“Life, Law & Love”
Fr. Walter J. Quinn, OSA,
Priest Associate
frwjquinn@priestsforlife.org
Jan, 2003
Good afternoon: My fellow citizens, my fellow Americans
& fellow Lovers of LIFE
….today, I’d like to speak to you….about 3 things that effect
us all….Life, Law & Love:
Modern day Americans give a great deal of attention to
improving the quality of Life. We see this in our health care service,
efforts to eliminate poverty and suffering and never-ending steps to improve
education at all levels. Ecology, anti-war and environmental
activism seem to be going on constantly. Efforts to abolish Capital
Punishment are commonplace. For the vast majority LIFE should be
protected, preserved and prolonged as much as modern technology will permit.
And yet at the same time threats, danger and destruction of
LIFE has never been greater, and we see this all over the world. In our
Country abortion has been the Law of the Land for the past 30 years resulting in
over 40 Million deaths of Unborn children. Euthanasia, Sterilization and
Assisted Suicide are often in the news. Many people are apathetic,
complacent and often confused.
This REAL LIFE PARADOX is truly tragic because the 3 most
basic Foundations, the 3 greatest Needs, …the 3 most important
Concerns, the 3 great Pillars, the 3 supporting Rocks, the 3 most important Life
Supports…that encourage & enable every Human being….. to seek….. AND
to achieve…. happiness & contentment in this world .....LIFE, LAW & LOVE…..are
being denied, destroyed, abolished, ignored, re-invented….. & given meaning and
purpose by creatures that the Creator never intended.
THE 1ST HUMAN TRAGEDY & THE GREATEST SCOURGE OF THE
20TH & 21ST
CENTURIES
…CONCERNS LIFE
ITSELF.
The number of abortions in America has now soared to 1.3
million each year as an ever increasing number of people and Governments around
the globe simply no longer care about the inherent, intrinsic dignity due to
LIFE itself,…. even the very existence of LIFE itself. Although we can
see, film & record the presence of LIFE of the Unborn, movement, a beating heart
and pulse, reaction to pain stimuli, the world’s garbage cans are still being
filled daily with the dead bodies of millions of unborn babies - even with
unwanted
BORN babies….after Birth!
The Utilitarian ethic “What is useful is good” is now the
prevalent rationale used by individuals and governments to justify Federal and
State supported destruction of Life on a massive scale. The word
games and euphemisms designed to soothe conscience and smooth the way for public
acceptance drip like sweet cyanide: the good
death…the peaceful
death….death with dignity…the legal death….physician
assisted suicide…partial birth abortion…only a blob of
protoplasm...it’s my body…..benefit science and research.…find
cures for disease…put an end to suffering….and so on!
WE ASK….Will this “What is useful is good”
mentality continue to push the boxcars of our own American Holocaust
upwards towards 80 million in the next three decades? Not so long as
millions of Citizens…&…Right-to-Life Americans stay united….. and speak out,
speak up, dispute, demonstrate and protest….. peacefully for our rights….
guaranteed to ALL citizens by the 1st Amendment.
Let me tell you a TRAGIC STORY I recently read about a young
woman at a Midwestern university who left the campus for a stroll in the woods
on a lovely spring day. The sky was blue, birds chirping, flowers
just in bloom, a cool breeze whistling through the branches of the trees – ALL
came together to make one…..happy, vigorous and thrilled to be alive.
Near sundown a farmer passing by thought he saw something
strange dangling from one of the trees. When he got closer he saw the
young woman’s body hanging from a low stout limb. At her feet lay an
open book on which she had written these words:
“Life is a joke and all things show it. I thought so once, but now I know
it”
This incident is unspeakably sad because the girl didn’t know
or realize the value, the sanctity and the unique dignity of each & every single
human life. She didn’t know the intense bond and relationship….. between
Life, Law and Love.
