SO, YOU'RE PRO-LIFE? TRY THIS ONE ON FOR SIZE

Yesterday I saw the pro-life cake get some icing.  In church, during the meditation on  the scriptures that we Catholics call the homily.
Those of you who know me, know that I am anti-abortion, and I don't care what the language police say.  That's what I am and that's what I say.
So, yesterday I was sitting there in church minding my own business.  Yes, I do have moments when I am able to control myself, somewhat, for a little while.  The Scripture readings yesterday were challenging, of course, but they became more so as the priest developed his line of thought.  He injected a reflection about the "pro-life" conviction that so many people say that they have.  He was very frank when he said, "if you are pro-life, then you have to be pro-life all the way.  You aren't pro-life if you are pro-death penalty.  You aren't pro-life if you don't mind sending young people to war to kill and/or be killed." After that is when he stepped off into God's territory.  He told the story of the sixteen year-old boy and his family who were denied access to their first class seats on an American Airlines flight because the boy has Down Syndrome. The priest placed that side by side with the story from scripture that describes a host taking care of the well dressed dude like a prince while he mistreats the poorly dressed indigent.  (James 2; 1 - 4)
This preacher then took pro-life out for a ride over deep, deep waters.  Here, I paraphrase.  If you are pro-life, then you owe it to yourself and to others not only to prevent abortion, but to love, respect and enhance the lives of the humans around you.  This priest deserves some kind of a medal.   How many of us have ever thought about pro-life that way?  How many of you say that you are pro-life and actually believe in the truth contained in  the priest's line of thought?  Even if you are pro-life and you are not Catholic, the words spoken from the altar yesterday, by this one, deep thinking priest are for everyone, even a Catholic anti-abortionist like me.

THALIDOMIDE, RAPE, ABORTION, GOD

http://news.yahoo.com/german-drug-firm-makes-1st-apology-thalidomide-161625770--finance.html

FILE - In a 1965 file photo provided by the U.S. Department of Health, a three-year-old girl, born without arms to a German mother who took the drug thalidomide, uses power-driven artificial arms fitted to her by Dr. Ernst Marquardt of the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Pharmaceutical company Gruenenthal, German manufacturer of anti-morning sickness drug thalidomide, has for the first time apologized to people who were born with congenital birth defects as a result of its use. Chief executive Harald Stock said Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 that the company had failed to reach out "from person to person" to the victims and their mothers over the past 50 years.
                            MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWM
I saw this today and I cannot let it go.  Why?  Because I was in Europe when it was at its height.  I was there and I met one mother who had borne a baby with no legs and she had come to Rome to offer her sufferings to God.  She was from Belgium and the baby was her first.  It was a rather hard meeting, standing there in St. Peter's Square with the mother carrying her baby, accompanied by her husband and, if I remember well, his mother.  The other thing that I remember from that day is the quiet acceptance of the family and the resignation to the Will of God.  We spoke for about fifteen minutes and then went on our way.  I have never forgotten them.

My mind being what it is, took me down another path when I saw this picture and the accompanying story on the Internet.  I remembered that this was about the time of the civil take-over taking place in the Congo...The Belgian Congo in mid-Africa.  Some of you can remember that from your geography books in elementary school, way back when.  I had an attack of memory about the viciousness of the insurgency  and the news that was leaking up north into Europe during it all.  We were in school and in the monastic life besides, so daily news was not high on our list of activities.  But this was quite traumatic.  It was all the more so because it brought us face to face with religious persecution as well.  Part of our pain was caused by the news that the rebel soldiers had routinely raped nuns after killing the priests and their closest helpers.  

These are the two thought streams that invaded me as I read the story about the Thalidomide and a third that hit me as a consequence of the first two.  It is known that none of the afflicted families, to anyone's knowledge procured abortions.  There were perhaps some, but Thalidomide or rape, though abortion could have been an option in some quarters, it was not a part of the regular discourse.   It is known that there were some nuns who became pregnant consequent to the attack.  It is a fact that many of the families of those courageous women took them in  and raised the children.  There were even one or two of the religious congregations who took it upon themselves to raise the children.  Some of them left the religious life to be with their child.  All of them are noble examples of what it means to be a living martyr for the glory of God.  

I run these things through my mind and I think of how strong and valiant people can be in the face of adversity.  I think of the Thalidomide babies and their families.  They represent stories of personal lifelong dedication for the benefit of the new life.  There were many Thalidomide babies born without any limbs at all.  They are still with us, and those who have seen them through life to this point must be with them as well.  Old, but still there.  The nuns who were given the children took them and still  have them, of course.  I often wonder if any of them ever went back to the monastic life.  I wonder about the bonds of love that tie the babies born under these two stressful circumstances to their parents.  Today, more than at other times when I have the fleeting memory of the young family in the Square in Rome am I moved to wonder and awe at the life that they must have.  

