(Fourteenth Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given on July 3, 2022 at
St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., and Watch Hill Chapel, by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Isaiah 66:10-14c; Galatians 6:14-18;
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fourteenth Sunday 2022]
We are the “72”.
We’re the 72 in 2022. In this
gospel story from Luke 10, Jesus sends out 72 of his followers to minister to
people in his name in the towns that he intends to visit. They’re to proclaim the kingdom to these men
and women, and to bring them God’s healing.
Well, by our Baptism we are called to do something similar
today, in 2022—which is why I say that we are the 72 in the world of 2022. And this is a call that we need to take very
seriously as Christians—especially, I would say, in light of the recent Supreme
Court decision that struck down Roe v. Wade—which is the issue I want to focus
on briefly in this homily. That, of
course, was a great victory for the pro-life movement: a great triumph for all
those who believe in the dignity of the human person, and the sanctity of human
life from natural conception to natural death.
But, unfortunately, all the Supreme Court did was hand the issue back to
the individual states. So, instead of 1 big fight, we’ll have 50 smaller fights
in the future—which might be necessary for a time in the present social and
political climate. But our ultimate goal
here should be to build a culture of life where there is no fighting about this
issue anymore, and where every child is loved and accepted and welcomed into
the world.
But that will only happen if more of us “72” get involved in
helping to change MINDS and HEARTS—the minds and the hearts of the many people
out there who currently support abortion.
Yes, it’s good to change bad Supreme Court decisions and unjust civil
laws—that’s very important. But, unless
minds and hearts change on this issue, babies will still die, and women will
still be harmed.
And make no mistake about it, my brothers and sisters, women
are the ones most harmed by abortion. If
you had my ministry as a priest, you’d know that. Usually, I see these women long after Planned
Parenthood has forgotten about them and cashed their checks. I see these women when they’re broken, and
depressed—and sometimes full of self-hate.
The pain they carry when they realize what they’ve done in having an
abortion is often overwhelming. And you
can’t take it away, as much as you might want to! As a priest, you can allow God to take the
sin away in confession, but much of the woman’s pain is still there. And to some extent it always will be—unless
she kills her conscience (which, unfortunately, some do).
But whenever I have a post-abortive woman in confession, I
always try to give her hope. And there
is hope to be found. I say to her, “You know, you can’t bring back the child
that was lost, but, if you choose to, you can allow God to bring good out of
this evil. Ask the Lord every day to put
a woman in your path—a pregnant woman—a pregnant woman who’s thinking about
having an abortion—a pregnant woman whom you can counsel and point in the right
direction—a woman to whom you can say, ‘Been there; done that. Don’t do
it! Don’t make the same mistake I made.’ That distressed woman will listen to you more
than she would listen to me or to anyone else who hasn’t had an abortion. So no, you can’t bring back the life that was
taken, but the good news is that, because of what you’ve been through, you can
actually help to save a life—maybe many lives; and that will make you (and it
will make God) very happy.”
The big lie out there, of course, is that if you want to be
pro-women you need to be pro-abortion.
We hear that lie all the time in the mainstream media—and it needs to be
exposed. And besides, how can it be
pro-women to kill women? That’s
something that I’ve never understood—and never will. Statistically, roughly half of the 60 million
babies who’ve been aborted in the United States since 1973 have been female. That’s roughly 30 million women who never made
it out of the womb. What kind of service
is that to women?
Pretty rotten service, if you ask me.
These are some of the messages that we, the “72 in 2022,”
need to share with more women out there—because I believe that women will
ultimately do the most to change hearts and minds on this issue. And it’s already happening in many
places. Our pro-life committee here at
St. Pius, for example, is made up mostly of women. There may be 1 or 2 “token guys” in there,
but the vast majority are women—as are those who staff the pro-life women’s
pregnancy center on Franklin St. here in Westerly.
Women—and families—are the keys to ending the scourge of
abortion for good. When a young woman
finds herself in a difficult or unplanned pregnancy, she needs the love and
support of her family, not their condemnation.
Nor does she need a ride from them to the local Planned Parenthood
Clinic.
She needs to experience what a young girl from St. Pius
experienced from her parents back in 1995, when she got pregnant out of
wedlock. Her parents, who are both good
Catholics, were there for her throughout her pregnancy, which ended when she
gave birth to a healthy baby boy, whom she named Eric. She then made the difficult decision to give
him up for adoption. She did it with the
stipulation that, if the adoptive parents agreed, she and Eric could have some
contact through the adoption agency. And
they did that through letters and pictures for many years.
Well, when he was 18, Eric decided that he wanted meet his
biological mother personally. So he
tracked her down via Facebook (yes, Facebook does have some good uses)—and a
beautiful relationship has developed between them ever since. Let me read to you now a few lines from the
letter Eric wrote to his mom on the Mother’s Day just before they physically met. He said,
Though I have never met you, I know that you love me more than anything in the world. I just wanted to let you know that I love you too. I am grateful for your decision 18 years ago when you became a mommy. And you gave me up so that our lives would be fulfilling. Look at where we are now and what we have done. Separate paths slowly becoming one. Happy Mother’s Day, mommy!!!
If we fulfill our call as one of the “72 in 2022” and spread
the pro-life message to others with a sincere and genuine love, then the good
news is that many more mothers in the world will receive letters like that from
their children in the future.
And I don’t know of a single woman on planet earth right now
who wouldn’t be happy about that.