The U.S. Bishops in their Pastoral letters have pointed out
that the great danger of a technological society is a tendency to
adopt a limited view of man, to see man only for what he does. Such
a view overlooks the source of man’s dignity; that his dignity is intrinsic in
his very nature, in his very being, in his very existence…the powerful fact that
he is made in the image & likeness of God.
THE 2ND PILLAR & CONCERN…..MAINSTAY & ROCK…OF WE
HUMANS…IS LAW:
In the name of LAW ……the life of the innocent, human,
live Unborn baby, so helpless and dependent, is brutally killed, dismembered,
destroyed by the knife…. by those who no longer grant the same dignity,
care, love and respect to a helpless human infant that they daily demand &
desire for themselves.
In the 2000 years since King Herod brutally ordered the
slaughter of all male infants under two years of age to protect his own rule and
kingdom, the world has seen Leaders, Heads of State, Legislators, Courts,
organizations and individuals seek, call for and demand that this very
same atrocity is a RIGHT guaranteed by Law to every person. As a
result Personal Convenience, Euphemisms and the Utilitarian Ethic have now
become the wheels moving our American Boxcars along the legally protected
rails…… of a world-wide Culture of Death mentality….the very same mentality that
the world witnessed in Nazi Germany the 30s & 40s…& later on so resolutely
condemned by the whole world!
Those who daily insist on moving this Engine of Death….should
be reminded that our own American boxcars are now filled with over 40 Million
dead – FAR MORE than the Nazis Holocaust – whose tragic impact upon individuals,
families and Nations is beyond measure. Like the Rachael of Old
Testament Scripture….. all Lands & all peoples tolerating and promoting these
horrors today… will witness and will hear the crying, the weeping
& the Lamentation for generations yet to come! The disastrous
effects of the present world-wide Pro-Death mentality are without measure!
In 1787 The United States Constitution – Article 1 – has the
famous 3/5ths Clause whereby a Slave was declared 3/5ths of a person for
purposes of apportionment and representation in the Congress…so you could
torture, lynch & kill a slave & it was not a crime. The 3/5ths
Clause has since repealed by the 14th Amendment….but only after a
hundred years…. and a brutal Civil War which divided this Country and tore us
apart – North from South – brother from brother! And
so…Love of Neighbor – Love for one’s fellow man was
shattered….requiring many, many decades to heal.
In 1927 30,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized to limit the
number of mentally retarded – all in the name of Eugenics. 30 States
adopted these Eugenic laws & over 65,000 Americans were sterilized
involuntarily. The US Supreme Court in 1927 in the case of Buck vs. Bell
declared such involuntary sterilization was perfectly legal. In May 2002
Gov Mark Warner of Virginia publicly apologized for the 8000 Virginians who were
so sterilized from 1927….. until as late as 1979….
….stating that “the Eugenics
movement was a shameful effort in which state Government should never have been
involved.”
In 1970…(&
I have this in some of my sermons of this time)…the California Medical
Association stated that “we must separate the word abortion from the idea of
killing…for the notion of killing is socially abhorrent.” Having
accomplished this America is now practicing Infanticide on a massive scale….ALL
for the sake of convenience, utility and unlimited personal legally protected
freedom. The Pro-abortion lobby…& the AMA….says this is not murder by
Infanticide; it’s “post-natal abortion”. I was a Chaplain in several
hospitals… & I remember when this change in terminology took place!
OUR American Culture of Death has continued to expand with
Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide,
In-Vitro Fertilization, Surrogate Motherhood, the Production
of Embryonic Stem Cells & the Cloning of human embryos for research,
experimentation and destruction. All this is being justified by appealing
to one’s own conscience as the final, ultimate arbiter and judge of truth and
reality.
If one accepts Situation Ethics, which has been taught in
American Public schools for generations, …..and which holds that Truth is not
absolute, but is relative and flexible and can change according to time,
age, person, place or situation, then one can easily fall into grave
error. This is what has happened to ALL those who have succumbed to this
pro-abortion, this pro-death line of reasoning. They are ignoring
objective reality and absolute truth, as they place themselves at the
center of all that exists. Therefore, THEY…are the ones who re
imposing THEIR beliefs on the rest of society!
