Just over two weeks now, our government passed two very significant bills through the Commons [link 1, link 2], with horrendous probable consequences. If we look at the apparently compassionate reasons provided for pardoning women who aborted their children within weeks or even days of birth for murder (for whatever reason), and then for allowing people who are very near death and in grave pain to end their own lives with the assistance of physicians… if we look at this compassion, we may also look all the way down the slippery slopes that have been manifested to us by countries like the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada that began such evils as assisted suicide with compassion and then went further and further and further; yet those responsible for that assisted-dying bill were careful to restrict debate and to eliminate as many safeguards as possible.
And when it comes to the abortion of little unborn children very near birth – that is practically infanticide. We have all seen or held newborn babies, and we may have seen ultrasound or other images of children in the womb in the last weeks/months before birth. Many centuries ago, the Church beat barbarism out of this land, and over a long period of time, with great difficulty, established respect for human life and human dignity. We may conclude from the recent motions in Parliament that barbarism is back, even if it is now dressed in a nice suit and a tie and speaking platitudes.
In view of this great evil growing all about us, I thought I would make a quick statement of the Church teaching on human dignity, and follow it up further in the next few weeks; I’m sorry I did not do it sooner, but the last two Sundays were significant feast days, one of Corpus Christi, the other of the Apostles S. Peter and Paul. In a single line, the Church defends the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception in the womb of the mother, and until the moment of natural death. The Catechism begins by mentioning the original sin of Adam and Eve that made mankind enemies with itself, with man fighting man, as given first by the fratricide of Cain, who killed his brother Abel. We have become so adept now at hurting each other, and destroying each other’s lives, that our leaders may try to justify it morally.
From the very time of Noah, God has declared the value of human life, and sworn by covenant that the blood of man/woman spilt by his/her brother will be avenged. This was solemnised further in the Law of Moses, and drawn to the extreme by Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel, when He declared that not only murder but anger, hatred and the desire for vengeance will meet justice before Him. I shall not say too much more today, but let us note that among the natural sciences that Western society has claimed to revere, biology declares clearly that human life begins at conception in the womb of the mother, and let us note further that even non-Catholics and non-Christians who are not taken over by modern ideologies recognise the value of human life and can see the horror of any type of suicide (with due recognition of the despair that leads to it, and of the distress of family and friends and everybody else affected), and especially suicide procured with a physician’s support.
The Church authority often speaks not only to us Catholics but to people of good will. The Second Vatican Council was a good example, and its various documents are invariably addressed that way. You can see a distant echo of that in the first reading this weekend, from the depths of history.
“Lovers of Jerusalem, rejoice with her, be glad for her sake; make holiday with her, you that mourned for her till now. So shall you be her foster-children, suckled plentifully with her consolations, drinking in, to your hearts’ content, the abundant glory that is hers. Thus says the Lord, Peace shall flow through her like a river, the wealth of the nations shall pour into her like a torrent in flood; this shall be the milk you drain, like children carried at the breast, fondled on a mother’s lap.”
Prophecy of Isaias, 66: 10-14 [link]
Rejoice, declares the prophet, o Jerusalem and all you who love her. That means all Jews (Jerusalem) and well-wishing Gentiles (all those who love her). The version above even speaks of adoption, just as in the Church non-Jewish tribes are adopted into a Jewish Church. In our time, that could read all Christians and non-Christians of good will, whom the Church optimistically calls to work together with her. It is our hope that one day all the tribes of mankind will be joined to the Church. This last chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah (and we would do well to read the whole thing perhaps) speaks of the Church in prophecy. Let us raise the Cross once more, then, so that all the tribes and nations of the world will be drawn to Our Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. These days, after decades of globalisation and the cultivation of multiculturalism, the tribes and nations of the world are right around us, no longer halfway across the world, but just around a street corner.
The gospel message this weekend is a blueprint for evangelisation, and it is below in full. We know how the Bishop has been encouraging us for years to be missionary disciples. In so far as we work with the bishops and the Holy Father in Rome, we shall enjoy a similar authority to theirs: as in the reading below, ‘He who listens to you, listens to Me; he who despises you, despises Me; and he who despises Me, despises Him that sent Me.’ When it comes to issues of human dignity and morals, we may face difficulties in speaking well, even to our own family members and friends, but like the Seventy-two of the gospel reading we shall yet return rejoicing… for even the devils shall submit to us through the name of Christ.
“After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and sent them before Him, two and two, into all the cities and villages He Himself was to visit. ‘The harvest,’ He told them, is plentiful enough, but the labourers are few; you must ask the Lord to Whom the harvest belongs to send labourers out for the harvesting. Go then, and remember, I am sending you out to be like lambs among wolves. You are not to carry purse, or wallet, or shoes; you are to give no one greeting on your way. When you enter a house, say first of all, Peace be to this house, and if those who dwell there are men of good will, your good wishes shall come down upon it; if not, they will come back to you the way they went. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they have to give you; the labourer has a right to his maintenance; do not move from one house to another. When you enter a city, and they make you welcome, be content to eat the fare they offer you, and heal those who are sick there; and tell them, The kingdom of God is close upon you. But if you enter a city where they will not make you welcome, go out into their streets, and say, We brush off in your faces the very dust from your city that has clung to our feet; and be sure of this, the kingdom of God is close at hand. I tell you, it shall go less hard with Sodom at the day of judgement, than with that city. Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida! Tyre and Sidon would have repented long ago, humbling themselves with sackcloth and ashes, if the miracles done in you had been done there instead. And indeed, it shall go less hard with Tyre and Sidon at the judgement, than with you. And thou, Capharnaum, dost thou hope to be lifted up high as heaven? Thou shalt be brought low as hell. He who listens to you, listens to Me; he who despises you, despises Me; and he who despises Me, despises Him that sent Me.‘ And the seventy-two disciples came back full of rejoicing; ‘Lord,’ they said, ‘even the devils are made subject to us through Thy Name.’ He said to them, ‘I watched, while Satan was cast down like a lightning-flash from heaven. Behold, I have given you the right to trample on snakes and scorpions, and all the power of the enemy, and take no hurt from it. But you, instead of rejoicing that the devils are made subject to you, should be rejoicing that your names are enrolled in heaven.'”
Gospel of S. Luke, 10: 1-20 [link]
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 