Dear Friends,
This Tuesday we enter October, the Respect Life Month. We are a pro-life Church. This past Thursday (9/26/24) was the March for Life in Trenton, by thousands of young and old, giving peaceful, prayerful witness to the sanctity of human life. We know the Biblical teaching that life is a gift from God, and, hence, we respect it from womb to tomb. But, where in the Bible do we see explicit support for this?
The term “with child” (in reference to pregnant women) occurs 26 times in the Bible. The term “with fetus” never occurs. The Bible never uses anything less than human terms to describe the unborn (Exodus 21:22Ǧ23). In Luke (1:36 and 41), we are told that Elizabeth conceived a “son” and that the “babe” leaped in her womb. God does not say that a “fetus” leaped in her womb! Elizabeth greets Mary (in her early pregnancy) as “my Lord’s mother.” If God allows a child to be conceived, then God obviously has a plan for unborn children (Jer. 1:5; Lk. 1:13Ǧ17; Gen. 4:25; Jud. 13:3Ǧ5), and so to abort an unborn child is to stop a plan of God: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you… Psalm 139: 13: You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! Thus, based on the word of God, the Church teaches that an unborn child, from the moment of its conception in his or her mother’s womb, is precious because he or she carries an immortal soul.
We, here at St. Matthias, have been always supporting Sr. Mary Vertucci and her ministry to the poor girls in Tanzania. We have listened to her touching stories of many girls who have been helped to reach successful careers because of their experience at the Emusoi Center. We have supported Emusoi Center for long with our prayers and financial support. As we enter the Respect Life month, we have a special second collection next Sunday (October 6). We wish to be participating in promoting the fullness of life that Sr. Mary Vertucci and other missionaries are doing.
Such Biblical insights and action plans are important. What about biblical understanding to be grounded in God’s message for taking care of other aspects of our life? The best way is the small groups that we are starting soon. Pope St. John Paul II said, “Small Christian Communities are a tremendous source of bringing more life into our life and into a Parish.” We have rightly titled this season of Bible sharing as “Fall Into Faith.” Time and again we have heard the testimonies of those who were and still are in small groups. Why not be enriched the same way? For sign up information, please see page 4 of our bulletin, or call Debbie Schurko, our Director of Religious Education in the parish office.
October begins with the feast of Little Therese of Child Jesus – the very popular saint of simplicity, teaching us that we can be holy by doing the smallest acts with love. One of her many inspiring quotes that touched me is: “I learned from experience that joy does not reside in the things around us, but in the very depths of the soul, that one can have it in the gloom of a dungeon as well as in the palace of a king.” May we all experience that joy, no matter what!
Your brother in Christ,
Fr. Abraham Orapankal.