We live in a throwaway society. We are trained to be wasteful consumers based on the messages we hear on a daily basis. From advertisements for new skinny jeans, to exotic perfume, to shoes that we really don’t need or even have room for, we are all persuaded to buy new and throwaway the old. For this reason, it’s important to challenge this throwaway mentality of always wanting more with appreciating and valuing what we truly have.
Today marks the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The more than 56 million lives lost to abortion since that 1973 decision reflect with heartbreaking magnitude what Pope Francis meant when he talked about a “throwaway culture.”
That single legal opinion has not only taken the lives of so many human beings in the womb, but has also taken an unimaginable toll on those who have turned to abortion, those who have performed abortions, and even on our society as a whole as we have witnessed a steady insensitivity toward human dignity and sacredness of life at all its stages.
Pope Francis spoke these words, “Every unborn child, though unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of the Lord, who even before his birth, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world. And every old person, even if infirm and at the end of his days, carries with him the face of Christ. They must not be thrown away!”
Our Faith teaches us that a baby is human from the very moment of conception and that innocent human life may never be directly and deliberately taken. And our faith also teaches us that all human life is sacred and holy.
We as the Catholic Church pray today for the legal protection of unborn children. And we express our sorrow for the countless sins committed against human dignity. But today is also a day of hope. We are constantly reminded in Scripture to seek the Lord’s help, and to trust that God hears our prayers, and that God will answer our prayers. In fact, many who once supported abortion have come to embrace the Church’s teachings on the dignity of human life; and many workers in the abortion industry have actually become faithful, practicing, and vibrant Catholics. But there’s more work to be done.
So let us pray for the strength that we may faithfully continue to be God’s instruments of hope, healing, and conversion for our world. Let us always strive to eliminate our throwaway mentality, to appreciate the gifts we have been given, to see the face of Christ in others, to treat all human life as sacred, and to continually spread the Gospel of life to all those we encounter. Amen!
