Thursday, May 14, 2020

March for Life 2020 -

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast's homily for the televised Mass for March for Life (Notre Dame Cathedral - May 14) - please click here to view

TELEVISED MASS FOR MARCH FOR LIFE—NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL, OTTAWA, ON FEAST OF ST. MATTHIAS, APOSTLE—MAY 14, 2020 CHOOSING TO LIVE CHRIST’S GIFT: ABUNDANT LIFE [Texts: Acts 1.15–17, 20–26 (Psalm 113); John 15.9–17]




Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The feast of St. Matthias has special importance for me since it was on this day in 2007 that I was “elected” by Pope Benedict XVI to serve the Church as Archbishop of Ottawa. Elections or choices in the Church have taken various forms, from the “casting of lots” in today’s first reading to the consultations that have been taking place to “elect” a Coadjutor Archbishop as my successor in the new Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall. 

The qualifications are also shaped by the eras in which the choices are made. Two thousand years ago, eleven apostles gathered to choose a successor to Judas, who had defected from discipleship and committed suicide out of desperation. 

Peter, with the other apostles, had abandoned Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and then betrayed his Lord during the Passion by denying three times that he even knew Him. But after tears of remorse, Peter received Christ’s forgiveness and was restored as head of the fledgling apostolic college.

After the Ascension in the days before Pentecost, he stood in the cenacle and defined the qualifications for the apostle who would take Judas’s place. The criteria included having been a disciple of Jesus from the time of the preaching of John the Baptist and being a witness to all that Jesus said and did until Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension.

Why was witnessing the Resurrection and the Ascension a criterion? Because these mysteries that concluded Christ’s presence—His rising to new life and ascension into glory—manifested the divinely achieved victory of good and the defeat of evil. Though Jesus was raised, He did not lord it over anyone. Instead, he appeared in simplicity to the faithful women, to the Eleven, and to several others like the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Jesus sent all of these to be witnesses to His Resurrection, to tell an unbelieving world that He was alive and they could live an abundant life. We are here today because Matthias and the other Apostles took to heart the Commission Jesus gave them.

In choosing candidates to replace Judas, the Apostles did not, as we might, call a meeting to review resumes. Instead, they did the one fundamental thing the Church should always do before making any important decision: they prayed to know God’s will. “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show us which of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away…”

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The election of Matthias was not his moment of personal triumph or the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition. Rather, Jesus confided to Matthias what He says to us in the Gospel, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain...”

At the Last Supper, Jesus declared that when disciples obey God by following His teachings and example, the result is an interior joy. “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” This joy—the indwelling Holy Spirit resulting from union with Jesus—is contagious and bears rich fruit in the lives of believers.

Once chosen, Matthias understood he was sent to proclaim the Gospel. Tradition tells us he proclaimed the Gospel throughout Judea, Ethiopia, and Jerusalem, and, that he died a martyr’s death. His ministry was extraordinarily fruitful, opening the minds and hearts of many to Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life.

I have spoken about the abundant life, the Risen Life that you have been privileged to experience since your baptism. But you are watching today to proclaim that you are a witness to the dignity of human life. A person’s life begins at the moment of conception and must be guarded and treasured until her or his last breath in a natural death.

We are here this year to be witnesses to life by taking part in a “virtual” March for Life, with this broadcast from the Cathedral of Our Lady in Canada’s capital city. This is the anniversary of Canadian federal legislation, passed on May 14, 1969, that opened the door to so-called therapeutic abortions. This quickly evolved into abortion on demand at any time and for any reason. Often, it is because the frightened mother and sometimes her partner feel they have no way to bring the pregnancy to term and affirm life. Here is our national challenge—to support them in their need.

Increasingly in Canada, we find that the radical claim to personal autonomy represented by that legislation 51 years ago has spawned other expressions of personal choice, including choosing how and when to die. Therefore, the March for Life increasingly needs to affirm the dignity of each human life and respect of the Creator’s intentions for us by refusing euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Recently, we have seen tragedies at home and around the globe as communities have struggled to cope with the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic. One repercussion of the pandemic is the loss of our elderly to the Coronavirus, including five of my Jesuit confrères in as many days.

The tragic spread of the virus in long-term facilities has brought to light the precarious situation our senior citizens live with during outbreaks of illnesses, despite the extraordinary efforts of care workers.

I am prompted to reflect on how we value and care for our elderly neighbours, even in normal times. Do we safeguard their health but also respect their God-given worth and dignity? They are an especially vulnerable segment of our population, as the pandemic tragically revealed.

We must articulate that consultations aimed at extending the scope of euthanasia and assisted suicide will place our frail senior citizens at even greater risk as Parliament contemplates more accessible life-ending measures.

Making measures to end one’s life easier to access while continuing to underfund good long term care sends a clear message. It says that society values expediency over compassionate, dignified health care and assistance.

Better care for seniors should not be a privilege only afforded by the wealthy but a basic right for all of our older people. Ready access to palliative care across Canada from the moment of the diagnosis of a terminal condition is something we also need to provide as a compassionate society.

Competent palliative care will help those who are most vulnerable to receive the medical help and comfort they need, instead of giving them an incentive at their most defenceless moments to seek an early death.

Increasingly, those susceptible to this temptation include people suffering from mental illness, people with a disability, and, even our youth.

Selling euthanasia and assisted suicide as a solution to suffering is inviting a different kind of “infection” to sweep through our communities–the devaluation of human life out of a misguided quest for personal autonomy.

Doesn’t every family deserve the right to the care our elders need to sustain their lives, rather than an expedient means of ending it prematurely?

Let us invoke St. Matthias, who played a key role at a time of transition in the early Church, that he pray for us at this moment when the we yearn for a return to some normalcy in our social life, school, work, and worship. May we all make the right “elections,” the right choices!

On the first of May, the Bishops of the United States and Canada consecrated their countries, dioceses, parishes, families, and individuals to Mary, Mother of the Church, that she would spread her protective mantle over us during this pandemic and when life is under threat. Today, we renew that prayer to Our Blessed Mother, that she intercede with her Son for us and our country as we recover from the effects of the pandemic, as we discern the best way to care for our most vulnerable members of society, and as we seek to foster the culture of life in this, our beautiful country.

Pray for me as I do for you. And may God, the author and sustainer of all life, bless us one and all.

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