ON THE OCCASION OF THE 52ND ANNUAL MARCH FOR LIFE

 

24 January 2025

 

Wednesday was the Day of Prayer for the Protection of Unborn Children.   At 1:00 PM today the 52^nd annual March for Life will step off in D.C.  Fifty-two  years of prayerful protest against abortion and, a more recent addition, the intentional killing of the ill elderly. I taught at Georgetown University School of Medicine for ten years. Georgetown is the location for the annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life.  That will happen tomorrow January 25.  All of these events were, and remain, necessary responses to the U.S. Supreme Court's disastrous Roe vs. Wade decision of January 22, 1973 and society’s enthusiastic embrace of killing the most vulnerable at both ends of the age spectrum.

 

Though now repealed with the lawmaking returned to the states, Roe v. Wade sent American society down a slippery slope of killing the unplanned, the imperfect, the undesirable, and the inconveniently sick and elderly.  While initially Roe vs. Wade set a three-month limit during which abortion was considered legal, things have changed.

 

Late-term abortion, i.e. after twenty weeks gestation and for some, up to the point of viability, has been approved in a number of states with legislation pending in others.  A column in the Washington Post from February 1, 2019 contained the following startling quote.  "This week in Virginia, Delegate Kathy Tran (D-Fairfax) admitted that, yes, her bill would allow a doctor to perform an abortion after the mother had gone into labor—a position that Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, a pediatric neurologist by training bizarrely (and ineptly) defended in a radio interview."  Massachusetts has made multiple attempts to approve what is euphemistically called "assisted dying," so far to no avail.  A bill will come up in New York shortly with a similar intent.  When did old age, handicap, or terminal illness, become capital offenses demanding a prescribed, planned, and intentional death?

 

In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, St. John Paul II condemned "therapeutic interventions--which accept life only under certain conditions and reject it when it is affected by any limitation, handicap, or illness."  As if to prove John Paul's condemnation, Iceland, through prenatal testing and post-test abortion, has almost eliminated Down Syndrome or Trisomy 21 from its population. 

 

John Paul pointed out in his encyclical:  "A danger today is the tendency to disguise certain crimes against life in its early or final stages by using innocuous medical terms

which distract attention from the fact that what is involved is the right to life of an actual human person." Killing the sick and sick elderly is considerably more accurate than physician prescribed death.  Women's Health is a clever term to disguise abortion.

 

While St. John Paul II picked up on the manipulation of language he seems to have missed the severe editing of long standing codes of conductin the world of medicine.

Sadly, medical schools shoulder much of the blame.

 

In ancient times Hippocratic physicians, pronounced and lived according to the Oath Attributed to Hippocrates. It was not universally administered nor did all physicians abide by its precepts, thus the designation Hippocratic physicians separated those who took the oath from non-Hippocratic physicians, those who didn’t.  The bowdlerized “oath” administered these days is a trite med school graduation exercise performed so that mommy can dab at her eyes and daddy can bust his buttons.  The modern versions are unrecognizable when compared to the original.  The promises to live ethically and morally, and the promise to revere and respect the one who taught the young physician the art of medicine,  have all been deleted.  A new physician no longer swears: "Into whatsoever houses I enter, . . .I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman," Today's young doctors do not say: "I will use treatment to help the sick . . . but never with a view to injury and wrong-doing.  Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course . . . . Similarly I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art." 

 

The Hippocratic oath is thought to have been composed between the third and fifth centuries B.C. suggesting that the sanctity of vulnerable life was more respected by pagans than it is by today's shrill proponents and their fellow travelers. Unfortunately, there will be a 53rd Annual March for Life and probably a 54th and 55th as well.  The need for witness will be even greater over the coming years as vulnerable and defenseless human life remains under assault in novel forms such as puberty blockers.

 

We pray in thanksgiving for those who will march in D.C. a bit later today, particularly the legions of young people who traveled from all over the country.  We pray for the victims of unnatural executions, the Holy Innocents of today.  We pray for the collateral damage to families.  The cost is much higher than anyone realizes.  We pray for the conversion of heart of abortionists and those who would execute the sick elderly.  We pray for their collaborators who administer the anesthesia, prep the patient, and assure the patient that she is doing the absolutely right thing or that grandma’s family is acting

in her best interest.

 

Requiem aeternam

dona eis, Domine,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Requiescant in pace. 

