St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception

Two quotes by the same person recently caught my eye: “Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some cases the one, and in some the other.” “The Sanctity of life is of course a religious or transcendental concept. If there is no God, life cannot have sanctity.” Both are attributed to Malcolm Muggeridge who was a British journalist, author and media personality from the 20th century. An agnostic for most of his life, he became a Christian in the mid-1960s and then entered Full Communion with the Catholic Church in 1982 under the influence of the Christian witness of Saint Mother Theresa.

While there are purely humanist and natural arguments for the sanctity of life, as Christians, the primary case for us is that God has created every life as worthy of innate dignity and infinite value from the moment of conception to natural death. We are stewards of life not masters. Biologically, at conception a new and complete set of DNA of a human person is fully present and active. The Church holds that a newly created soul is infused at that point. Within 18 days, the heart is beating.

This Thursday, January 22nd is the 42nd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on demand. What is truly needed, even more than greater legal protections and arguments, is to change hearts for Christ. Apart from God, life will never be treasured as a gift worthy of protection at every stage. I recommend you take some time Thursday to thank God and your parents for your life, and pray for the most vulnerable among us… the unborn. May our Christian witness influence others to truly value life that is ‘always and in all circumstances sacred.’

“Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments” (I Jn 4:21-5:2). St Mary, Pray for us. ~ Fr. Gries