Mary’s Struggle

“Give me this night to just be his mother. Give him this moment to just be my child ...” — Give Me This Night, written and performed by Zane King & Donna King

I recently heard the above song for the first time at a local parish Christmas concert and was immediately captivated by the lyrics. The song reflects Mary’s wanting to be just a normal mother and for her son to need just her for this short period of time, right after his birth. She is struggling with the fact that she has to offer up her relationship with her child so that the world can be saved. It is the poignant story that we all know, and yet we sometimes forget how much Mary and Joseph sacrificed emotionally, knowing that their son had to leave them and would have to suffer so terribly. Because Mary felt these unbelievably powerful maternal emotions, she is a mentor for all mothers. She was a young girl when this huge responsibility was laid at her feet, and she chose life. She chose to carry God’s Son, though she knew there would be questions and that the birth of her child would be a struggle in itself. If only those mothers considering abortion could feel Mary’s intense emotions of holding her child ever so closely and hoping beyond hope that she could keep him near to her for a lifetime. Mary agonized over losing him. Contrastingly, they agonize over keeping their children. Mary ultimately recognizes that she has to sacrifice her wants for the good of the world.

Let us pray that all mothers recognize that the gift of a baby’s life is truly a gift for the whole world and that, like Mary, they will listen to our Father’s message and follow the plan he has for each of us — born and unborn.

         Anita Flynn

         Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

Gift to the Church

I have not read Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), the document Pope Francis wrote in summoning up the two synods on the family, but I have to say I was very disappointed in the negative portrait that Father Raymond de Souza paints of our beloved Holy Father Francis in “The Year of Amoris Laetitia” (page one, Jan. 8 issue).

I do believe from reading “Joy of the Gospel” (Evangelii Gaudium) and observing this dear man that he deserves a much more positive presentation of his motives and attitudes. Pope Francis is, in my opinion, God’s gift to his Church and to the world for these years we are living in. Moreover, I am disappointed in the Register. I read what I believe — though I admit, again, to not having read Amoris Laetitia — a much more accurate critique, a very positive one, by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn in America magazine. Why does not the Register, for the sake of balance, publish an article by Cardinal Schönborn, or someone of his stature, in favor of Amoris Laetitia, and let your readers make up their own minds? As for Cardinal Shönborn’s defense of the papal document, it was, I thought, brilliant, in that it showed just what Our Holy Father was trying to achieve. Of course, this is a discussion for scholars, which the rest of us should just respectfully listen to.

Given what I know of our beloved Pope Francis, I am of the mind that, in the end, he will be shown to be a giant of his time and that others will come to see what he was trying to convey.

         Gerald McAfee

         Gresham, Oregon

 

Return to Basic Truths

Jan. 22 is one of the most tragic dates in American history. It comes almost six months after we celebrate the greatest and most miraculous document in the annals of human governance — the Declaration of Independence. Our nation’s first and most important declaration of truth proclaimed that we as Americans “hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [and women] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The freedom and protection of our human lives as Americans has been a light to the world since then. What a wonderful way to start our nation.

More than 200 years later, since January 1973 and the infamous ruling by the Supreme Court known as Roe v. Wade, more than 50 million unborn children have had their lives ended by their own parents in the horrendous act of legal abortion in America. Norma McCorvey, the women identified as “Roe,” later admitted to lying about being raped while trying to get an abortion legally. The legal process took so long that she actually gave birth to her child. Unknown to most, McCorvey became a staunch pro-life supporter, for an even greater irony.

The culture of death has run rampant in the past two centuries. Death is the solution to so many of the great problems of human existence. The various forms of media assign euphemisms (terrible realities that sound good), and some Americans will blindly accept the culture of death with its bad law, bad science and bad medical care. Labels like “women’s health issues” for death through abortion and “dignity in death” for physician-assisted suicide dilute and destroy the truth that is our human life and allows some Americans to persist in a form of invincible ignorance. Euphemisms cover up so much of the reality of who we are as humans that we cannot believe and trust even the most important and sincere of public servants. Much of all media — public or social — and news sources are full of double meaning, half-truths, fake news and outright lies. Can we overcome the present iteration of the culture of death by returning to the Judeo Christian principles and truth of God’s great love and his gifts of faith, hope and peace that made us the greatest nation the world has ever known?

The present time can be an age of love, hope and peace, not only for America, but for the world, by repealing the bad law of the culture of death (Roe v. Wade) and then creating the good law of the culture of life by protecting human life in all ages and in all conditions, with the strength, courage and wisdom that can be America’s gift to the world.

           Don Chisholm, M.D.

           Dillon, Colorado