Hebrew families painted their houses with the sacrificial blood of lambs, she is moving by the doorposts of our hearts, painting them with the Precious Blood of her Son.
 

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