Finally, I have to shake my head at the thought of the reality at the other end of the spectrum... abortion.  Yes, I have known women who have had abortions.  I dare say that they may have more significant emotional scars than the Thalidomide families and the victims of the Congolese rebels.  These days, we talk about abortion with such a cavalier attitude and such a "health- care" detached tone, as though abortion was nothing more than tonsillitis.  I look at two of my friends who procured abortions and I think of a third whom I have not seen in more than 30 years now.  They lead "normal" lives, but they never fail to tell me that they need prayers.  They are always reaching out, practically pleading for warmth and assurance of forgiveness.  Today I was blessed with some thoughts of comfort presented to me by the Good Lord.  He is reminding me that along the road of life, everything that happened to others happened to me.  Everything that has come to my head and my heart is still there for a purpose.  This is one of those days when the tips of God's wings (Psalm 91) brushed my cheeks and I am grateful for it.  

I hope that He answers my prayer that He should give you a fly-by too.

MISSISSIPPI PERSONHOOD AT CONCEPTION

MOST CONCEPTIONS DO NOT SURVIVE MORE THAN 8 WEEKS

I would have voted "no" on this.  Yes, I am Catholic.  That does not mean that I confuse "life" with "personhood," to use the Mississippi term.  I have no pretension of being able to get very scientific about this, and I'm sure that you don't either.  So, all I want to do is to use some common sense here and strive to expose my thoughts on the matter.  I also want make it clear that these are not yesterday's thoughts, not even last year's thoughts.  I have entertained these for a long time.  All the way back into when I was in my early 30's and not anywhere near ever thinking that I would engender children.  Ya know, back during the Paul Revere days!
A} We all know that complete human fertilization takes about 2 to 5 days.  It is a process of maturation, of ripening, so to speak.  The Sperm and the Ovum feed one another into blossoming, so to speak.  When that blossoming happens, then there are no longer two separate realities, but one.  I believe, with most other people, both scientific and lay, that life has now begun. We are also all of one accord that it cannot result in anything but human life.
B} We also all believe that individuation has now begun to take place and is in fact on a one-way track where there is no "U-Turn."  The life that is now growing stronger at every moment will never be duplicated.  That doesn't mean that the life will survive the journey.  That doesn't even mean that the person carrying the life is even conscious of the process that has begun.  It doesn't even mean that at a given point the process may end without the host knowing that it had ever even taken pace.  The chart shows that only about 30% of conceptions make it to the 8 week stage.
C} By the time that the 8 week stage has been reached, there is no doubt that a fairly well developed individual has come to be.  By this time a certain bond has even begun to develop between the host (mother) and the life in the womb.  It won't be long after that, given the survival of the new life, that the mother will begin to notice patterns of behavior of the growing being.  In the case of women who have had multiple pregnancies, the distinct behavior patterns of different lives are vividly discernible 
D} It is about this time that I think that we can start talking about "personhood."  It is at about this time when caressing and fondling and warm emotions start to be exchanged between the mother and the life in the womb.  At a certain point the spirit of the mother, and even of the father, especially in an intimate, warm and loving matrimonial relationship, begins to influence the growing being in the womb.  [I don't want you to believe that I am forgetting the negative side of this.]  Of this, I am convinced.  Religiously, it is somewhere along the developmental path that I have laid down here that God intervenes and the being is no longer a simple animal life individual, but a truly complete human individual, fully defined creature of God.  Somewhere along this path, the "personalization" of the growing individual comes into existence.  So much so that it causes the embryo to act, maybe I should even say, behave, in its own particular way.   Now, the progress that everyone experiences and the outcome that we all hope for will result in a true human person outside the protection of the mother's body.
The impetus for my setting down my thoughts, as you all must realize is the ballot measure in Mississippi about "human personhood" occurring at conception.  This, in my opinion, is pure, non-distilled stercus taurorum.  "Life" is not the same as "Personhood."  They are two entertwined realities that are not identical, neither in being nor in the order of existence.  They are not even identical in any true religious sense.  To make them identical and to put them together is forcing reality into a universe that doesn't exist.  
Now, let me just say something that will perhaps shock you, or offend you, but I'm going to venture there anyway.  There was a time when I did not believe in animal psychology.  Really.  I was nearly 40 years old before I was able to accept the reality of animals having a psychology.  I don't know why it took me so long.  Maybe it was because I was so proud of being a human that I couldn't see God giving something as "precious" as a psychology to animals.  Then, from there, I was forced to admit that some of these animals even have individual behavior patterns (personalities?  Hmmm!).
I consider this an important moment in my life.  The lesson I learned was precisely that life and personhood and individuality are not perfectly identical and do not all happen at the same moment in the existence of any animal, human or otherwise.
So now you have my thought(s) for the day.  I apologize for the lack of humor this time around. But, I figure that you'll get over it. Before I leave, I have to leave you with two final pieces of me:  (1) Don't make the mistake of making religious conviction the only valid vision of reality that exists. See God in everything all the while realizing that everything is not God. (2) Don't start all your discussions about human existence with the word "abortion."  Believe it or not, there is more to our lives as human beings than "abortion."
Now that I have really heated you up, I know that you don't have to be reminded not to cry at MY funeral.