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Father Pat's Respect Life Homily
Click here
for the 2002 Vatican Statement on Cloning Father Pat's Homily from Respect Life Sunday, 06 October 2002
As Pope Paul VI writes at the beginning of the encyclical "Humanae Vitae," "But the most remarkable development of all is to be seen in man's stupendous progress in the domination and rational organization of the forces of nature to the point that he is endeavoring to extend this control over every aspect of his own life -- over his body, over his mind and emotions, over his social life, and even over the laws that regulate the transmission of life" (HV #2). The name of the encyclical means "Of Human Life." Human life came from God, belongs to God and returns to God. We can see then, that the argument "This is my body, my life, my choice" is a faulty one, at best.
In today's Gospel we see what happens when greedy tenants want to take what is not theirs. Even human life is taken in order for them to get what they want. Because of that, our Gospel says, "Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit."
There is so much for us to learn about the Church's teaching regarding sexuality. Not many of us understand the reasons behind it. We can be proud of a Church that will never stand by as governments try to take away our right to have children. We can be proud of a Church that is skeptical when technology tries to take over and demean the value of life. We can be proud to be part of a Church that will not condone the taking of an innocent life for the purpose of research.
We are responsible too, to learn. Perhaps not many of us know that those who make use of artificial contraception increase the age of their reproductive system 1 1/2 years for every year they take the pill, or the shot, or Norplant. They don't understand how they may have many abortions as the third mechanism of these forms of "birth control" kill the child within them in the first days and weeks after conception takes place. They don't understand that couples who use artificial contraception are much more likely to have an abortion when the child within has not been planned for. We don't understand that every culture that has opened the gates to artificial contraception has likewise experienced the increased practice of abortion.
Pope Paul VI said, "Such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfillment." The solution to these problems lies in accepting the fact that God is in charge. "There is a God." I am not God." As Saint Paul says, "None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die, we die as His servants. Both in life and in death, we are the Lord's" (Rom.14:7-8). Let's be responsible to the Lord! We can revisit many things. We can take another look at Natural Family Planning. The number is in the Bulletin each week. We can come to see that using the natural rhythms of the human body, when there is a good reason to do so, can also dramatically improve our marriage. The divorce rate is zero for couples who use it. Many of us don't understand that it is just as effective as artificial means. We can revisit the issue of living together before marriage. We can come to see the danger of making ourselves God and the great benefit of beginning a life together God's way, not ours. We can reaffirm our commitment to respect and defend life in all of its forms and stages. Abortion is wrong. Research that takes human life is wrong. Attempts to make ourselves God by creating human life are wrong.
Many of us say we like things that are black and white. There is nothing more black and white than life issues. This week we can pray for courage. We'll need all we can muster to defend the lives God created. To stand up for life it is sometimes necessary for us to leave our houses. We can pray at an abortion mill, in Church, or watch for Life Chain Sunday. Pictures from a previous year's Life Chain can be found here: www.frpat.com/lifechain.htm. For much excellent information, go to the Priests for Life Web Site. Father Pat is a member. www.priestsforlife.org Have a good week!
MMV Fr. Pat Umberger. This Spiritual Reflection is found each week at the Web Site www.frpat.com/weekend.htm. You can receive it automatically be e-mail, too. Subscribe right here: www.frpat.com/morningprayer.htm. Feel free to link to this page or reproduce them for parish use as long as this credit remains.
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Who
is my God? Who is in charge of my life? As we reflect upon
LIFE this weekend we are continually confronted by these
questions. As we consider things like artificial contraception,
living together before marriage, abortion and even cloning and
fetal stem cell research the same two questions come forth. One
of the key problems of our day is the myth that we can be God.
When
we accept our life as a gift from God and live it God's way we
enter into a freedom that we could never gain by doing things
our own way. When we deal with sexual issues we can become
nervous. We can hear mostly what we "shouldn't" do and miss the
reason why. The Church's teaching that it is wrong to have sex
outside marriage is not just that, but that it is wrong for us
to run away from the full reality of sex. It is wrong for us to
think we can change that reality to suit ourselves and our
wishes.