How do you defend life? - Daily Reflections May 27,2014

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.