In the mountains of northern India, where the temperatures can drop dangerously low, travelers keep warm with a small vessel, wrapped in cloth that contains a burning coal. Three men were traveling toward the sacred cave of Amarnath when one of them saw other travelers suffering from the cold. He took the coal out of his vessel and lit a fire so everyone could get warm. They continued their trip alive.
When it grew dark, the second traveler used the burning coal from his vessel to light a torch so that all in the party could see the path and travel safely. Mocking the other two, the third man said, “You fools! You wasted your fire for the sake of strangers.”
“Show us your fire,” they retorted. When he opened his vessel, there was no fire, no light, no warmth, only ashes from a spent coal. With his fire, one traveler had given warmth to others and another traveler had given light, but the selfish traveler had kept his fire to himself and in the end it was of no use, not even to him.
One man who dared to share his fire was Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we celebrate on Monday as a national holiday. Here was a man who boldly preached that every person should be treated with dignity. With conviction, he proclaimed the message that being black is just as human as being white; eloquently expressing his dream that one day his children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. For this, he was assassinated, becoming a legacy in our lifetime.
Dr. King died before the Supreme Court rendered its decision on Roe v. Wade, which legalized the horrendous practice of abortion in our country. If he had lived to witness that day, I imagine he would have loudly protested this injustice as well, challenging the conscience of our nation to see the unborn as being as human as anyone else.
Those who are pro-choice feel that one’s right to privacy is of a higher order than a person’s right to life. Let us not forget, however, that was the premise for slavery as well, a dark chapter in our nation’s history. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves because that was a private affair between slaves and their masters and what took place was considered no one else’s business. In both instances, economics rather than justice was the motive behind these immoral and inhumane practices.
What happens to the moral fabric of a nation that allows for abortion without any pang of conscience? For starters, we live in a society that casually dismisses, not only the way we treat the unborn, but also the infirmed, the imprisoned, and the elderly as well. Years ago, Jesse Jackson speculated that our failure to respect life would leave us with hell right here on earth. Judging by the political scene emerging in our nation’s capital, some would agree with his prediction.
Growing indifferent to abortion, sexual abuse, racism or euthanasia has left our society numb to the reality of sin in our midst. We foster evil so long as we deny the notion of sin, both our own and that of our society.
In the gospel, John the Baptist confesses that he did not recognize Jesus’ true identity but once he did, he heralded him as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Do we recognize Jesus as the one who can do that?
If so, than how do we expect him to accomplish that feat? In today’s first reading, the prophet Isaiah speaks of us when he wrote, “Now the Lord has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb… that I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord.” Yes, God formed you and me along with every person of every race and gender, of every ethnicity and faith to be glorious in his sight.
Some of us learned from the old catechism of our childhood that we were created to love and serve God and thus be happy with God forever in heaven. As Paul said in his letter, we have been called to be holy.
More than once, I have heard Catholics claim that they don’t agree with the teachings of the Church on the sanctity of life. I am puzzled how anyone can see himself or herself as holy and at the same time condone the murder or persecution of another person. In ages past, the Church erred in tolerating the sin of slavery and capital punishment but in our lifetime, its message has been unwavering. Life is sacred and we must do what we can to respect all living persons.
A college student who was having a rough time getting his act together decided to take his frustrations out on God. He went to the chapel where he sat in a pew, looked up and said, “All we have on earth are problems and a bunch of dummies that will never figure out how to solve them. Even I could make a better world than this one.” And somewhere deep down inside of him, the student heard God’s reply, “That is what you are supposed to do.”
May this land of the free come to recognize the sacredness and dignity of all human life from the womb to the tomb. If our nation is to be free of the horrors of abortion, racism and sexual abuse, then we too must share the message of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. We do that by what we say and do, thus each in our own way, we enable Jesus to take away the sin of the world.