 

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Meant to post this on Friday but one thing led to another and I neglected to do so.  However, the topic is important.   

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Be All That You Can Be: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10

Ps 19 8-15

I Cor 12:12-30

Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21

 

A basic truth when studying scripture is that one cannot understand the New Testament without first understanding the Old.  It is impossible to know the New Testament without knowing the Old Testament, the long compilation of the history of the People of the Covenant and a rich treasury of prayers.

 

Nehemiah was written in the fifth century before Christ.  The book details the story of a people returned from a long exile.  They were confused. They had no knowledge of the Torah. They were oblivious of the covenant between God and his people.

 

When Nehemiah learned that the wall surrounding Jerusalem had been destroyed he vowed to rebuild it.  When the reconstruction of Jerusalem's wall was complete, all the people: men, women, and children above a certain age, were summoned before Ezra who read and interpreted the Torah to them.

The people wept when they heard words of the Law. They wept because they realized their guilt in not upholding the law of the Lord.  They were overcome with sorrow.  However, Ezra did not condemn them.  In his mercy he told them not to weep. but to eat, drink, and celebrate for the day was holy to the Lord.

 

Paul's letter is important, particularly when one considers today's hysterical and occasionally delusional social climate. Each of us has been given unique gifts. We have not been given identical gifts.  Our task is to discover and develop the gifts unique to each of us rather than pining for those we do not have and will never be able to develop. 

 

“. . . a body is one though it has many parts . . .”  This is an important idea to which Paul will return.  Certain sectors of society deny the possibility, to say nothing of the reality, of differences and distinctions.  Indeed, there are concerted attempts to erase them, even when those difference are biologically determined

and cannot be legitimately modified or maintained. This mode of thinking is nothing more than an extreme version of particularity with a grandiose and narcissistic sense of specialness. Each individual or faction insists that his, her, or its specialness is the most special of all specialness  and thus deserves precedence if not pride of place.  Statements to the contrary generally result in the equivalent of a shrieked, "My equality trumps your equality" followed by the invention of a new 'ism' or 'phobia' to throw about. This may be followed by a ranting talk show appearance demanding an apology with public penance.

 

As recent events have shown, we have made no progress since the Salem Witch trials   that took place a mere 73 miles north of Boston.  Indeed, American society

seems to be regressing to the same mean as the hysterical accusers of 1692. 

When feeling is allowed to trump fact, when political correctness is given precedence over basic science  and reality, we are in serious trouble as a society.  And we are.

 

Medical students hear amusing anecdotes about the struggle for supremacy within the body.  Most of these can never be shared in sacred space or in front of one’s parents.  The general outline is a debate in which each of the body's organs or organ systems is arguing about which of them is the most important; 

to the life, comfort, and well-being of the individual.   But you know what? 

There is no supreme organ or organ system.  No capo di tutti capi.  There is no pope of the body.  Each of the body's organs and systems is equally necessary for normal function and survival.  The lungs cannot do the work of the liver. 

The liver cannot do the work of the heart.  The pancreas cannot do the work of the kidneys no matter how much it might want to identify as a kidney. And nothing can cover and protect the body except the skin.  If any vital organ or organ system is seriously damaged or malfunctional, the entire body is at risk of death.  It really is that simple. 

 

None of us is the social or biological equivalent of a stem cell that is pluripotent. 

None of us can be anything he or she wants to be, depending only upon our dreams, our passions, or, to use an unfortunate term from the past, following our bliss. We cannot decide to be whatever we "identify ourselves to be" particularly when that violates both natural law and the dictates of human physiology.  The saying "you can be whatever you want to be" is one of the greatest lies in the long history of lying.

 

We all have specific genetic endowments.  We all have unique cognitive strengths and weaknesses. We all have assets and liabilities. We are all limited in some ways and strong in others.  The only thing we have in common is that we are sinners.  No exceptions. 

 

The comforting news is that we are sinners equally loved by God.  That is the only equality any of us will ever know.

 

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There was a period when I was covering a parish down near the Rhode Island border.  It was not far from Horseneck Beach,a beautiful Massachusetts State Park. The photos below are from November several years ago.  November and beyond is my favorite time on a beach. 

