Praying for an end to abortion
Hebrews 7:25—8:3
Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through
him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them. It was fitting that
we should have such a high priest: holy,
innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens. He has no
need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after day, first for his
own sins and then for those of the people; he did that once for all when he
offered himself. For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high
priests, but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law, appoints a
son, who has been made perfect forever.
I’m going out on a limb here, and want to suggest there’s
something we can learn from mafia movies. If you can see beyond all the
money-laundering, and murders, and mafia hit men – and that’s not easy to do! –
you find a hidden treasure, namely, an unbreakable and beautiful family bond.
That’s why Luca Brasi paid Don Corleone a touching compliment when he said:
“Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your home
on the wedding day of your daughter. And may their first child be a masculine
child.” I wish I had a better Sicilian accent! And that’s why the worst sin
that Michael Corleone ever committed was the execution of his brother, Fredo.
Michael even has to go to the pope to seek forgiveness. You see, in the world
of the mafia, they get a lot of things wrong – pretty much everything – but
they do get one thing right: family always comes first. To care for your family
is noble; to harm your family is unforgiveable.
In the first reading, the Letter to the Hebrews says that
for God, too, family always comes first. Listen to this line: ‘For the law
appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests, but the word of the oath,
which was taken after the law, appoints a son, who has been made perfect
forever.” In other words, there’s something higher than human laws (and even
higher than Old Testament Levitical laws), and that is family life. And Jesus
comes to teach us that family always comes first, not only on earth but also in
heaven, where he is the eternally begotten Son of God. As Luca Brasi wished,
“May your first child be a masculine child.” Scott Hahn went so far as to say God
is the truest family, while our human families are like shadows of the divine
family. He wrote, “God is not ‘like’ a family. He ‘is’ a family. From eternity
God alone possesses the essential attributes of a family, and the Trinity alone
possesses them in their perfection” (First Comes Love, 43). In other words,
family comes first on earth, but even far more so, Family comes first in
heaven.
This is why the Church has designated today, January 22, as
a Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. As you know
abortion became legal in the U.S. on January 22, 1973 with the Supreme Court
decision “Roe vs. Wade.” This past Sunday prolifers gathered in state capitals
to pray for respect for life, especially that of unborn babies. My friends, I
am convinced that protection of the unborn is not just one issue among others
of equal weight and moment, but rather THE foundational issue facing our
country and our culture. Why? Put simply: we have not made family come first.
We have created human laws that can trump a higher law, namely, that
unbreakable and beautiful family bond. But what's worse is that abortion
strikes not only at the heart of humanity, but also highly offends heaven,
where Family always comes first. Today, we pray fervently for the repeal of
laws that allow abortion, and heaven prays for that, too, and so does Luca
Brasi.
Praised be Jesus Christ
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