Keepers

Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up (1 Thes. 5:11).

Some months ago, I got involved with an organization called 40 Days for Life (http://www.40daysforlife.com). It is essentially a pro life group that holds campaigns twice a year, each 40 days long. Groups of people will gather outside abortion clinics and pray, counsel those who are willing to talk to them, and just quietly witness to life. While there is a definite political facet to the organization, i.e., working to overturn Roe v. Wade, the greater concern is for those who have bought into the lies promulgated by the pro choice movement, by encouraging women (and men too) to avoid falling into the quagmire that is abortion, and to offer a means to God’s mercy and healing for those who have already taken that fateful step.

My involvement with this group has given me pause to reflect on what it means to be truly pro life. In the book of Genesis, Cain poses the question: Am I my brother’s keeper? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” In our society that has taken political correctness to a level of absurdity, people have been brainwashed into essentially washing their hands of each other’s well being. The common excuse is, “Well, I’m personally opposed to ‘X’ but it’s not my place to tell someone else what to do.” How uncharitable would it be to tell someone, “Well, I’m personally opposed to the idea of going to hell, but it’s not my business what you do.” Jesus warned us that we will not only answer for what we did in this life, but also for what we failed to do (cf. Matt. 25:45).

When St. Paul tells us in Romans 12:5 that we, though many, are the one body of Christ, he implies a shared responsibility that we all have for one another, including and perhaps most especially for those who are not believers. The great Spanish mystic, Teresa of Avila, wrote that our true level of charity is measured by our concern for one another’s salvation. That means that we not only have a right to stick our noses into someone else’s business, we have a duty to do so if we see another doing something that might threaten his or her eternal salvation.

The key, of course, is that we examine our motivation to be sure we are acting out of heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another…. And over all these, put on love, that is the bond of perfection (Col. 3:12-14). After all, Jesus said that He did not come into the world to condemn it, but rather to redeem it. Thanks be to God that He calls us to be instruments of that redemption to one another!