A Lenten Cry
By Fr. Frank Pavone
HERALD Columnist
"I am 'the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord!'" (Jn.1:23).
Lent brings us an urgent cry to repent. The Kingdom has arrived. It is a Kingdom of life, and calls for a people of life.
Yet the wilderness is with us as well. The light shines, but it shines in darkness. The voice cries out, but it cries in wilderness, which is why it must cry in the first place.
The call to repentance is a cry also because of its urgency. We don't have all day. The business of the Kingdom, the business of salvation, is urgent business. It deserves a cry.
Salvation history is a drama. It is the very
drama of the conquering of death. If there is a lot to be gained by Christ's
Passion, Death, and Resurrection, then there is likewise a lot to be lost
if we
miss it.
Jesus, therefore, in dying on the cross, cries out in a loud voice (see Lk.23:46). Death does not simply overtake Him. He goes out in strength, in victory, to meet it and to rob it of its power.
The cry continues.
The People of Christ are a People of Life.
The wilderness of death continues to surround us in so many forms. The
form in which death claims the most lives is abortion. The People of God
cry out
against it.
If you spend any time at all following the
progress of the pro-life movement, there is one thing you know for sure:
our opposition does not only want abortion to remain legal; they want it
to remain
unchallenged. There is a clear trend afoot
in many laws and court decisions: to make the cry illegal.
On the Federal and local levels, laws are passed
prohibiting not only criminal activity, but certain forms of perfectly
peaceful and moral activity designed to save lives at abortion mills. "Bubble
zones," RICO statutes, and FACE laws are all used to dissuade the forthright
proclamation that abortion is evil. I will never forget standing in front
of the blue line drawn on a public street around
an abortuary in Melbourne, Florida. Had I
stepped over the line I would have been subject to arrest. That's all I
would have had to do...no violence, no damage to people or property, no
harmful words...just step over the line.
Increasingly, those I talk to on the pro-abortion
side designate as hate speech the direct and accurate assertion that abortion
is "baby-killing." They bring us to court for just saying that. They
interpret is as a threat. That's how bad it
has gotten.
I don't know about you, but if I am ever sent to jail for saying abortion is baby-killing, to jail I will go, gladly, willingly, and proclaiming that truth more vigorously with every passing day.
The lesson of Lent, after all, has trained us. The cry of the People of Life can never be silenced.
Father Pavone is the International Director of Priests for Life
and an official at the Vatican’s Council for the Family.
Contact Priests for Life at P.O. Box 141172, Staten Island, N.Y. 10314, Tel. 888 1PFL-3448, fax 718-980-6515, email pfl@priestsforlife.org, web site http://www.priestsforlife.org/.
Copyright ©1999 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 24, No 7,
dated Feb 11, 1999, on page 5.
.
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A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that Abortion is also murder. We must understand that murder is still murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrifying does not justify the other less repugnant methods. We should be sickened by any Abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly: "Thou shalt not kill." A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul. Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any Abortion occurs. Please, please, please contact your Senators and Congressman, via letter or phone, to let him/her know how upset you are that Abortions are legal and to pass and support legislation to stop Partial-Birth Abortions and all other Abortions as soon as possible.
(It has become apparent that they do not respond to email therefore you will have more of an impact by writing or telephoning.)
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