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From Archbishop Donoghue
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Homily at the Life-Chain Benediction |
Dear Friends in Christ, Many people are mystified by the beginning lines of the Gospel we have just heard - that "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up." The line speaks of one of those terrible times, when the Hebrews were wandering in the desert, "their patience" as Scripture puts it, "worn out by the journey" - looking for the Promised Land, year after year, but never finding it, and never seeming to get any further. And one time, the people grew so weary, and disillusioned, that they threatened to return to Egypt, to return into slavery and degradation. And to bring them to their senses, God sent a plague of serpents to torment them - when their prayers for relief indicated that the Hebrews had had a change of heart, then God used the very sign by which He had chastised them, to bring them to their senses, and to end their suffering. He told Moses to lift up one of the serpents and to bless the people - Moses did as he was told, the people were relieved of their suffering, and free to return to their wandering, or rather, to their long and arduous search for the Promised Land. Not that many years ago, the citizens of this country - perhaps out of indifference, or perhaps, because they thought they were being offered a better god to worship - the citizens of this country allowed a fundamental and precious treasure to slip through their fingers, and to crash down upon the floor of popular opinion, and selfish expediency. That happened, when the fundamental guarantee of life, was adjudged by a Supreme Court of this land, not to extend to the life of the helpless infant in the womb of an unloving mother. Immediately stung, as if by the sharp tongue of a poisonous serpent, the consciences of millions were awakened, even if a little late, to the greatest threat ever met by this nation, this society, or any other - the threat of a legally protected, constitutionally guaranteed right, to take the life of another person. We live in an age which would scoff at the raising up of a magical symbol, as Moses raised up the serpent in the desert. But we raise up our own sign, the sign of the greatest magic, the magic of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ - and behind it we walk in strong but peaceful procession, a people whose only reason for marching, for protesting, is to remind people of the truth - the truth that we owe our lives to God, and that no one but God has the unencumbered right to take our lives away. It was such a walk, or I should say, thousands of walks, that recently forced the attention of the slumbering giant, the State government, to look into the hideous and loathsome practices and surroundings of the now defunct Midtown Hospital - a sore in the hide of this city, whose only real purpose was to pour money into the pockets of misguided and evil men and women, hiding behind their own sign, their own placard - a false and despicable placard which reads, "Reproductive Rights, Women's Health Care, and the Freedom to Choose." Yes, we have our victories - or better, we should say that we are given our victories - for when good happens, then it happens for one reason alone, a reason spoken of by Jesus: For God so loved the world. . . For God so loved the world. If we did not have the freely given love of God to respond to - if we did not have the belief in His call, and our need to answer His call - then we would not be here - we would be somewhere else - probably in front of the TV, lapping up some more of the tasteless pabulum that makes up the steady diet of so many of our fellow citizens, children and adults alike - and we would be, like them, indifferent to the cries of the slaughtered innocents, who cry out daily from this country's clinics and health care facilities - places that should be oases of relief, but instead, are pits of death. But we are here - before the Lord and God our Maker - before the living and True Presence of His Son our Savior - and within the chastising power of His blessing, the power of the Holy Spirit who challenges us to action, and guides our feet along the paths of civil and peaceful protest. Let us pray therefore, dear friends, today and every day, that God will hear the prayers of our hearts, and that He will grant us many more victories in the future, as we form up our chains of fraternal strength, our chains of life, and with them, lash ourselves forever, to the saving cross and triumphant promise of Jesus Christ: For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that through him, the world might [yet] be saved. + |