From Archbishop Donoghue

Mass for the Unborn
January 22, 2001
Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
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[See Georgia Bulletin account]

Dear Friends in Christ,

As time marches on, and as the years mount up since the infamous day in 1973, when the protection of abortion and abortionists became the law of this land, many people have surrendered to the supposed inevitability of this law, and of the wholesale destruction of human life which it warrants.

For this reason, and with the utmost fidelity, every year on this day, all people of good will, who understand and cling to the notion that life is a gift of God, gather, to remember that decision, to pray for the millions of lives lost as a consequence, and to ask God to change the will of this country, to fire up in the hearts of its people, an enthusiasm for good and right, and to shame and reform, those who have bought into the culture of death, the perverse economy which places human comfort and freedom from care, over the value of life, and the virtue of self-sacrifice.

Today, we approach God at this Mass, with many emotions in our hearts and many thoughts in our mind – but let us for just a moment, consider those which the Gospel prompts upon our conscious thoughts, and then respond to the urgings of Scripture, as we prepare to offer God our gifts, and take from Him once again, the source of all spiritual life and welfare, the Body and Blood of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

To begin with, we come before God today with sorrow in our hearts – sorrow for the lost children, the millions who have not seen the light of day, before their little lives have been grossly and cruelly terminated. In the Gospel, the Lord reminds us of God’s complete knowledge of each one of these sacrificed souls, saying,

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why even the hairs of your head are all numbered. fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

We know because we believe these words, that God does not waste the worth of one of His precious creatures, and what greater worth can there be, than the simple pure innocence of the unborn child? We ourselves know only a way to salvation, that opens before our eyes through the grace of Baptism – but the Church teaches us, and we cannot but believe, that God’s mercy for the just is exceedingly great, and withheld in no part. And so, though we bring to Him our sorrow, for the terrible grievances done against human life in this country, we also rejoice to know, that in some realm of existence, these murdered, these martyred souls, enjoy the bliss of having been numbered by their Creator – and though their lives have been turned over, for not much more than the sum of two pennies, they have become so much treasure in the rich Kingdom of God’s mercy. We do not fear for them – their glory, the glory that came upon them as they were created, has returned into the glory of the Father, and their reward is already eternal.

But we do fear – and fear greatly – for the sellers of death who have taken hold of the culture of our country – who see no difference between the extinction of the moments-old embryo, and the brutal butchering of a child already perfectly formed in the late terms of pregnancy. We bring before God, as our second gift of human emotion at this Mass, this fear – for how can we accept, that any other human beings, could flirt so boldly with the death of their won souls, as do those who practice the culture of abortion? Again, listen to the words of the Gospel, to the words of the Lord:

I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear; fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear him!

Our Lord was normally a man of patience, of compassion, of peace. But not with these words - with these words, He raises up the specter of an aspect of God, that we can barely stand to behold, or to think upon at any length – the aspect of God’s absolute and unyielding justice. We prefer to think of God's mercy – but mercy must be sought and accepted. For those who turn a cold heart to God, and turn a cold heart to humanity, and who profane that very part of God that we call, the Lord, the Giver of Life, there is no mercy, but the condemnation that comes from their own hearts, their own words, and their own actions. They have rejected the fundamental commandment of our Lord – the ultimate recourse for all humans as they stand before the judgement of God – they have rejected the truth, that love is the greatest power, and that love conquers hate. For those who hate, there is only rejection – and rejection is to be cast into hell. Let our fear – the fear that we have for those who are practitioners of death – the fear that we have for the frailty of our own souls – let this fear propel us now into a deep sense of prayer and supplication, as we come before God, in the Presence of His Son and our Lord, and ask Him for mercy – and more than mercy – as we ask Him to break the chains of evil that have bound up so many of our fellow human beings, and that threaten – that promise, to drag them down to hell, when it will be too late – and where they will never again, have the freedom to turn around, and to walk back into the light of the happiness that has been promised to all who love.

And finally, dear friends, we bring before God the most comforting, the most desired, the most liberating of those feelings which take hold of our hearts on days like this, when we contemplate the evil that surrounds us, and look for heavenly relief – we bring Him the hope that springs up from inside, and that carries us faithfully upon our way into the future. The Lord promises, in the Gospel, that nothing which is covered up, shall be left unrevealed; or hidden, that will not be known. Whatever has been said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what has been whispered in secret rooms, shall be proclaimed from the housetops. (paraphrase)

We live in this hope –that as truth reveals the enormity of the crime, the persecution, the genocide that has befallen this country under the guise of abortion, of early termination, of choice, or any other terms which the cultivators of death have devised to hide the simple fact of murder – that as the truth is more revealed, every day, by the work of our own hands, and by the added work of those who join us in this crusade for life, then our hope will be satisfied, and God will work His will in such a way, as to change this country into a land where all life is protected, from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death, and that all the traces of glory that He has revealed in each individual soul, will find their way back to the immense fullness of His own perfect glory, in the home and the family for which we all long, heaven, and the heavenly hosts.

Dear friends, God’s messengers are the angels – they bring the word of salvation, they are assigned to each of us at birth, and they follow our souls to the point of their ultimate disposition. When we die forgiven, they bear us aloft to our reward – when we die unrepentant, they relinquish their hold, their guardianship, and the condemned souls tumble into the grasp, not of angels, but of demons, impossible to imagine. A hard truth, but the truth of our Lord, who says:

And I tell you, every one who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before the angels of God; but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

Let us pray, at this Mass and every day, for those who deny the Lord and Giver of Life, that they will wake up before it is too late – let us pray as well, for the millions of aborted infants, for whom our sorrow is great, but who have already been led to their reward, by a procession of countless angels, who have returned their innocent bright souls to the full glory of God – and last, let us pray for ourselves, that no matter how long, how hard, how tiring the battle before us might be, our hope will never fail, will never falter, and that the Lord, will continue to bless us with faith in His promise, and courage to fight for His will on earth. Amen.

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