 

Fr Jack, SJ, MD

Would You Like Some Wine? Homily for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Is 62:1-5

Ps 96

1 Cor 12:4-11

Jn 2:1-11

 

Today’s readings are rich.  The Gospel is one of the most well-known

narratives in all of scripture.  The late Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow noted in his commentary on this miracle that the story is so well told it does not require comment.  The narrative of the wedding at Cana is unique to John's Gospel.  There is nothing like it in Matthew, Mark or Luke.  Be that as it may a lot of paper has been filled with speculation and questions that are  not relevant to the narrative or the message. 

 

Among the questions that have occupied many one hears, Why was Mary there?  Why were the disciples invited?  What was the function of the steward?  Other speculations border on the impossibly pious.  Some writers have used the short exchange between Jesus and Mary to write long speculative treatises on the mother-son relationship spanning their lifetimes. 

 

These questions and arguments are nothing more than distractions.  The importance of this narrative is apparent in the final verse: "Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him."

 

"the beginning of his signs . . . “the revelation of his glory.”  The prophecies had come to fulfillment.

 

In John's Gospel the revelation of Jesus is seen as much in what he is and does as in what he says.  The importance of the signs in John can never be overestimated.  Father Marrow again, "The sole end of the account of the miracle at Cana is to believe in him"  just as the apostles believed in him upon witnessing this first sign. 

 

More important than the meaning of Mary's question or the number of jars of water is the fact of Jesus' signs or miracles.

 

Biblical scholar Colin Brown stresses, "We cannot have Christianity

without the miracle-working Jesus of the four Gospels.  We cannot have his teaching without his signs any more than we can have his signs without his teaching.  The miracles of Jesus provide the key to understanding Jesus . . . "

 

"No more shall people call you forsaken or your land desolate." Isaiah reminds us that God never abandons His people even when they have abandoned Him. 

 

Marriages and wedding feasts were used in scripture as ways to describe God's salvation and announce the Kingdom of God.  Thus we heard, "As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you."  This prophecy  is fulfilled lavishly and abundantly in the Gospel. 

 

Imagine hosting a wedding and suddenly finding 150 more bottles of wine, and fine wine at that! This is the kingdom promised in Isaiah.  It is a kingdom in which our needs are met not with mere abundance but with superabundance, overflowing and shaken down. 

 

What may get missed is that while the abundance of wine demonstrated God’s infinite generosity, God's greatest gift to us is his Son. Jesus was revealed in that action at Cana. The greatest of which is not the miracles narrative.  The greatest of signs  is God sending his Son to live among us.  What are we to do in light of that gift?

 

Paul described the abundance of gifts bestowed on us by the Holy Spirit. These are gifts that we must discover and cultivate within ourselves, gifts and combinations of gifts, that are unique to each of us. Many of us waste too much time wishing and striving  for gifts we have not been given rather than cultivating the ones we possess.  I recall a young woman, one of my medical patients, who wanted to be a world-class runner as was her college roommate. However, there was a problem.  She had neither the body type, skeletal structure,  nor the muscle type to ever be a world class runner.  Fortunately she gave up the insane training and dieting when she realized that she had other gifts but competitive distance running wasn't, and never would be, one of them.   As Paul wrote: “There are different spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; different forms of service but the same Lord; different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.”

 

No matter how much DEI is rammed down our throats or how much we are hammered with the false notion that “you can be anything you want to be” —including a man becoming a woman by a combination of choice and hormonal legerdemain—the reality is that each of us has unique gifts while lacking others, each of us has unique abilities counterbalanced by inabilities.  In neither case are the gifts identical with those of our neighbor. To pretend otherwise is delusional.

 

As we heard in the Gospel antiphon, "God has called us through the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." The psalmist instructs us what to do

when we possess it: "Announce his salvation, day after day. Tell his glory among the nations; among all peoples, his wondrous deeds."

 

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The only reason for the choice of photos is color.  Getting very gray up here, extreme cold and some snow coming in.  Every once in a while during the winter my eyes are hungry for color.  Grateful for the couple of hundred thousand photos on the computer, some of which are in black and white.

 

Sacristy at a monastery.  Vestments do need repair.  The thread box reminds me of the Crayola 64 crayon box with the sharpener of course. 

Late afternoon in Vermont

Balm for the eyes on this cold day.

Suncatcher supplying the only color overlooking a monastic cemetery

The main door to the monastic church at St. Joseph Trappist Abbey in Spencer, MA. 

