Removing legal protection for unborn children, sadly, is nothing new. But that doesn’t mean we can’t fight it.
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Do you have what it takes to be a martyr? Strictly speaking, yes, you do: 1) You have blood that can be shed; 2) You have faith in Christ; 3) There might be people willing to kill you, just because of your faith.
But let’s ask a slightly different question. Do preborn children have what it takes to be martyrs? In a broader sense, they also do. Sure, they have blood that can be shed; they have an inalienable right to life; and yes, there are people willing to kill (and actually killing) them because they do not recognize the preborns’ right to life.
This blindness to the preborns’ right to life is so pervasive that governments are removing legal protection to unborn children throughout pregnancy, including labor and delivery, even going so far as to remove legal protection of a child after birth. That is, they are not considering some forms of infanticide as a crime. Removing such legal protections was done with much fanfare in New York, Virginia, and the U.S. Senate, presented under euphemisms like “reproductive health.” Politicians insisted these acts would bring about something not only morally acceptable, but even beneficial. The whole situation reminds me of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov:
Imagine that you yourself are building an edifice of human destiny that has the ultimate aim of making people happy and giving them finally peace and rest, but that to achieve this, you are faced inevitably and inescapably with torturing just one tiny baby, say that small fellow who was just beating his fists on his chest, so that you would be building your edifice on his unrequited tears — would you agree to be its architect under those conditions? Tell me, and don’t lie!
Let’s update Dostoevsky:
Yes! Let us build such a world! Let us build an edifice of human destiny that will make us happy, free, prosperous, unburdened and joyful. And let us not be satisfied with building it on the unrequited tears of one innocent child. No, let us build our great earthly city on the blood of innocent children — the blood of countless innocent children, as many children as it takes to secure our freedom and our joy. Without apology, without shame, without regret! So let it be, by the power of choice. Our will be done!
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Sadly, there is nothing new here. Even a passing familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures helps us to see that we’re witnessing some sort of re-establishment of the Cult of Moloch. The Hebrew prophets and faithful Israelite kings railed against that pagan and idolatrous cult that offered the blood of infants for the sake of promised material gain.
Today, the idol has different names (evil always has many names! Mark 5:9), such as “choice” or “freedom” or “health” or even “justice”—but the lies, the seduction and the murder are always the same. What are we to do?
It would be a gross understatement to say that many faithful Catholics, outraged and grief stricken, have found the response of much of the American hierarchy to be unsatisfactory. Anyone can find much discussion on that matter all over the media. Many are urging that we write to bishops (always with civility and charity) to share our anger and sense of scandal. That’s a good place to start. But what else can we do?
Consider these words from the great 19th-century British preacher Charles Spurgeon, who wrote: “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
What sane, honest and even marginally informed Christian can now deny that what we see before us is spiritual warfare at its most obvious? Who can sincerely deny that at the root of the systemic rejection of the gift of life is the rejection of the Creator of life itself?
If we haven’t already, might we not now consider that the prophecies of Fatima are being fulfilled in our time? Might we not now finally consider whether the prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success are being fulfilled in our hearing? Might not now finally be the time to put aside our excuses and distractions, and take up the Rosary, Scapular, and Miraculous Medal as Our Lady has asked?
Ideas have consequences. Actions have consequences. Inaction has consequences too. Speaking just for myself, I believe that at my particular judgment, Our Lord will ask me: “What did you say and do when you witnessed the re-establishment of the Cult of Moloch in your own time?” And I believe that I better have a very good answer to that question. Do you think Our Lord will pose the same question to you?
When I write next, I will speak about the importance of spiritual reading. Until then, let’s keep each other in prayer.
