Ron Kelsey is the archdiocesan consultant for the pro-life office. You can email him at: profile@archkck.org or call him at (913) 647-0350.
by Ron Kelsey
After 39 years of legalized abortion in the United States, let us pause and reflect on what Catholics should do at this point in the battle for life.
Should we be discouraged by the fact that, after 39 years of struggle, well over one million unborn babies are legally killed each year? Should we simply accept legalized abortion as a resolved issue and shift to merely trying to prevent it within our own family? Some ask: Why should we try to impose our values on society?
Answers to these and related questions are only answered correctly when we ask one more question: What does God want us to do, or, in other words, what is his will? God could not be clearer on what his will is in this matter. In very first chapter in God’s word (Gn 1:27-31), we find: “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him. . . . God blessed them saying: ‘Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.’ . . . God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.”
In Jesus, God’s infinite love for man is such that he took on the nature of man while retaining his divine nature and chose a woman to be his mother in order to assume his human nature. Continuing, in Jesus, we become adopted children of God, heirs of the Father and able to choose to share God’s nature in eternity.
God’s plan for man is so good that it is truly beyond our human ability to fully understand it. It is as if it is too good to be true, and we are therefore called by faith to trust in God.
If our Father places such high value on man, how does it happen that we often fail to do so? It is important to always remember that the battle for life is first and foremost a spiritual battle.
Satan is always tempting us to choose our will over God’s will and, in choosing abortion, society has succumbed to Satan’s temptations. Yet as disciples of Jesus, “the way, the truth and the life,” we know our Father’s will. Being faithful Christian disciples demands that we love, respect and defend life. As in the Book of Genesis, we must find life as good. And so, we are called from eternity to defend and protect every innocent human being, especially the weakest and most defenseless among us — unborn babies.
Our marching orders in this abortion battle are very clear — we must persistently, tirelessly and always defend life. We must keep up the good fight and rely on God to produce the results in his time, according to his holy will.
Vote pro-life!
