“Jesus’ words in the Gospel today at first glance might seem to be a little harsh. It sounds like he’s saying that if we do everything that he commands we’re still unworthy unprofitable servants. Well, I think that that’s sort of a misreading of the scriptures because I think that it’s more that he is wanting us to understand that he calls us first to friendship with him. In John’s Gospel we see that where Jesus says, ‘I no longer call you slaves. I call you my friends.’ So Jesus wants that loving, joyful relationship with him first. That is the empowering spirit of our service in his kingdom, so to be friends first with Jesus is the call of the Gospel today and then we will be better servants, more joyful and more loving. Well, as servants we are called always to proclaim the dignity of human life and today is respect life Sunday in the United States and Respect Life month and the Archbishop has asked us to speak on the constitutional amendment in the state of Kansas about pro-life and there’s been a lot of information that you have already received from the Leaven, from our own parish bulletin today there’s some material there and this Wednesday Chuck Weber from the Kansas Catholic Conference will be present to discuss this amendment. It will be in the church hall on 7:00 on Wednesday. So, please come and inform yourselves about this very important issue in our life as part of this state of Kansas amendment.
Jesus came to proclaim the dignity of every human being and more than that, he elevated us to the role of children of God. We are God’s children. What a special dignity we have there and that includes those little precious ones unborn who are probably the most vulnerable in our society today and so we must protect them as best we can. You know, God made the mother’s womb a place of safety, a place of protection, a place of nurture for these precious little unborn babies and yet today in our state especially with the way the laws are, the mother’s womb is the most dangerous place a baby can be! Isn’t that tragic and so we have an opportunity to do something about it and I think that sometimes people are pro-choice as they are called and the rhetoric itself is misleading. Being pro-choice sort of intimates that the baby’s right to live is subordinate to the mother’s right to decide whether that baby lives or dies. That’s outrageous. No one has that right, no one and so it is a terrible tragedy. Now that’s not to say that we should be unaware and unfeeling about the situation of the mother. We have a responsibility to her especially if she is young and unmarried. It can be a terrible fix that she’s in a terrible state and situation in which she has to make some really important choices and so we must respond to her needs as best we can, her physical needs and her emotional and spiritual needs and that goes for the father too in some cases because this mother, she is a victim too. She’s a victim and she becomes more of a victim if she decides to abort her baby. There are millions of mothers in this country who now seriously regret their decision that they have to live with for the rest of their lives to take the life of their unborn child and now they know the truth and now they feel the grief and the sadness. Jesus came to heal victims, all victims in our society. He came to forgive our sins and he came to liberate us from our moral blindness. You know, each of us is a member of the body of Christ. He is the head of our body. We are the branches, he is the vine. That was his divine plan that we would continue his mission after we ascended into heaven and sent his spirit upon us, so we are in this world today to change it to make it a moral place a place where life can be nurtured, where it can live, where it can prosper and where it can grow. We are called to respect the dignity of human life.
I have a little prayer I’d like to share with you. I entitled this prayer, ‘Lord of Life.’
O God of love, O Lord of life
What have I ever done
To deserve your choice
That I should live to grow, to laugh, to run
From all eternity O Lord, you knew me
Loved me too
You called me forth from nothingness
You watched me as I grew
You formed me, Lord within the womb
My mother felt me there
As I moved and kicked and cried
Her life and yours I share
I thank you Lord for my life
For bringing me to Earth
I thank you for my family
I thank you for my birth
We have many choices Lord
Which bring us joy or strife
We rule over many things
But you are Lord of Life”