Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children

 Lectionary: 313

There was a man there who had a withered hand; and they watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him.

 A nyone remotely familiar with the scriptures expects trouble. The Christmas angels sang of "peace on earth" but they announced a promise and not a new era in human history. Those who expect to find it anywhere on Earth, in the near future, recent past, or a Lost Horizon in some remote village, see life only as it might be, and not as it is. 

The full impact of things as they are, or the Truth, is never welcome. People might be able to take it in small, manageable doses, but when it comes directly at us and allows neither compromise nor half-measures, it's hard to take. 

When Truth became a human child and lived among us, his demands were enormous. Only a Virgin Mother and her saintly husband could be found up to the task. First they received him as an infant who had to be nursed, fed, kept clean, dry and warm; allowed much sleep; and then caressed, cuddled, and welcomed with with all the rights and privileges of any human being. And then they spirited him beyond the range of evil authorities who sought to kill him in his infancy. As we hear the story we should be astonished at God the Father who trusted a poor, unknown couple with such a responsibility, how much depended on their courage and integrity, and how narrowly the Infant escaped. 

The story reminds us also how much depends upon our defense of human life from conception to natural death. The Culture of Death is powerful, pervasive, demanding, and uncompromising. While it may put on a happy face of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, its facade only poses as human values of welcome and empathy. 

Americans, regardless of their positions on controverted issues, largely agree on the value of consumerism; and  they govern America. Some may despise abortion but, to protect their freedom to purchase both necessities and luxuries, they will support the availability of abortion. 

Jesus knew the cost of freedom when he healed the fellow's hand. He knew that his compassion for the poor and his healing of the sick generated a resistance that would finally run him to ground and destroy him. It was a road he chose freely. He could do so because he knew and accepted the inevitability of death, and he did not fear it. If he chose to go to Jerusalem to die there, it was because the citizens of God's Holy City could be counted on to fear and despise the Truth. 

Those who oppose abortion must also expect conflict from their own hearts as God's Coming Kingdom curtails freedoms they take for granted. Some are neither privileges nor rights, but excessive demands with remote and real consequences.