"Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)
Why
are the Philippines, Malta, Costa Rica and now Ireland succumbing to
the population control mentality and anti-religious sentiment?
Compared
to so many other Catholic nations, these have long held firm. What has
kept the anti-life agenda at bay for so long has been the vibrant living
of the gift of faith. It permeated every part of life and guided daily
living within the family, society and even governments. As the anchor of
faith that has secured generations has lost its firm hold, radical
secular currents have brought materialism, indifference and what Pope
Benedict accurately called the "tyranny of relativism."
The
process has been slow but successful. Even a short time ago, it seemed
unimaginable that a country like Ireland would abandon its ardent
defense of life in order to follow the "new way"; that Mexico City,
under the watchful gaze of Our Lady of Guadalupe, would legalize
abortion (up to the twelfth week) or that Costa Rica would legalize in vitro fertilization.
Yet
here we are, with what seems at times to be a paradoxical commitment to
hope even among societal decay. The answer the Lord gives us to our
question "What can we do?" is both ancient, and relevant to our
struggles today.
We need Saints.
In
every age the Church's response to the threat of evil has been to call
the faithful to holiness and sainthood. Pope Francis, from the very
start of his Petrine ministry, has followed this tradition in response
to the current threats facing our world.
In his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith),
Pope Francis reminds us that faith in Christ is the true light that
illuminates man's existence. This light assists us in distinguishing
good from evil. The light of faith invigorates, transforms and brings
authentic freedom. Man seeks answers, and these answers are found in
Jesus, the Light of the World.
The
voices of modernity tell us to ignore the light of faith. True
happiness, prosperity and peace, they tell us, are found in the
rejection of religion and God. Sadly, these voices have made gains,
enabled by widespread confusion and ignorance. The scandal today is the
denial of the necessity of faith for any sustainable peace to take hold.
For we see that as faith retreats in society, distorted notions of
"justice" and "freedom" become prominent, and true justice and freedom
are banished.
Our
Holy Father, like his predecessors Benedict XVI and Blessed John Paul
II, recognizes the remedy so desperately needed if the Church is to
confront the lies and half-truths of modernity. Each experienced the
ideologies that corrupt and destroy, as well as the heroic witness of
countless holy men and women.
Consider the words of Pope Francis as he reminds us that faith is not for the fainthearted. Courage is required.
When
faith is weakened, the foundations of life also risk being weakened...
If we remove faith in God from our cities, mutual trust would be
weakened, we would remain united only by fear and our stability would be
threatened... The intention is to say that God, by his concrete
actions, makes a public avowal that he is present in our midst and that
he desires to solidify every human relationship. Could it be the case,
instead, that we are the ones who are ashamed to call God our God? That
we are the ones who fail to confess him as such in our public life, who
fail to propose the grandeur of the life in common which he makes
possible? Faith illumines life and society. If it possesses a creative
light for each new moment of history, it is because it sets every event
in relationship to the origin and destiny of all things in the Father. (LF 55)
If we want a Culture of Life, if we want to end the evils threatening life, if we want to end abortion, then...
We need saints!
Sincerely yours in Christ,