In America LIFE, as a result of this line of thinking, has now
become cheapened. We don’t have to talk about China! For LIFE
in our Country, as in NAZI Germany, is ALSO being weighed on the scales of
falsehood, subjective belief and cultural relativism, rather than on the scales
of justice, objective reality and absolute truth.
Pope John Paul in his Encyclical “the Gospel of Life” reminds
all that we are now witnessing the crumbling of the very foundation of
civilization itself.
“ Too many are living as if GOD did not exist, so that man
not only loses sight of the mystery of God, but also of the mystery
of the world, and of his own being…that is of LIFE itself.
“An eclipse of the sense of God and of man with all
its deadly consequences for LIFE is taking place, because it tolerates and
fosters behavior contrary to LIFE, because it encourages the Culture of death by
creating and consolidating actual structures of sin which go against LIFE.
There is confusion between good and evil precisely in relation to the
fundamental Right t o Life.”
THE 3RD ….MOST IMPORTANT & MOST SOUGHT AFTER….
PILLAR & CONCERN…. ROCK & DESIRE ….OF EVERY SINGLE HUMAN WHO EVER LIVED… &
WHO WILL EVER LIVE……IS LOVE:
LOVE gives an indefinable quality
to LIFE. LOVE is immeasurable, Love is limitless, Love is eternal, Love is
selfless! LOVE enables a person to live Life to its fullest
potential as children of God……as the Creator directly intends for each
and every individual human SOUL HE creates.
St John says GOD is Love, and THE GOD OF ALL…WHO… is LOVE
ITSELF… has created each one of us in His own image. The spirituality of
man’s soul, which is manifested and proven by his intellect and his free will….
is what makes him or her….an image of our God… who is Love itself…… which is why
LOVE (or Charity) is the supreme virtue. In heaven…Faith & Hope will
no longer be necessary…but LOVE….. will always be present…always remain!
GOD has shown His LOVE for man….not only by creating the Soul
of each person ...&… directly
… but also by raising man to the supernatural level….. and… by
destining him to the Beatific Vision of Himself,….that is… to participate in the
Divine Nature…&…to share in the knowledge and love that God has for Himself.
The immortal soul of man and his very being…..ordered to eternal union with God
in heaven….. is the basis… of his inherent dignity…..as a human being…
…..a human person. God intended that….. LIFE, LAW
AND LOVE….. exist in harmonious order, that every person, society, institution,
organization and government….. cherish, defend and promote each one of these
THREE ROCKS OF HUMANITY….. so that both the individual…. and the common good….
may always prevail. When anyone of these – LIFE…or LAW…or LOVE – are
changed, distorted, denied, destroyed, or ignored……then…. CHAOS comes to the
soul….. and TYRANNY reigns in the State.
Let the whole world know that….the Pro-Death people & NO ONE
ELSE…. are the on-going CAUSE of the destruction of LIFE….THEY are the
ongoing CAUSE of the Usurpation of LAW
….&…THEY are the ongoing CAUSE of the…. Impossibility of
LOVE’S continued existence….. in every Human heart!
By permitting abortion on demand the U.S. Supreme Court…..
took LOVE itself….. out of LIFE. When we humans do the same….. LIFE then….is not
worth living….for it then has no purpose, no meaning, nothing spiritually
present or permanent, nothing supernatural.
Hence, the only way back to sanity and sanctity, to truth and
goodness, to peace and happiness in the whole world is to see each LIFE….. as a
very precious gift of God…. to ennoble and to enrich every LIFE…..with all
possible LOVE….. and for ALL LAW….. to protect, defend and preserve all LIFE……
so that every person….. both born and unborn….. may pursue happiness in this
life….
….until he joins the GOD of LOVE…..in the eternal life of
heaven.
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