Ave Maria Meditations
This month we continue to look into some possible deeper meanings of Jesus’ statement, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6). Now we focus on the life aspect, which can be both physical and spiritual, with this article being on aspects of the physical life. When Jesus said, “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10), it can be taken these two ways.
Next to the gift of life is the great gift of faith. And both of these things have been “under attack” especially in the past few decades. We all know about the sad anniversary this month of the legalization of abortion which has eliminated tens of millions of lives in our country. St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta spoke at our National Prayer Breakfast back in 1994 and said to the audience, “The greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.” And underpinning abortion has been the practice of contraception. Also it can be noted that many with the responsibility to teach the beautiful truths of our faith have failed to do so in these past same decades. In a sense, this has served to “contracept” the faith of many. This has left the faithful prey to the secular worldly ways of error and even sin.
Is all lost? No. Our Lord came to us as a man to suffer and die to redeem us, to give us a path to forgiveness and freedom from sin. While countless many have given in to the sin of abortion, Christ and His Church want all to know that healing and forgiveness are available. The guilt of an abortion can turn a person from their faith and even from God but that is not His desire. God wishes all to come to Him! This can be done with the incredible sacrament of healing and forgiveness in Confession. There are also some non-sacramental means to find peace and closure after Confession through such things as Rachel’s Vineyard Retreats (http://www.Rachelsvineyard.org)for men and women hurting because of a past abortion. Christ waits to heal the soul and restore a person to holiness. It is there for anyone to accept His forgiveness. Ave Maria!
