The Spirit of Love
By Father Frank A. Pavone
St. Paul calls God the Father the one "who
did not spare His
own Son, but handed Him over for us all" (Rom
8:32).
Handed Him over, that is, to the agony and
disgrace of crucifixion between two thieves.
How can it be? How can the Father hand His
Son over to
that?
Because the Father inspired in the Son such
great love. That
is how St. Thomas Aquinas answered the question.
The Lord indeed said, "Greater love than this no one has, than to lay
down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13).
The love which exists between the Father and
the Son, and is
poured out on us, is a Person, the Holy Spirit.
He is Love.
"Love" is the most misused, abused and confused
word in the
English language. We use it for a lot
of good things, and for a few evil things as well. But in the Word
of God we find its authentic meaning: "The way we came to know love was
that
He laid down His life for us" (1 Jn 3 : 16).
The Holy Spirit is visible not only on Pentecost. In a very real
sense, He
becomes visible in the Crucifixion, because
the kind of love
He inspires is the love that gives unto the
point of death. Thus, the Letter to the Hebrews states, "Christ, through
the eternal spirit offered Himself unblemished to God" (Heb 9: 14).
In the laws of the Old Testament, offerings
were consumed
by fire. In the eternal offering of
Christ, the fire is the Holy Spirit.
But that same Holy Spirit is given to us. The
second
half of I John 3:16 states, "so we ought to
lay down our lives
for our brothers." That's what love
does. It gives itself away, and that is why it is the opposite of abortion.
Love says, "I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person." Abortion
says, "I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself." That
turns the cross upside down and runs in the opposite direction of the Holy
Spirit.
The love which gives itself away also unites.
The Holy Spirit
is the bond between the Father and the Son,
and the one who unites the Church. "For in one Spirit we were all baptized
into one body... and we were all given to drink of one Spirit"
(1 Cor 12: 13). The Holy Spirit unites; abortion
divides. You can't divide the human family more effectively than by introducing
conflict between a mother and the child within her womb. Those who work
with post-abortion counseling know the numerous other divisions abortion
introduces within families and in the souls of those who have abortions.
I have read and written a lot of words about
abortion over
the years. But there are no words that can
be said well
enough, loud enough, or often enough to bring
this tragedy
to an end. That will happen only when, through
the eternal
Spirit, we too lay down our lives for our
pre-born brothers
and sisters.
Fr. Pavone is the International Director of Priests for Life
and an official at the Vatican’s Council for the Family.
Copyright ©1998 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 23, No 22;
dated June 4, 1998, on the page 5
.
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