Every October the Catholic Church in the United States celebrates Respect Life Month, beginning with the first Sunday as Respect Life Sunday. The program calls attention to numerous human life issues and the way in which each touches on the sanctity and dignity of human life in all its stages from conception until natural death. This year’s theme is “Christ Our Hope: In Every Season of Life” I think it’s a wonderful theme upon which to reflect. The attacks against human life seem to grow more numerous and callous by the day. Yet, despite these challenges, we know that Christ has conquered sin and death once and for all. Through our hope in the Resurrection offered by Christ’s victory over death, we are given the grace to persevere in faith.
It is this Christian hope that we need to inject into society. True hope can be transformative, both in individuals and in communities. It’s not just the direct attacks against human life that we need to guard and fight against, but the indirect ones as well. Perhaps, I can venture to say that the direct acts against human life like abortion, artificial contraception, euthanasia, terrorism, human trafficking, murder, etc. usually start with an indirect attack. People who have lost hope can have their lives easily fall into darkness and despair. This hopelessness can lead people to behaviors which are anti-life and also leave them easy prey for those who would take advantage of them. Hope is the remedy to despair.
But authentic Christian hope is not false optimism or empty positivity. Christian hope is something much more profound and goes to the very depths of our identity as followers of Christ. The Catechism teaches us that Hope is the virtue “by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (CCC, 1817).
Jesus Christ is our hope. He has conquered death and brought new life to the world. We can certainly promote the dignity and value of life by bringing that hope to others, helping them navigate out of the darkness of despair, letting them know there is a different way, a way of life rather than death.
As we begin Respect Life Month, please take some time in prayer, ideally before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, to reflect on your own understanding of the value and dignity of each human life. Ask the Lord to help you see his creative work in every person and to give you the hope needed to defend and protect each of his masterpieces.
God bless you,
Father Joseph Byerley
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Weekday Masses: 6:30am & 8:30am (Chapel)
Saturday Masses: 8:30am (Chapel), 5:30pm-Vigil (Church)
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Friday in Chapel Area 4:30-5:15pm
Saturday in Church 4:30-5:15pm
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