Bishop Anthony B. Taylor delivered this homily Jan. 20 during the Mass for Life in Little Rock.
The Greek word “epiphany” means “manifestation” — an eye-opening experience.
The visit of the Magi is the only event we usually call Epiphany, but the Fathers of the Church speak of three epiphanies at the beginning of Jesus’ life and ministry which open our eyes to important truths of our faith: 1) the visit of the Magi two weeks ago, which revealed Jesus’ identity and destiny — gold for a king, incense for God and myrrh for the burial of him who will die to save us; 2) the baptism of Jesus last Sunday, which revealed God as a Trinity of persons sharing one divine nature — Jesus the Son of whom the Father is pleased, the Holy Spirit hovering overhead; 3) and today the wedding feast of Cana, which reveals the glorious beginning of the messianic age in Jesus — symbolized by his changing ordinary water into a superabundance of the fine wine.
Today we also celebrate a fourth epiphany of sorts because our gathering is designed to open people’s eyes to yet another fundamental truth: the sacredness of all human life because life belongs to God, not us, and one day we will have to give account of our stewardship of it. One thing all epiphanies have in common is that they reveal truths to which we had been blind. In Jesus’ time, Jews expected the Messiah to be a king, but no one expected him also to be God or that he would die to save us. They knew God the Father but not the rest of the Blessed Trinity. And changing water into wine was unprecedented. Today no Catholic should be confused about abortion, but many Catholics remain blind to the full meaning of the sanctity of life.
Today I invite you to open your eyes to two often overlooked truths: 1) that life does not cease to be sacred once the baby is born, and 2) that no child in the womb will be fully secure until we reject everything that threatens human life or degrades human dignity.
In our country the Gospel of Life is a seamless garment that has come unraveled to the point that we tolerate utterly immoral behavior as if it were nothing — after all, if life is not sacred, who cares what they do? “Live and let live!” It took the Israelites 40 years in a wilderness to learn to do God’s will. We’re still in our moral wilderness past the 40-year mark since Roe v. Wade because we ‘re slow learners, despite many manifestations of the culture of death which should have opened our eyes long ago — most recently in Newtown, Conn., but “there is none so blind as he who will not see …”
Jesus’ Gospel of Life proclaims the sanctity of life at every stage of human existence from the first moment of conception to natural death and at every moment in between.
That means that if you came here today to oppose abortion, but rely on artificial contraception or sterilization to exclude any possibility of welcoming new life, you may be anti-abortion but you are not pro-life. If you use in vitro fertilization or an IUD, you’re not even anti-abortion. If you ignore the unwarranted risk to others of allowing people to own assault weapons for which they have no legitimate use, you’re not pro-life and the same applies to participating in wars that do not meet the criteria for a just war, especially at the sacrifice of so many lives on both sides of any conflict.
If your heart is not moved to help those who suffer due to poverty, addiction, lack of access to medical care, unjust immigration laws, domestic violence, disability or anything else that is damaging to human dignity, you may be anti-abortion but you are not pro-life. The same is true if you think it is OK to execute criminals who are locked away and pose no further threat to society.
God’s gift of life is sacred, regardless of a person’s usefulness to society. It doesn’t become sacred once a mother chooses to carry her baby to term — and not if she doesn’t. It’s sacred already, regardless of what anybody thinks. If you cut away any part of the seamless garment of the Gospel of Life, it all begins to unravel and the resulting damage is obvious.
Now we are face to face with yet another eye-opening experience: the decree that all health insurance plans pay for artificial contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. Why don’t politicians take us seriously when we say that to compel us to do this violates our religious liberty? Because so many Catholics contracept. If Catholics don’t take this dimension of the sanctity of life seriously, why should they?
And what approach should we take regarding this so-called contraceptive mandate? As things presently stand, there are four options, none of which is acceptable. But there are also a number of court cases contesting the constitutionality of this mandate, which have a good chance of broadening the exemption from the mandate for religious institutions, but judicial relief for individual consciences is less likely. Also there are ongoing discussions with government about further modifications of this decree.
Since we still lack these specifics, the lay of the land is not yet sufficiently clear for the United States bishops to give concrete direction on how to proceed in specific cases, but when we do reach that point you can be assured that we will act in unison and in full conformity with the Gospel of Life.
But also notice how the Lord uses these challenges for his purposes: due to these ill-considered government policies, a lot of people are taking a second look at the Church’s teaching regarding artificial contraception and far more young couples are being trained in natural family planning than ever before — largely due to making this a requirement for marriage preparation in Arkansas. Some of these couples say that their training in natural family planning was an epiphany for them, an eye-opening experience of yet another facet of the Gospel of Life that they know will make a major contribution to their married life.
All of us are anti-abortion, so let me close with a reminder of two truths that we also need to keep in mind as we work to end the scourge of abortion in our country and in our world: 1) life does not cease to be sacred once the baby is born, and 2) no child in the womb will be secure until we embrace the sanctity of all life and reject everything that threatens human life or degrades human dignity at any stage of human existence.
