Pro-Life Sermon 4

Given by Fr. Kevin Drew of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri:

On November 14th, 1940, five-hundred and fifteen small twin-engine German bombers dropped 500 tons of explosive on the industrial city of Coventry, England. Two thirds of the city were damaged. There was such a high level of destruction that the German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels later coined the term “coventried” when describing similar destruction in other enemy towns. “Coventried.” 

The Coventry Cathedral, a soaring beautiful gothic cathedral built in the 14th century was fire- bombed and destroyed that night in 1940. The next month, on Christmas the BBC ended a radio program by having people sing in the bombed-out ruins of the cathedral. The broadcast made popular once again an old lullaby with sad lyrics and a haunting melody known as the Coventry Carol. It was written back in the 1500’s as part of a nativity play, when England was still Catholic; before the tyrant King Henry VIII confiscated all Church property, including the Coventry Cathedral. 

The lullaby, in four short verses, recounts the slaughter of the Innocents in Bethlehem. Recall Herod had the babies there killed after the magi departed, but not before the Holy Family fled to Egypt. The feast of the Holy Innocents, martyred for Christ, is celebrated every year on Dec 28. 

Here are the last two verses of the Coventry Carol: 

Herod, the king, in his raging, Charged he hath this day His men of might, in his own sight, All young children to slay. 

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee! And ever mourn and sigh, For thy parting neither say nor sing, Bye, bye, lully, lullay. 

Someone once sent me a message which includes a beautiful sentiment on why we teach and learn music. “Why music?” it stated. “So you will be human. So you will recognize beauty. So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world.” 

The King Herod’s of this world have no interest in the infinite beyond. That makes life difficult for the rest of us who do. An ancient bishop asked: Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil...You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers or fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. (St Quadvultdeus, Office Dec 28). 

Bishop Sheen wrote: 

These Innocents died for the King Whom they had never known. Like little lambs, they died for the sake of the Lamb... Innocent lambs in the Passover bled for Him in centuries past; now innocent children without spot, little human lambs, bled for Him. 

It’s interesting, isn’t it? The innocent little lambs are bleeding today. Modern day tyrants destroy those who are tiny in body because fear has destroyed their hearts. What do they say? There are too many people. There’s not enough food. There’s not enough energy to sustain us. But these are not original ideas. Arguments like these were made before the time of Christ. What is new are the modern day attempts to solve these problems: They don’t have enough food on a certain continent? Give them birth control. They need better housing and clean water? Give them birth control; condoms. They don’t have proper education? Give them birth control; cancer causing pills! (Janet Smith, Contraception. Why not?) 

And what has followed the birth control? Everywhere artificial contraception has been introduced, there is now an epidemic of sexual disease, sexual violence, abortion, pornography, and all manner of sexual degeneracy. At the same time, whole populations of peoples have been decimated because the family has been destroyed. The cultural landscape has been “coventried.” 

For 2000 years the Church, the institution that gave us Western Civilization, has warned about the intrinsic evil of contraception. For the acceptance and practice of the marriage act outside of marriage destroys marriage. It’s not rocket science. If you’re scratching your head over the lack of ambition and feminization of men in recent decades, understand they no longer have any traditional reason to get or remain married. No longer called, as the head of their family to provide for women, they are now called to compete with women. This has led to them acting like women. 

And now, things have gone so far that men are even calling themselves women. They of course are not basing their declaration on anatomy but rather insanity. And people are losing their jobs and being sued for not playing along. Two weeks ago, a judge ruled against a tax expert in England who lost her job for Tweeting that men cannot turn into women. The judge ruled her belief in biological science violated the dignity of others and was “not worthy of respect in a democratic society.” The judge concluded that the woman was “absolutist in her view” that there are only two sexes – male and female, like God made them. The dictionary states absolutism is having an absolute standard or principle, free from all conditions. 

I was called an absolutist once. About 20 years ago by a priest in Kansas City. During Mass he wanted people in the pews to stand and be recognized for their volunteer work making sandwiches for the poor, providing blankets for the homeless, and a host of other social justice projects printed out on a list. I looked around and I think I was the only one in the pews who wasn’t standing after the list was read. 

I looked at the list in the vestibule after Mass. It included a pro-life coordinator. It said if one were interested, he needed to make an appointment with the diocese. The person there told me the coordinator’s job was to, on occasion place some material, sent from the diocese in a rack in 

the church’s vestibule. That sounded easy enough. But then the diocesan employee shook his head and said, “The pastor will never let you do it.” I naively asked why. He said I would see. He was right. I met with the pastor. He was okay with making sandwiches or distributing blankets. But as far as trying to educate people on the violations of the human dignity of unborn persons, and the consequent harm done to women, I was an “absolutist.” 

Are you an absolutist? Will you someday be charged with a crime for being absolutist? Will you be convicted for stating the truth? 

Think on that and ponder this: The Church has the absolute truth. It was given to her by her absolute standard and principle, Christ. And, as a priest once pointed out, the Church converted a pagan world, tired of vice and materialism, to the truth which gave them real purpose in life. Today’s neo-pagans are tired of Christianity. They have found it wanting, because they are found wanting in its observances. 

Look around at the vast level of destruction in our culture of death. What do you and your family do? First of all, do not let fear destroy your heart, like so much of our de-humanized society. Then look to the Holy Family and what happened to them: Here were God’s closest friends, the holiest family that ever lived and look what they suffered. Because King Herod wanted to “go do the boy homage” Joseph, the protector, the patron had to get them out of Bethlehem in the middle of the night. Jesus, Mary and Joseph became displaced persons in a foreign land. Mary, for her part, humbly submitted to her husband’s lead. And Christ? Calvary for him started in Bethlehem and shadowed him his whole life. A sword for the Babe, stones for the man; the Cross at the end. (Sheen). 

Why did God allow that to happen to his special family? He did it for us! To encourage the lowliest of us, the poorest; the persecuted. With the example of the Holy Family no Christian family can ever say that their sufferings and hardships are more than God can demand of them. No Christian can ever say that Christ is asking more of him than he demanded of himself, his mother, and his foster-father. We face trials and troubles, but we understand that our few short years are just a proving station, a preparation for a life of unending peace and happiness (Kevin O’Sullivan,). 

The Herod’s of this world have no interest in the infinite beyond. But we do. We have faith in God and his plan for our families. This faith makes us human, and we recognize beauty amidst the darkness on our journey to an infinite beyond this world. And God-willing, when we reach our destination, Christ, will say: I convict you of absolutism. Now, come share my joy. 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/18/judge-rules-against-charity-worker-who-lost- job-over-transgender-tweets