Monday, March 23, 2009

I'm "back"

Well, I'm "back," in a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of way (with my back, I mean). The pain is distracting me, more than anything. But this week I have been getting so many prayer intentions, and so many more have been just showing up unannounced as life goes on, that I am halfway glad to have something physical and "real" to offer as a form of intercession, "filling up in my own body what is 'lacking' in the sufferings of Christ," as St. Paul was known to say. The most recent special intention came to me through Sr. Helena, when she came back from giving a Confirmation retreat in Michigan. Seems that one of the parishioners had read the whole 800-page "stimulus package," and found a lot of abortion provisions "packaged" in those stimulating pages. That serves as a great stimulus to me for prayer and reparation. There seem to be so many of these incremental "gains" in favor of specious progress. The changes are so subtle that to bring attention to them is to invite the label "fanatic," but the cumulative effect can still be drastic.
I've been reading Fr. Rutler's latest book (A Crisis of Saints), along with de Lubac's "Christian Resistance to Anti-Semitism (1940-1944). Both books speak, I think to our present situation (although I wish Fr. Rutler's book had more unity to it; it's really just a collection of essays).

3 comments:

mary montgomery aka greatgranmary said...

I have a torn rotator cuff that is speaking very loudly to me ---only it should speak to all the things going on in our world.
If you knew that the biggest number of abortions occurred in girls from age 10 to 14 would that change your perception of the problem? If you knew that healthcare workers have never been forced to participate in abortions but have been "forced" to administer hormones and other drugs that have multiple uses other than birth control, but bacause of a poorly written law were able to make a fuss of their scruples and deny lawful treatment would that change your perception of the problem? Would knowing that institutions that do not accept federal Medicare funds are free to offer or not offer whatever services their consciouses allow make a difference? And that we would have had enough money to run several hospitlas for an indeterminent time had it not been for the unfortunate bills incurred by certain bishops who hid the indiscretions of their priests? Would knowing that some zealots would rather allow 8&9 yr old rape victims to die rather than allow a humane "abortion" of a fetus who cannot possibly come to term anyway make you more compassionate? Or as Catholics does the equal dignity of women mean that we get to die for men's actions?
Could it be that one person is attempting to even out the playing field just a little and that there are things we just don't know the half of and need to be more trusting about? It may very well be that abortion should not be considered in the same sentence as reproductive health but then neither should words like rape incest female circumcision concubine or spoils of war be in that sentence either.
Compassion---the virtue of placing oneself in another's reality. If we can do that for mother and child maybe we can begin to solve the problem.

Sister Anne said...

I'm interested in where you found the statistics that the majority of abortions are done on children from 10-14. If that is happening in this country, where are the reports that should be filed on child rape and (presumably) incest? And why are women's "rights" advocates fighting restrictions on abortion instead of aggressively pursuing the child rapists?
If the situation is as you say, even on a worldwide scale, this is still not an excuse for relaxing abortion restrictions: it is a motive to take to heart and to promote the Theology of the Body. Because people who are converted to this profound respect for the human person, body and soul, do not perpetrate those hideous violations of human innocence. The answer to so many of our era's worst sufferings is to be found in evangelization. That is not a pious non-sequitur; it is simply reality.
Even the Church does not exist to establish hospitals, as worthy a service as that is. The mission of the Church is evangelization; evangelized people then serve the Body of Christ in the variety of ministries St. Paul wrote about, including healing.
To me the things you write about are all so many expressions of the need for the Theology of the Body (which is the Gospel as written in our human nature); really, these crimes against humanity command us to promote the Theology of the Body.

mary montgomery aka greatgranmary said...

I agree---the statistics I note are taken from the CDC and a survey of several States individual statistics. I asked myself the same question about why women's groups were not active in going after rapists and incest---it seem they are but those crimes are very difficult to prove and in our own country a child abuser is likely to get no more punishment than one who abuses a dog.There are many goups working to stop the crimes but women's groups say that in the meantime young girls have to suffer.
Change of heart is the only answer. I am no abortion advocate but I can at least have a little understanding about might go on in the heart of one who has no faith, no hope.
I think that if we were really church we would use every ounce of our beings to bring that love to others by whatever means were available but especially by giving of ourselves. It is pretty obvious that "they" have stopped listening to our words and our laws--what else have we got in our pockets?