Yellow shutter in Loyola, Spain

This is rather colorful.  Ljubljana, Slovenia

Sun streaming through the stained glass at the back of the Jesuit chapel in Lyon, France. 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

The Baptism of the Lord

 

Is 40:1-5,9-11

Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10

Ti 2:11-14; 3:4-7

Lk 3:15-16, 21-22

 

Those who are familiar with Handel’s Messiah are forgiven if they wish to tune out to the homily and listen to a private performance of that magnificent work in their heads hearing nothing of what I am going to say. 

 

The first reading from the 40th chapter of Isaiah makes up a substantial portion of the first part of the Oratorio.  In fact that first part is sometimes  referred to as the Christmas part.  The first verse of the reading, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God" are the first words sung after the overture while the final verse, “He shall feed his flock” brings the first section to a close. Knowing the readers to whom the first reading is addressed is important to understanding its significance. 

 

It was written for an exilic and post-exilic people who had suffered greatly

but who now saw their sufferings coming to an end.  Isaiah is reminding the Israelites, as they prepare to return from exile, that God is powerful and remains loyal to them.  Isaiah offers them comfort and assures that their exile has ended,

that they will be nurtured and fed with the same gentle attention a shepherd feeds his flock. 

 

In our world of ongoing viral plagues, persistent economic crises, seemingly permanent war, and shattered confidence in many institutions--including the Church and its leadership--it is important that we be reminded of God’s solicitous care for us.  Yes,  He comes with power; but He also leads the flock with care. 

 

The second reading from Titus elaborates the promises from Isaiah: “When the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had donebut because of his mercy. . .”

 

“Not because of any righteous deeds we had donebut because of his mercy . . .”

 

We are reminded of God’s generous and wholly undeserved gift of Himself; a gift meant to lead us through the deserts of our lives to eternal life. 

 

God gave us this gift through His only begotten Son who, despite being like us in all things but sin, was baptized by John; a baptism described by the ancient historian Josephus as: “a consecration of the body implying that the soul was already thoroughly cleansed by right behavior.” 

 

 

Jesus’ baptism is an indisputable fact.  All four Gospels give an account of it though, as usual, the details vary across them.  John’s description is particularly unclear.   But, we cannot allow ourselves to get bogged down by details such as whether Jesus was baptized by total immersion or through pouring of water over His head.  The only proper focus is the fact and meaning of Jesus’ baptism not the how it was administered. 

 

“The voice of the Lord is over the waters

The Lord over the vast waters.

The voice of the Lord is mighty

The voice of the Lord is majestic.”

 

The Gospel echoes the grandeur of the psalm when we hear God’s voice, “You are my beloved Son: with you I am well pleased.”  Jesus’ public ministry

began with His baptism.

 

There are three ways to understand baptism in the New Testament.  The first is the most obvious: washing.  Washing is the literal meaning of the Greek root baptein or baptizein.  For us, that washing includes remission of original sin. But sin was the only human dimension Jesus did not share with us.  He united Himself with sinners but He Himself was free from sin. 

 

A second understanding is that of dying and rising.  Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan  presaged the baptism of blood He was to undergo on Calvary. Xavier Leon-Dufour wrote that Jesus' baptism in the Jordan announces and prepares for His baptism “in death.”  For us the waters of baptism represent dying so as to live again in the peace of Christ.  Leon-Dufour wrote that, “Baptism kills the body in so far as it is an instrument of sin and confers a share in the life of God in Christ.”  

We are reminded of this in a particular way at the beginning of the requiem Mass

when the body is received into the church with the words: “In the water of baptism he died with Christ and rose with him to new life. May he now share with him eternal glory.”

 

A third understanding of baptism is that of new birth in the Spirit, a very Pentecostal theme.  That theme is apparent in the reading from Titus:

“He saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by His grace and become heirs in hopes of eternal life.”

 

Today’s readings began with the first line of Handel’s Messiah. Soon I will elevate the consecrated bread and wine, Christ’s particular and real presence

and repeat the doxology:

 

“Through Him, with Him, and in Him in the unity of Holy Spirit

All glory and honor are yours Almighty Father forever and ever.”

 

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Photos from Lyon, France.  One of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited.  It is a photographers dream, particularly Old City in the early morning hours before the tourists hit. 

 

The Church of St. Georges has an indult to celebrate the Tridentine Latin Rite.  Because of my schedule I could rarely manage to get to the community Mass.  The entry to the bridge in the phot was about 30 yards from our door. 

