Respect for Life is a major theme in
the month of October. The responsibility
that falls to us is to help the wider culture that often cheapens life to come
to understand the infinite value and worth of each unique human person. We are called to create a new culture of
Life. We are invited to acknowledge the
clear teaching of our Catholic Faith that each human being is a unique and
unrepeatable gift of God from the first moment of conception until the last breath,
when God chooses to take that person back to Himself.
Many in our world see this as a
merely a matter of religious opinion and preference. The centrality of the dignity of the human
person is considered something optional.
The irony is that every “cause” that is supported even by the secular
culture finds its strongest argument in the question of dignity. Think of the ideas that are considered common
understanding and agreement in popular culture.
Which of them does not flow from an awareness of the dignity and worth
of at least some persons?
“My rights” flow from the act of
considering myself as having value and worth.
“Injustice” of every kind is acknowledged when certain persons or
classes of persons are discriminated against by others or by structures in
society that demean them. Calls for change and for reform flow from a
recognition that it is in our power to renew a system of values. When we look toward creating a “culture of
life,” we are confronting this reality at its most fundamental level.
In the face of the world, we are an
enigma because we see things differently.
Our starting point is not ourselves, nor our own practical needs, but
the Wisdom of God Who sees us as He created us to be – free persons with
dignity and worth that He Himself has given us.
May our eyes and the eyes of all around us come to see the glory of God
in the human person and may we work to live in awareness of God’s intent for
our world.
October is also the Month of the
Rosary. Remember that the Rosary is prayed
every weekday before Mass by the St. Monica Prayer Group. The Knights of Columbus 10 a.m. Mass. Our School children pray a
decade of the Rosary after the Wednesday morning School Mass. 8:30 a.m. and a Rosary follows. Perhaps
your family can begin to pray a Family Rosary once a week or each day of the
month of October, having the children take turns in leading. At the very least, reflect this month on the
Mysteries of the Rosary and how they connect with the life of your family – the
Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries, and the Mysteries of Light (the
Luminous Mysteries) suggested by Saint Pope John Paul II.
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