Monday, January 13, 2014

The sanctity of fertility: Daily Mass Homily--Monday, January 13th, 2014


           Our first reading speaks about the curse of infertility as viewed in the Old Testament.  In it, two women are in conflict—Peninnah, who had been blessed with children and Hannah, who was barren.  While we know now that infertility has biological and not spiritual causes (in other words, God does not punish women with infertility), the basic fact of the sacredness of life remains.
            This view of the Old Testament is at odds with our culture of abortion.  In only a few days we will have the anniversary of the woeful Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade, which allows abortion to be legally sanctioned in our government.  Not only this, but we face publicly funded abortion in the latest health care reforms in our country.
            These decisions cannot be farther from the truth of the dignity of each life from conception until natural death.
            I am pleased with the work of many of our parishioners in the pro-life movement.  We are currently joining in the baby bottle campaign—pick up a bottle, fill it with change and bring it back—to support the Women’s Care Center in Duluth.  This money will help us support women (and men) who have a baby under difficult situations.  We also took a day a week in last fall’s edition of Forty Days for Life.
            Our faith, from both Scripture and Tradition, emphasizes the sanctity of life.  As Christians we are called to uphold this dignity to the weakest of our members—poor, old and unborn.  We continue to pray for an end to abortion in our country and in the world, that the Gospel of Life may be proclaimed.

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