Monday, October 8, 2012

Homily - Respect Life

A parishioner asked me to post my homily - please understand it is more an outline then a finished product!


Walk through gate of Assisi , a hill town in Italy – come to Basilica of St. Clare


Small Chapel – Cross of San Damiano - Francis, go rebuild my church.

Thought – physically

Began to understand - rebuild my church!!



In beginning, they thought it was all a joke

Could this be our Francis? He is the life of the party - wanted to be a Knight

Isn’t he from a rich family?



In time – this was no joke

Began to realize, he was trying to imitate Jesus - the best - alter Christus - ever



Before Pope John Paul II used phrase “Gospel of Life” – Francis understood the sanctity of all life

- he would genuflect in front of pregnant women

- the first “live” nativity

- in the spring he would walk in bare feet so not to crush growing plants

- saw him embrace people with leprosy - he served Christ in the poor

- he understood the beauty of creation - brother sun & sister moon

- he even traveled to Egypt to meet with Sultan and negotiate peace



It is a different time and a different place – but Respect Life Sunday and the “Gospel of Life” never had more meaning.



It is now almost 40 years since Roe vs. Wade

Shocking thing that many still do not understand – permits death to children right to the very moment of birth - 53 million children gone



Many believe that this decision helped to create a growing acceptance of death as “solution” to personal and societal problems. 3 examples



- Euthanasia and assisted suicide are now promoted as answers to declining health and disability – it is on the ballot in Mass. Life for my dad is getting ever more difficult – but NEVER want him to feel he is a burden – his life is no less beautiful despite his age and health.

- We seek to find cures to diseases – a noble goal – but at what cost? Human embryonic stem cell research – week old embryos are sacrificed as a means to cure disease.

- To solve low fertility- human embryos are created in clinics – many discarded or placed in frozen limbo



Francis was a man who spoke the truth and transformed his age - who will do the same?

We will do well to imitate his example and spend time in front of a crucifix – the place where Jesus transformed death into life – “The Gospel of Life” Here is the prayer offered by St. Francis before the Cross of San Damiano:



Most High, glorious God,

enlighten the darkness of my heart

and give me true faith,

certain hope and perfect charity,

sense and knowledge, Lord,

that I may carry out

Your holy and true commands. Amen.