Faithful Perseverance

Details: 29 March 2013

Here we are in the midst of another Easter Triduum (our Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection), the holiest time of the year for Christians. It provides a profound opportunity for us to contemplate, in the words of Blessed John Paul II, "the boundless love of God, who ‘so loved the world that he gave his only Son’ (Jn. 3:16), but also the incomparable value of every human person." (Evangelium Vitae, #2)

Did you ever ponder why God chose to "humble Himself to share in our humanity?" Why He sent His Son as the tiniest, meekest, most defenseless creature: the single-cell embryo in Mary’s womb? Why Jesus experienced every stage and aspect of human life (except sin)?

Blessed John Paul explains this in Evangelium Vitae (#29, #30, #38): "Through the words, the actions and the very person of Jesus, man is given the possibility of ‘knowing’ the complete truth concerning the value of human life. From this ‘source’ he receives in particular the capacity to ‘accomplish’ this truth perfectly, that is, to accept and fulfill completely the responsibility of loving and serving, of defending and promoting human life. In Christ, the Gospel of life is definitively proclaimed and fully given.

"In Jesus, the ‘Word of life,’ God’s eternal life is thus proclaimed and given," John Paul continues. "Thanks to this proclamation and gift, our physical and spiritual life, also in its earthly phase, acquires its full value and meaning, for God’s eternal life is in fact the end to which our living in this world is directed and called."

"Here the Christian truth about life becomes most sublime," John Paul explains. "The dignity of this life is linked not only to its beginning, to the fact that it comes from God, but also to its final end, to its destiny of fellowship with God in knowledge and love of him."

The Easter Triduum is also a profound opportunity to reflect on human suffering and death. The fact that our Lord redeemed us from our sins, and defeated death through His passion, death and resurrection gives unique meaning to suffering and death. The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services states it this way:

"For the Christian, our encounter with suffering and death can take on a positive and distinctive meaning through the redemptive power of Jesus’ suffering and death. As St. Paul says, we are "always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body (2 Cor 4:10). This truth does not lessen the pain and fear, but gives confidence and grace for bearing suffering rather than being overwhelmed by it."

Finally, our Lord’s victory over death should give us great confidence and joy in our work to build a culture of life. Thanks be to God, we operate from victory not just for victory in battling evil, the "culture of death", as John Paul II called it. Therefore, our calling as Christians is be faithful and to persevere in proclaiming the Gospel of Life, regardless of whether we succeed or fail.

Here is how Fr. Richard John Neuhaus explained this calling: "…So long as we have the gift of life we must protect the gift of life. So long as it is threatened, so long must it be defended. This is the time to brace ourselves for the long term. We are today laying the foundations for the prolife movement of the twenty-first century. Pray that the foundations are firm, for we have not yet seen the full fury of the storm that is upon us.

But we have not the right to despair. We have not the right and we have not the reason to despair if we understand that our entire struggle is premised not upon a victory to be achieved but a victory that has been achieved.

If we understand that, far from despair we have right and reason to rejoice that we are called to such a time as this, a time of testing, a time of truth. The encroaching culture of death shall not prevail, for we know, as we read in John’s Gospel, ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ The darkness will never overcome that light."

You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.