“When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’”  The gospel reminds us that there are basic, fundamental requirements in the life of every disciple.  We are all called to be servants of a loving God of mercy, a God of life and love.  We are called to serve God by imitating his Son Jesus in spreading the gospel of mercy, the gospel of life and the gospel of love.  God is the creator and source of life for all people and we are called to respect and protect that life that he has created and gifted us with.  As children of God who have received the gift of life and a new life in Christ, we are obliged to spread the gospel of life to all people.  This Sunday is “Respect Life Sunday” which begins a new season of prayer, education, sacrifice and commitment to promote a greater respect for all human life, from conception to natural death.  Every disciple of Jesus is obliged to serve our brothers and sisters in love.  These brothers and sisters include the preborn and the elderly, the handicapped and the incarcerated, all human persons have a right to life and all human persons are subjects of God’s tender mercy and love.

     “How long, O Lord?”  Like the prophet Habakkuk, we cry out to God for justice for those who suffer the violence of a culture of death.  “Destruction and violence are before me.”  After forty years of abortion and the death of over 55 million unborn children we question whether our prayers are heard and whether our sacrifices have born any fruit.  God exhorts us through the prophet to remain patient and to keep faith.  “For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.”  We cannot give up hope that one day our society will have a change of heart and will recognize the right to life of preborn children and others who are suffering.

     For this year’s theme US Bishops are encouraging Catholics to follow in the footsteps of St. Joseph in protecting human life and promoting a culture of life.  Archbishop Lori of Baltimore, the head of the Pro-life Committee, wrote a reflection on what it means to be pro-life in a post-Roe world.  He writes,  “In a post-Roe world, Catholics must now work together for another, even deeper paradigm shift. We must move beyond a paradigm shift in the law in order to help the people of our nation better see who we can be as a nation by truly understanding what we owe to one another as members of the same human family. To build a world in which all are welcome, we must heed the words of St. Teresa of Calcutta and remember “that we belong to one another.”

     Abortion is a gruesome sign of how we have forgotten our mutual belonging. The logic of Roe v. Wade has framed our national discourse on the issue of abortion as a zero-sum conflict among individual strangers. But the truth of the matter is that mother and child are not strangers; they are already bound together by flesh and kinship. The new life that is developing under the heart of the mother is already situated in a network of relations including family, neighbors, and fellow citizens. The logic of Roe, in the name of autonomy, offers the woman only the right to see lethal force used against her child, but it otherwise abandons her.

     To the contrary, the logic of the culture of life recognizes that the pregnant woman and her child are not alone—they are fellow members of our larger human family whose interwoven vulnerability is a summons to all of us, but especially Catholics because of the teaching of Jesus and his proclamation of the Gospel of Life. Indeed, Catholics see in the life of the Holy Family a lesson for all society: Mary, who not only said “yes” to life but who accompanied and cared for her child throughout his life; Joseph, who met the unexpected challenges and threats to the child with fortitude and compassion; and Jesus himself, who came into the world not with power and majesty but with the vulnerability, dependence, and humility of a child.

     In a post-Roe world, then, we must shift the paradigm to what Saint Pope John Paul II described as “radical solidarity,” making the good of others our own good, including especially mothers, babies (born and preborn), and families throughout the entire human lifespan. It is a call to friendship and compassion rooted in the truth that we are made to love our neighbor as ourselves.”

    During this month of the Holy Rosary, we can all offer a rosary for life and ask our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede for her unborn children.  It is simply what we are all obliged to do.  We can begin by opening our hearts to life and seeking God’s tender mercy.