DEFENDING LIFE
One
of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin in our lives.
We live in a day and age of denial, and the primary denial taking place
concerns the nature of the human person. Many academics deny that there
is anything fundamental to the structure or the psyche of the human
person, such that there might be demands made upon the actions of the
individual. They might not say it in exactly the same words, but what I
have just expressed is the fundamental basis of the relativistic
skepticism that permeates much of today’s society. “There are no
absolute truths” is the catch phrase or slogan of this trend — that what
is true for me may not necessarily
be true for you. This may be the case, but there must be some truths
regarding the human person, otherwise there is no basis for morality or
any order in society.
Access to abortion is one of the key issues. Abortion, in its most
basic description, is the killing of an innocent, unborn child.
Proponents of abortion on demand use the word “fetus” to describe the
child because it does not connote the same sense of personhood as the
word “child.” The language of the people is focused on the woman’s
self-determination and her so-called “rights” in this regard. They never
speak of the rights of the unborn child to live.
The problem with their argument is they never speak about the
responsibilities of the people involved to avoid pregnancy if they are
not yet ready to become parents. No one has a right to have sex just
because they want it. The act of sex is one person’s gift to the other
as part of a committed relationship. Human beings have a natural human
appetite for sex and, as such, it should be subject to the moral demands
of self-control.
Our world is growing in its disregard for human life. There can never
be a just society where the weakest and least able to protect and even
speak for themselves are regarded as alien invaders of another person’s
rights and could be destroyed without a second thought. Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL
REFLECTION QUESTION: How do you defend life?
Holy
Spirit, help me to be a firm defender of life in all its beauty and
fragility. Help me to stand up for those least able to defend
themselves. Help me to work for the abolition of all legal statutes that
are antithetical to the dignity of human life from conception to
natural death.
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