Beloved People of God:
Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. St. Paul speaks to us about our living through, with and in God. Like Jesus, he tells us that we are servants, serving one another as Jesus serves us through the Eucharist. Consoling and serving are two aspects of the love Jesus gives to us. He commissions us to bear the joy of the Gospel to all we encounter; whether friend, foe, or stranger.
Part of our service in the Lord is welcoming others. Welcoming is an opportunity to offer charity, or love of the Lord, and it is born out of Jesus’ call to justice. During this month of October, “Respect Life Month,” we are known for our love of life from conception to natural death. We welcome the child in the womb as a gift from God. We welcome those we meet during our daily living, no matter their faith, as they also are children of God. We pray with those who are blessed with disabilities that we serve their abilities to shine God’s light. We pray with the psalmist, “May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you.” We welcome the sick and the dying for we know the hope that comes from God’s love and we serve that hope in the golden chalice of eternal life.
The evolving secularity of the world may be a discouragement to us. As we welcome others, we may feel like the apostles locked away in a room after the Crucifixion because we are sad and resigned to fear. We pray for courage of the Holy Spirit as the apostles were anointed to bring Christ the Eucharist to one another. We pray for courage to evolve into an extraordinary missionary; one who is not afraid preach the Gospel, by word, thought or deed. Like the apostles and disciples, we cannot do this alone. We are called to be in communion with one another, acknowledging the gifts of each one that we glorify the body of Christ by ministering to one another and working as one. Pope Francis said, “It is also important for all of us to remember that what drives us to be missionaries is not the need to meet quotas or to proselytize, but rather our desire to make known to as many brothers and sisters as possible the joy of encountering Christ.”
Our faith is joyous because we are children of God. We rejoice because God is our friend, who rejoices above all in our salvation, as St. Gregory the Great spoke. Any suffering we endure binds us to Jesus who leads us to joy, as we receive the gift of salvation. God has forgiven us. As we meet the people we forgive them that they might also find true joy in God. Our smile, our touch, our embrace, our outreach are anyone’s experience of this joy as we offer Jesus the Eucharist to one another.
As we pray during this month of October, let us remember that Respect Life is not relegated to one month, but it is a lifetime of living through, with and in our triune God. The Covenant between God and humankind is interwoven with reminders of God’s gift of human life. Remember the sacred dignity of each person, no matter the differences between you and each one. The Catechism of the Catholic Church beautifully acknowledges our relationship with God: “Human Life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God, and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator” (CCC 2258).
During this time of election, Florida Amendment 4, which will appear on Florida’s November 2024 ballot, is an extreme proposal that legalizes full-term abortion with no protections for the preborn child, including when the child is capable of feeling pain. This proposed amendment to our state constitution would prohibit all restrictions on abortion before viability and create a broad exception that any healthcare provider could exploit to allow abortion up to birth. I and all the Florida bishops urge all Floridians of goodwill to stand against the legalization of late-term abortion and oppose the abortion amendment. By voting no to Florida Amendment 4, we affirm that each child in his/her mother’s womb is a gift of God.
By our daily living, may we confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.