I was proud of those who marched Friday in the 45th annual 2017 March for Life, and proud of those who had the courage to speak out against abortion. In Sunday’s Gospel reading in mass from Matthew Chapter 5, Jesus gives us the beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” I truly believe that those who march for life and against abortion are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Later in this same chapter, Jesus goes on to speak about the law, anger, divorce, adultery, swearing, retaliation and love of enemies – and on each topic, He “raises the bar” on all of these, giving the Jews at the time a more strict definition of what it means to obey God’s commands. I wonder what Jesus would have said on the Right to Life issue if He was with us today? I’m thinking that He would have been one of the crowd marching, or maybe even one of the speakers! Later in Matthew’s Gospel, there is a story of the King (Jesus) sitting on the throne, separating the sheep (those who obey God’s laws) from the goats (those who do not) to pass final judgement. To the sheep,  “the King will reply, ‘truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ And to the goats He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.†(Matt 25: 40-46) Certainly the unborn who cannot speak for themselves can be considered among the “least” I would think. Lord, I pray today that we all help and support, even if only in prayer, the mothers, fathers and families struggling with bringing a child into this world, that You help them know they are loved.Â
