The Dignity of the Human Person

The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on Saturday, Aug. 17, at St. James Church in Falls Church at the bishop’s monthly Respect Life Mass.

"It is ‘God, who is rich in mercy’ whom Jesus Christ has revealed to us as Father: it is His very Son who, in Himself, has manifested Him and made Him known to us" (Dives in Misericordia, 1). His very Son, "The Redeemer of Man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the universe and of history" (Redemptor Hominis, 1). These are the first sentences of the first two encyclicals written by our present Holy Father, which reflect the merciful nature of our God. God, who sent his Son Jesus Christ to us as an act of mercy to redeem us from our sins, came to us born of a Virgin named Mary. "The union of the Mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to His death" (Lumen Gentium, 57).

Today, we celebrate a votive Mass honoring our Blessed Lady in her role as Queen and Mother of Mercy. As we just heard in the Gospel, Mary’s words led to the beginning of her Son’s public ministry: "They have no wine" (Jn 2:3). She was "moved with pity," and her merciful intervention "brought about … the beginning of miracles of Jesus the Messiah" (Lumen Gentium, 58).

Today, we celebrate our monthly Respect Life Mass and then pray the rosary to end abortions in our land. The rosary, that beautiful prayer which Our Lady gave to St. Dominic, whose feast we celebrated last week on Aug. 8, has been a significant spiritual weapon in history. Pope St. Pius V called for the people of Rome to join him in praying the rosary for the success of a naval force to stop the Turkish fleet in the Battle of Lepanto, and their prayers were answered. Today, scientists are beginning to acknowledge what we have known all along — that prayer can be answered. For example, there are reports in medical journals of the close relationship between prayer and rapid healing after surgery or recovery from illness.

We take up this spiritual weapon again to stop the spread of abortion in our land. At the beginning of Mass, I had mentioned that 98.8 percent of the deaths in the City of Falls Church during the year 2000 were due to abortion. Let me put that in a clearer perspective. The Virginia Center for Heath Statistics notes that the total number of deaths due to abortion was more than 80 times the number of deaths due to all other causes (ACH 8/8/02, pg. 11). Where is the moral outrage? Imagine if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would report that the death rate due to crossing streets was 80 times higher than all the cancers in the country. We would have overhead walkways on every intersection. There would be billions of dollars spent to stop this form of death. So, where is our moral outrage over abortion?

Where do we start? Our Holy Father tells us, "We must begin with a commitment never to intentionally kill, or collude in the killing of any innocent human life, no matter how broken, unformed, disabled or desperate that life may seem" (Living the Gospel of Life, 21).

But how do we do that? First of all, we must understand and live a consistent ethic of life. We cannot be against abortion, but then hand our children condoms so that they can have "safe sex." We cannot be against abortion, yet support candidates who have consistently defamed human life with their pro-abortion votes in the houses of our state and federal legislatures. We cannot be against abortion, but do nothing to stop the policies of the United Nations toward the rampant use of birth control pills and gadgets, and abortion to reduce the size of third world nations.

Next, we must be pray, as we are in this Mass; as we do after Mass in a public witness of prayer using the rosary; as each of us does each day of our lives in our homes, at Church, in our cars, in our activities. Saint Paul reminds us: "Pray always!" Indeed, we must pray always to end abortion.

Finally, we must educate ourselves in ways of communicating the message — yes, the art of persuasion. Telling a woman that aborting her child is the same as killing him is certainly a factual statement, but it may be unconvincing to her. The majority of women who abort already realize that it is morally wrong. But, they cannot acknowledge the full personhood of their children because they are so overwhelmed by their current situations. Instead, they deny this reality or become numb. So, how can we reach them? By showing true respect for the mother's own dignity, and educating her about the marvels of fetal development — and what her own child is doing in utero right now, today. The way that we communicate the message is most important.

I challenge each of you, to find positive ways of portraying the life message. We are a people of life promoting the culture of life. Our Holy Father, in The Gospel of Life, keys in on our challenge: "We have to go to the heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God … Those who allow themselves to be influenced by this climate easily fall into a sad, vicious circle: When the sense of God is lost, there is a tendency to lose the sense of man, of his dignity and his life; in turn, the systematic violation of the moral law, especially in the serious matter of respect for human life and its dignity, produces a kind of progressive darkening of the capacity to discern God’s living and saving presence" (no. 21).

Let each of us retain our focus on God, through his Son, Jesus Christ. We can do that by asking our Queen and Mother of Mercy to help us. "All-holy Father, hear the prayers of your children, weighed down by our sinfulness, as we turn to you and call upon the merciful love that moved you to send your Son as Savior of the world and to enthrone holy Mary as the queen of mercy" (Opening Prayer B).

Mother of Mercy, pray for us! Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us! Mother of life, pray for us!

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