To finish our prolife series, St. John Paul II believed that the Culture of Death sees people primarily as objects.  Contraception reinforces the mindset that children are obstacles to our happiness; abortion says: I can terminate a child; IVF has taught us: I can make a child when I want, for my happiness; and euthanasia says: If a person’s no longer useful, we can kill him or her.  In 2024, there was a BBC documentary in which an activist for people with disabilities interviewed Vancouver doctor, Ellen Wiebe:

 

Let’s focus on two realities in the First Reading: freedom and wisdom.  It says, “If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and they will save you.  If you trust in God, you too shall live, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.  The Lord has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.  Before each person are life and death, good and evil and whichever one chooses, that shall be given.  For great is the wisdom of the Lord…  He has not commanded anyone to sin, and he has not given anyone permission to sin” (Sir 15:15-20).  Four times we see the word ‘choose’ or ‘choice.’  God gives freedom so that we can choose to love, not do it automatically.  Even when life is difficult, we can choose the Culture of Life, which sees people not as objects, but as persons.

Choice is not about doing whatever we want, but about wisdom, which recognizes right and wrong.  Here, we can see alternatives: commandments/acting faithfully as opposed to sin, life and death, good and evil, symbolically represented as fire and water.

Last December 30, Kiano Vafaeian killed himself with the assistance of Dr. Wiebe.  He was only 26, suffering from blindness in one eye, and depressed.  He wasn’t dying, and needed help, not death.  He tried to take his own life in 2022, but his mother, Margaret, and family stepped in to help.  After his death, she is dedicating her whole self to fighting and promoting a Culture of Life.  She wrote: “The actions of DR ELLEN WIEBE reveal a pattern of coldness and disregard for vulnerable human life that I can no longer stay silent about, just that scary smile shows her entitlement for taking people’s lives…  This is not healthcare.  This is a failure of ethics, accountability, and humanity.  No parent should ever have to bury their child because a system — and a doctor — chose death over care, help, or love”.

Last year, in the United Kingdom, the House of Commons passed a bill to legalize euthanasia, but recently (and beautifully), the House of Lords raised so many objections that the bill might not pass.  There are so many horror stories coming out of Canada that one article asks: “Does the UK want to become Canada or not?”

Archbishop Smith is so horrified by euthanasia that he wants Catholics to know about a decision made by Archbishop Miller in 2017: If a Catholic chooses to kill themselves by MAiD, they will be denied a Catholic funeral.  Now, we’ll still pray for them and offer Mass for them, but let’s be clear: This is killing of an innocent person.  “In the case of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, this final action of a person’s life has been chosen in violation of the clear teachings of the Church; it is an act which expresses a serious defect in belief and in unity with the faithful.  It is not a death like Christ’s.  Some family members may have disagreed with their loved one’s decision and now feel morally conflicted because of it.  It is the Church’s practice that a Catholic Funeral Mass is not appropriate when such a wrongful act… has taken place”.  This doesn’t apply to most cases of suicide, where the person doesn’t really know what they’re doing.  But MAiD is “presented as fully reasonable…  It has its own ‘eligibility requirements’ including multiple assessments, a ‘waiting period’ after the decision has been made…  Our faith requires us to be clear and consistent… We do not approve or condone in any way euthanasia.”

This First Reading comes from the Wisdom books of the Old Testament, which is especially when, between 400 and 100 B.C., Jewish thought came into contact with Greek philosophy—faith and reason came together.  So, the Culture of Life tries to be rational.  For example, when a woman suffers a miscarriage, everyone mourns because a baby has died, not a blob of cells—this is consistent.  However, for the Culture of Death, there’s an inconsistency: If a baby is born premature, we do everything we can to save the life because it’s a baby  But if a baby at the same stage isn’t wanted, our culture is okay with killing it because suddenly it’s no longer a baby.

Here’s our annual statistics of leading causes of death in the world, according to Worldometers.  Deaths by boring homilies have decreased, thank God, and even though people have fainted when I preach, there have been no recorded deaths.  For those of us who believe abortion is wrong, this is why we believe it’s the number one moral issue of our day, because it causes the most deaths and we’re trying to be consistent.

So, what can we do to choose the Culture of Life?  First, we can change our mind about certain issues and actions.  I mentioned in 2021 that my maternal grandmother, Betty Navey, made an appointment to abort my mother in 1943, but, through the grace of God, changed her mind.

We can also speak out.  Pope Francis always used his voice to speak out strongly: “It is not right to ‘do away with’ a human being, however small, in order to solve a problem.  It is like hiring a hit man to solve a problem”.  On the positive side, he would always show the beauty of loving those who are marginalized, like this Canadian baby with a rare genetic disorder.

Also, thanks to our phones, we can show people videos of what abortion does.  So, if abortion comes up during a conversation, we can bring out our phone and say, ‘Give me a minute, please.  Let’s go to liveaction.org and look at a video of what abortion does.  What do you think about this?”

Finally, here’s our schedule for 40 Days for Life.  A big thank-you to the 154 who have registered!

And here’s a video from Birthright that reminds us of how powerful our prayers are for women in crisis pregnancies.

 

Last year, 356 of us signed up, so, if you’ve done so before, please join this year.  And if you’ve never joined, try doing so with a friend.  You have the cards in the pews and you can put them in the basket.  Thank you!

Let’s end with a story about seeing people as persons and doing something about it. I hope this will motivate us to sign up and for more hours.  Years ago, someone said to Catholic actor Jim Caviezel, “You’re pro-life.  Tell you what, if you really believe in what you speak, adopt a child — not any child, he’s got to have a serious deficiency”.  So, he and his wife adopted two children with brain tumors from China.

Here’s a video about it:

 

God has given us the freedom to love people as persons and to choose the Culture of Life.