Respect Life Mass Homily

[Editor’s note: The following homily was given by Father Andrew Burns, parochial vicar at St. Joseph Parish, Mendham, at the Diocese’s annual Respect Life Mass in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson, on Nov. 16.]

In middle school, I had a friend named Stan. Not only did we go to the same school, we also played on the same little league baseball team for at least two seasons. You can probably count the number of innings I pitched on one or two hands during that time — Stan was my catcher for most, if not all of those innings. We were not the closest of friends but we did see each other a lot. One night, a mutual friend had us both overnight at his house, playing video games into the early hours of the morning. At some point, Stan warned us that whoever went to sleep first would wake up with peanut butter in his nose. At about 4:30 a.m., I awoke with the strangest nasal congestion of my life.

One Sunday evening at our youth ministry, Stan showed up. I had never seen him at our church before, so I was a little surprised but happy to see him. It happened to be a night that a guest speaker was giving us a talk on abortion. She was a young woman in her thirties and she told us quite openly about her difficult pregnancy in college. Her boyfriend left her and many of her friends pressured her to have an abortion. What she went through was awful — isolation, tension in all of her relationships, anxiety about the future, and above all the terrible choice that lay before her. At a certain point she came across the 1984 “Silent Scream” video that showed the ultrasound of a first-trimester abortion. After the video, she prayed tearfully and intensely, and found the courage to keep her baby.

At the end of her talk, she invited her son to come up, so she could introduce him to the audience. It was Stan who stood up, walked to the front of the audience and embraced his mother. The moment left a lasting impression. Later on, I went through my memories of Stan and tried to imagine life without him. I certainly would not have missed the peanut butter up my nose but given the alternative, it was worth it.

Stan had a name and a face that I knew. This was personal. He was not one of the 40 million millennials aborted whose faces and names we would never know in this life. What I took away from the talk was that abortion does not happen to some anonymous mass of unborn babies. Abor­tion is personal because life is personal. We hear it in the words of our Lord: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5).

We have so much for which to be thankful, above all the gift of life itself. And the work done in the Church for the cause of life has been remarkable. She continues advocating for the unborn and doing so without neglecting the real needs of women and families through thousands of helping centers, financial aid, medical services, legal advice, counseling, places to live, jobs, education, and assistance to keep the child or to place the child up for adoption. Even after abortion, the Church offers God’s mercy to bring healing and reconciliation to thousands of women.

The situation is, nevertheless, still dire and we must not become complacent. Every day 4,000 babies are aborted in the United States. We’ve heard a lot of outcry in recent years over the mass shootings — please, God, let there be an end to mass shootings. There have been almost 1100 deaths as a result of mass shootings since 1967. At that rate, it will take about 160 years (roughly 58,000 days) to match what the abortion industry does in a single day. There is still need for advocacy and to support women along the way — and this is just abortion. The culture of death expands with physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and infanticide among other threats to life.

Rather than feeling helpless and becoming complacent when we think about such a heavy situation, our readings today awaken us to a greater reality than that of our culture. Above it all, there is a power and authority that breaks through our world with a vocation addressed uniquely to each one of us. The common aspects in the vocation stories of both the prophet Jeremiah and that of the Blessed Virgin Mary find echoes in every Christian vocation.

Jeremiah was “consecrated” before birth; Mary was “full of grace” even from the moment of her conception (Jer 1:5; Lk 1:28). Both Jeremiah and Mary were assured that the Lord was with them (Jer 1:8, Luk 1:28). Jeremiah was to be “a prophet to the nations,” while Mary was to bear “the Son of the Most High… of [whose] kingdom there would be no end” (Jer 1:5; Lk 1:32-33). Jeremiah objected — “I do not know how to speak; I am only a youth” and Mary asked the angel, “How shall this be? I have no husband” (Jer 1:6; Lk 1:34). An answer was made to each apparent obstacle — the Lord “put [his] words” into Jeremiah’s mouth and “the Power of the Most High” overshadowed Mary (Jer 1:9; Lk 1:35).

My brothers and sisters: you and I have been consecrated, filled with grace from the womb of Holy Mother Church, baptized as prophets and Christ-bearers, confirmed by the same Holy Spirit who spoke through the prophet Jeremiah and overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary. The gift of the Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life, is given to each of us. And with the Spirit comes our unique vocations, a calling that awaits our free response every day.

What could be more affirming of life and more threatening to the culture of death than a Church that has become as docile and as open to the Holy Spirit as the prophet Jeremiah and the Blessed Virgin Mary? To us, as to Jeremiah and to Mary, the Lord says “Be not afraid…I am with you” and “with God nothing is impossible” (Jer 1:8; Lk 1:28, 30, 37). When you approach the altar today, the same Lord who touched the mouth of Jeremiah will touch your mouth. Ask him for his words and the gift of prophecy (see Jer 1:9). As you consume the Eucharist, you receive into your body the same Jesus who was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Ask him to work within you the impossible task of bearing the God of life to our culture (see Lk 1:31, 37).

And when the culture of death threatens, do not be afraid or discouraged. Even Jesus’ death could not keep God from fulfilling his promises to Mary at the Annunci­ation. Moreover, his death brought life to the world! The culture of death did its worst when it crucified the Incarnate Son of God, yet God in his infinite wisdom and power, took the worst thing that could ever happen and made it the greatest thing that has ever happened — by his death, death itself is destroyed and by his rising, life is restored. In the end, the culture of death does not have the last word because the Lord of life lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.