Resurrection! The Victory Belongs to the Lord -- and to Us!

Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!

Proclaimed throughout the world for the Easter celebration (among those celebrating according to the Gregorian Calendar), this ancient cry proclaims God's victory in Jesus Christ over the ancient curse of sin and death.

What wonderful Good News for us and for the whole world! We see and hear such dreadful news, day after day, and perhaps find ourselves defeated with crime, war, terror, abuse and neglect. And then there's the economy!

Interestingly, the truth of the Lord Jesus' resurrection does not seem to change the political, economic, social or military realities. At least, not at first glance.

At the Easter Vigil (Latin/Roman Rite) we hear the solemn proclamation called the Exsultet, "This is the night when Christians everywhere, washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement, are restored to grace and grow together in holiness. This is the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave."

It is a solemn proclamation by believers with small candles aglow from the single Paschal Candle proclaiming the Lord's victory over sin and death. I think of the late Archbishop Paulos Rahha of Mosul who apparently perished when kidnapped -- how is this relatively small Chaldean Christian Church in the Iraqi archdiocese suffers with his loss. Are they experiencing any joy as Christians this Easter?

And so, before the injustice that countless people suffer -- before the oppression of the Burmese and Tibetan peoples, before the wanton slaughter in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan; before the drug lords of Mexico and Colombia; before the street gangs and organized crime bosses in our own country; before those who defy the laws of God in our civil society and take the lives of unborn children and threaten the lives of the weak and the vulnerable under the aegis of "euthanasia"; before those who take advantage of the poor and the elderly,those who attempt to undo neighborhoods for shameful profit -- we boldly -- and lovingly -- declare that Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!

What makes the difference is our very lives! More powerful than policies, more eloquent than legislation -- as important as these may be -- the difference is the lives we live in the Risen Lord. St. Paul teaches us in his Letter to the Romans, which we heard again at the Easter Vigil (6:3-11), ". . . you must think of yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus" (vs. 11).

Therein lies the victory of Christ, into which we are baptized. We are alive -- because of Holy Baptism -- in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not dead, we are alive! And in our partaking in the Eucharist, we share in the Lord Jesus' own victory. Hence, we live holy lives -- filled with God's Holy Spirit.

35 Years of Roe v. Wade, 22 January 1973 -- 22 January 2008 Part II

While we must continue the struggle to defend the rights of the unborn, we must also engage the so-called “pro-choice” side with their issues. And several of these issues are not unreasonable – health care for pregnant mothers, child care for neglected, abandoned and abused children, protection for pregnant mothers who are in abusive relationships and the like. The strident call for privacy and freedom of “choice” to have an abortion really does miss the mark. But so does the violence of unchecked speech and attitude toward these people.

And, as the late Pope John Paul II and our current Holy Father, Benedict XVI, as well as the US Bishops have stated, we must cultivate a “Culture of Life” – in its entire spectrum. As Catholic Christians we must do so consistently lest we lose whatever credibility we may have.

These issues of life include the abolition of the death penalty, an end to military and government sanctioned torture of prisoners of war, peace-making in foreign affairs (please recall that the late Pope John Paul II condemned the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the US Bishops called upon our nation's Administration for military restraint), just and living wages for workers, justice for the elderly, adequate medical care for all people, and concern for the immigrant, whether legal or undocumented.

These are all part of what the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago called the “seamless garment” of pro-life issues. He was referring to the Lord Jesus’ garment mentioned in the Gospels that was gambled for at his crucifixion. First of all, the “seamless garment” is entirely consistent with the New Testament ethic we find in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 & 6). It is also very much a Franciscan approach – to announce and bring the Good News of God’s reconciling love in Jesus Christ. To announce God's infinite mercy. By the way, Cardinal Bernardin was an honorary Franciscan friar.

I think that it is befitting on this anniversary to recall that a few years ago "Ms. Roe" underwent a powerful conversion experience to the Lord Jesus and subsequently became a fully initated and reconciled Catholic Christian woman in her home State of Texas.

So, after 35 years, we have work to do. While there is politicking on both sides of the issue, the real issue, it seems to me, is human life. In all its stages. Beginning in the womb.