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Dear Friends in Christ,

These profound words of St. John's that we have heard almost defy commentary. Surely no one, in all Scripture, and in all the writings that have been done in the history of man, no one comes as close to revealing the deep well of God's love that St. John. At the same time, when we think of the evil of abortion, and the spawn of this terrible self-chosen atrocity of man - euthanasia, embryonic cell research, eugenic cloning, and all the rest - when we think of the depth of these evils, the unlighted darkness from which they proceed, the kingdom of evil led by the one who once bore the light of God, and who now seeks only the ruin of souls - when we think of these terrible evils, what can we hold up as our shield, our protection, other than the unexplainable, the inexhaustible, and the totally undeserved love of Almighty God? But even with our limited understanding of His love, we understand well the difficulties of being true to His love - especially when St. John, tells us, warns us: Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. Two tremendous challenges are held in these seemingly simple words. First, every child who is conceived and then murdered in the womb, is an instance of God's love being rejected, and of that part of His perfection lost to us. It is not lost forever, because every child who dies in the womb, as the Church teaches us, is caught up into the indefinable vastness of the Father's mercy, for no particle of God's perfection can be lost to Himself. But to us, and to what that child may have meant to human life and history, the loss is final and cannot be reclaimed. For this reason alone, we must stop all abortion, at any cost to ourselves, and yet, within the boundaries of what Christ teaches us to do. And this is the second formidable challenge of God's love - for as St. John teaches, God remains in us, only if we love one another - for if we hate, then we have chosen, by the gift of our own free will, to let into our souls a force that God will not share His being with, a force that is darkness, a dread visitor, with whom we conspire to bar the door to God, and God will not enter where we have freely chosen to expel Him. And so we are faced with the second, and perhaps greater challenge - to love our enemies, to love those who murder children - to stop them, but to love them even as we fight their actions. Today's activities are a witness to the world of what we believe - no one could miss the message, it is told on our faces, and by our numbers. But even more important, today is our cry to God above, to give us the strength and the understanding to do His will - to fight evil with good, to conquer darkness with light, to obliterate wrong by filling the world with what is right. May God, in the strength of His Holy Spirit, hear our cry, and fill us with the power we need - His love, which comes to us undeserved, but without reservation. This we ask, as always, imploring the intercession of our Lord's most holy Mother and partner in our salvation, Mary, who sheltered the Divine Humanity within her own womb, and who is, for ever and ever, the image of all goodness, of all that is possible by the power of God's love at work in man.

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1 John 4, verses 7 - 12: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.

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