Reflections On The 2013 Right To Life Banquet

Have you ever stood on a precipice, perhaps looking out over the side of a bridge or canyon? Have you ever come to a sudden awareness that the situation in which you find yourself will effectively change your life forever?

Death and birth events, sacramental milestones and other grand happenings in our lives can cause us to stop, look around us and be aware that we have several paths from which to choose. 

There are times when we take the easy road or the “lesser of two evils” as we like to rationalize to ourselves. There are other times, however, when we rise up above our earthly encumbrances and experience a Metanoia, or a conscious change of heart.

As I sat at this year’s annual Right to Life banquet, held at the Centre in Evansville, with 2,000 others who had come this night to show their support for this most basic of principles, I asked myself how often I had rationalized that I have done all I can for the cause of life. After all, as Senator Rick Santorum pointed out, the political, social and other forces that support abortion in this land are seemingly constant, the bombardment endless.

I asked myself the same question minutes before when Sammy Davis, a retired U.S. Medal of Honor recipient, faced the crowd and said that those who fight for the lives of the unborn should also honorably wear such a medal.

Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby, briefly spoke about how his family, including his siblings and parents, when faced with the mandate that businesses would be forced to provide birth control and other abortifacients, gathered around the table and decided as a family to stand on principle. They decided that their family-owned business would fight this mandate and trust in God’s mercy, even if it meant losing something they spent decades building. 

When Mr. Green spoke, again I asked myself how often have I stood on principle and stepped outside of my comfort zone to protect those most vulnerable among us.

My answer was haltingly fuzzy. I would probably receive an average grade. Right after I realized this, I also realized in a very vivid way that average is not good enough. Average won’t win the day. Average won’t save lives. Average, my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, is not our calling. Priests, prophets and kings are not average. Those who have been baptised with water and the Spirit are not average. Brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, are not average. 

We are told that the greatest gift one can give is one’s life for another. How do we fare? It is a difficult question for one to ask oneself in the quiet of one’s soul.

We stand and profess our faith in one, catholic and apostolic church, and yet all too often we vote our pocketbooks or our social leanings or for the best-looking candidate or the gifted one with the silver tongue.

We are afraid to say to one another as Catholics that abortion of children at any stage of pregnancy is fundamentally, morally, intrinsically and socially wrong. If you don’t like it or you want to make sure that people want their options, well, all I can say is: Take it up with Jesus. We will all have a chance to talk it over with him one day.

There are enough Catholics in this country to make a significant difference in every moral issue facing our nation. And yet we find ourselves continuing to fight an uphill battle against very dedicated, strategic opponents. We say we can’t be too political and yet the political realm is where this issue is fought daily…and each day it is fought, over 3,000 more babies are aborted. 

Does the politics of it all make us uneasy? Does it make us more uneasy than listening to the procedural explanation of an abortion?

We can never forget, and must raise up our prayers, for those who have had, have contemplated or will find themselves in a situation where they feel that abortion is their best option. We pray that they will find hope in the hopeless, support where there is none and peace to replace their inner turmoil.

Is it our clergy who should shoulder the weight of this issue? Our politicians? Our schools? Our hospitals? Our neighbors? Our mothers, fathers and siblings? Our children? The answer, quite simply, is yes. 

It takes ordinary persons who are willing to perform extraordinarily for the most basic of principles that God has commanded of us and that our Church has championed. All life is sacred and must be protected as such.

When I look to the great leaders throughout the ages, they have challenged forcefully the establishment ideas of societal norms or worked tirelessly for the Gospel message of life and hope. Pope John Paul II and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta come immediately to mind.           

They were not average people. Their names will not vanish in the mist of time, nor will their valor be forgotten. They give me hope for the future just as does Mater Dei High School student Katelyn Klingler, who was awarded the Oratory Scholarship at this year’s Right to Life banquet, and Memorial High School student Grace Winiger, winner of the 2013 Art Scholarship.

And so, I will be asking myself a very poignant question - the same one that Katelyn Klingler asked the crowd during the banquet: “What will you do about it?”