An optical illusion.  The two churches are very distant.  The white one, the basilica,  is several hundred feet higher than the one at river level.

Art gallery in Old City, a wonderful place in which to wander with a camera.

An art gallery further down the street. 
 

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

O Come Let Us Adore Him: Homily for the Feast of Epiphany

 

Despite custom and tradition, the Feast of Epiphany has nothing to do with three Kings.  As we just heard in the gospel,  “behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem.”  No number was given.  Nor were they named.  But, human nature being what it is not only did there have to be an absolute number but they required names, neither of which come from scripture.  The number three came from the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh backed on the assumption that it was one gift per magus, the singular of magi.  Kasper, Melchior, and Balthazar?  Sounds like a law firm.  However, the magi are neither numbered nor named in the gospel.  They are anonymous just as we are.  But they are the source of some interesting traditions of the past.

 

I don’t think the custom persists back home but back when I was an altar boy over sixty years ago, some of us got day out of school to accompany the priest as he blessed the homes of parishioners. This was true in the Polish, Slovak, and Lithuanian churches in town.  Not too sure about the Irish church.  After the blessing Father, using a piece of chalk, would inscribe the initials, K, M, and B with a cross between each letter and the number of the current year.  And then there were a few Christmas cookies to nibble on in the car.  How we got through those seasons without developing diabetes is a bit of a mystery. 

 

Many of the traditions that have grown up around the Feast of the Epiphany  have little to do with reality or the meaning of Jesus’ birth.

 

The word epiphany is from two Greek roots:epi:  forth and pheinein: to show.  Thus Epiphany means to show forth, to reveal, to manifest.  One formal definition of epiphany is: "a sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something, a comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization." 

 

The intuitive realization of Jesus as Messiah is the perfect description for this feast. That intuition was symbolized by the star not the magi who were not kings.  The word ‘king’ as well as their names came into use only in the sixth century.  In the end the number of magi, whether they had any royal status, and their names are all irrelevant distractions.  The Magi are important because they represent the first Gentiles to worship Jesus;  they were the first gentiles to realize and comprehend that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah

 

There are many more epiphanies of Jesus scattered throughout the Gospels.   It is even more important to realize on this feast that there are multiple personal epiphanies of Jesus scattered throughout our lives if we are willing and able to recognize them in faith.

 

We just heard in the gospel, "When King Herod heard of this he was greatly troubled and all Jerusalem with him."  Herod's jealousy, duplicity, and rage bring us closer to the reality of Christmas than do the lyrics of  "O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

"Go and search diligently for the child.  When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage."  Fortunately the magi, worthy of their name as wise men, did not believe the crazed megalomaniac and changed their return route.  Their failure to return with the information he demanded sent Herod over the edge into a murderous rampage directed at male children up to the age of two. 

 

Once we wash away the treacle, set aside the sloppy sentimentality, and forever dissociate the word ‘magic from Christmas, we can begin to understand the true meaning of Christmas. 

We can begin to understand what we call the "Christmas story."  That story did not end when the magi returned home, wherever that might have been.  What we call the Christmas story

only describes the beginning of the Christ-event the total arc of Jesus' life, from incarnation and birth, through his hidden life, his teaching, his passion, death, resurrection and ascension.

 

The wood of the manger in Bethlehem led to the wood of the cross on Calvary. We cannot, we must never, separate the wood of the manger from that of the cross.  Understanding that is part of a true epiphany.

 

The late Dag Hammarskjöld summarized the reality of Epiphany and the entire liturgical year in a haiku written in the small  personal journal found following his murder in what was then the Belgian Congo.  Published under the name Markings it has never been out of print despite the lapse of over five decades. The haiku reminds us that Christmas does not and cannot stand alone in either the liturgical or secular calendar.

 

"On Christmas Eve Good Friday

was foretold them

in a trumpet fanfare."

 

The trumpet fanfares and Gloria in Excelsis Deo of Christmas have meaning only when we experience the silence of Good Friday and the shock of the empty tomb.   

 

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The photos were take in the village of Črni Vrh in Slovenia.  The community had gone to the funeral of a Jesuit' s father.  Cold does not begin to describe it.  At 800 plus feet elevation it was about 3500 feet.  Despite having been advised, and following the advice, to wear as much as possible, I don't recall feeling as cold in years.  The wind was fierce.   It took hours to thaw out.

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD