2nd Saturday in Ordinary Time
They said it of Christ: “He is out of his mind”. And the same thing is said nowadays of the followers of Christ, notably those who were at yesterday’s March for Life in Washington, D.C.
The same criticism exists today, the same intolerance for any divergence from politically correct opinion, the same incapacity to comprehend a self-sacrificing love, the same dislike of people who march on behalf of those who are not able to plead for their lives. It’s a lot easier to say, “They’re out of their minds” than to have a change of heart.
And yet the pro-life position couldn’t be simpler or more sane: it’s always wrong for big strong people to kill little innocent weak people.
Perhaps the principal thing which Americans need today is a little more of this madness. Oh, they’ll say the same of us that they said of Christ, “He is out of his mind”, or as one Senator put it, “The dogma lives loudly within you”. She said it as if it were a bad thing, but it’s not actually religious dogma that life begins at conception. It’s settled science.
Today’s Gospel (Mark 3:20-21) invites us to ask ourselves if anyone could say of us that we were “out of our minds” because we made such a big deal of the pro-life position. They said it about Christ and his teaching, and if we were more like him it would be said, in one tone or another, about us. We need to make up our minds to go on in the path of self-sacrificing love, without minding one bit what they say about us.
The reason is summed up in the theme of yesterday’s march: “Love saves lives”.
Comments are closed.