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Bishop Mulvey writes letter to the people of the Diocese of Corpus Christi for Respect Life Month
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October 2, 2020October is Respect Life Month. This is our opportunity to celebrate Life and to renew our awareness that all human life has dignity. It is a month to commit ourselves to love and respect God's gift of life.
The Christian understanding of the sanctity of life is rooted in Jesus Christ. God humbled himself and accepted our human existence in every aspect. God's incarnation began in the womb of the Virgin Mary who lovingly accepted her child and named him Jesus. He grew through childhood and adolescence in the family with Joseph and Mary. He went to school, he worked and played with the children in the neighborhood. In the Gospels, we know that in adulthood, he touched people's lives without prejudice or distinction. It is the sick that need a doctor, not those who are well, he said. He did not discriminate between saints and sinners. He walked among them all and even sat at their tables.
Jesus experienced human life from conception in the womb to death on across. He alone then sanctifies the life of every person, past, present and future. He made the love of God real for every person regardless of nationality, age, social standing, race or creed. He lived by his own words and instructs us to do the same: "Whatever you do to the 'least,' you do it to ME (to God) (Matthew 25). Therefor e, St. John has reason to write, "If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him" (1 John 3:17).
To respect life in our times requires an ongoing conversion of the heart. Respect for life, especially for the unborn, requires us to acknowledge God's life in us, the Holy Spirit living in us. It is God's grace that allows us to "see" life differently, to see each person as God sees them; and to love them as he loves them. Again St. John helps us understand, "You belong to God...for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).
Respect Life Month can be a time for a new conversion to respect life and to do so beyond talk and beyond politics. Here are some practical suggestions:- "accompany" a young mother with a child,
- pay special attention to an elderly family member or neighbor,
- reach out with compassion to a person in a difficult situation,
- spend time with your children and/or grandchildren, listen to them and understand them,
- Call someone whom you may have neglected, gossiped about or judged.
Each one of them is Jesus in your life today. Each one of them can be an opportunity for you to experience a conversion of heart. You will find that those you serve with love in your home or beyond can bring you a deeper respect for all human life and greater joy.
In prayer this month, let us especially pray for the unborn and for those who are elderly and terminally ill.
I invite you to consider these profound words of St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa):
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.
Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love but to use violence to get what they want.
A life not lived for others is not a life.
If now we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten how to see God in one another.
God bless all of you, let's pray for one another.
Bishop Michael Mulvey