“Our deepest
fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful
beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We
ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?'
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small
does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that
other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as
children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light
shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are
liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
“An immortal soul is
beyond all price. There is no trouble too great, no humiliation too deep, no
suffering too severe, no love too strong, no labor too hard, no expense too
large, but that it is worth it, if it is spent in an effort to win a soul for
God.”
- Author Unknown
“Black lives
matter!” Of course they do! But unfortunately that statement represents a
short-sighted focus, a misguided focus – the myopic focus of one generation of
Americans after another now being taught in Godless schools and universities;
of generations of young people with Godless attitudes and a values void largely
due to the exclusion of God and His truth from the public forum.
“Black lives
matter!” Of course they do! But why settle for such an insipid statement that
asks us to think so small about any human life – to think simply that life
matters, that somehow and for some reason a human life is a plus and not a
negative? And God forbid that you should ask that secular society for some
rational explanation as to why you should think this! But leave it to our
abortion culture, and now our infanticide culture, to think in such small
terms, in such dull and mundane terms, about the value of a black life, a white
one, a blue one (police!), or a red or yellow one.
The fact is that
our society and schools, silent and without feeling for the killing of our children,
have wandered far off from the Light of God. Our society and schools have
totally lost a sense of the wonder and miracle of each and every human being.
In Judeo-Christian tradition – largely ignored by mainstream media today – the
basis for this wonder and awe in the face of even one human soul is the concept
of dignity. It is the incredible concept that every human being, irrespective
of color or creed, is a child of God made to uniquely mirror the divine image.
The dignity
concept tells us that each and every human soul is “beyond all price”. Every
person has inestimable worth and value.
It’s not a question that a human life – any human life - simply matters.
It’s more the case that a human life,
any life made in God’s image, has “power beyond measure” to make a decisive difference in this world –
power in fact to make all the difference in the world. And a society that
respects human life has a moral imperative to make sure that each any every
human life has that chance, has that possibility.
I can recall an
event back in the 1970’s that perhaps can illustrate the power and potential of
one human soul. The Holy Father, John Paul the 2nd, was hosting a
youth rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. During his presentation
there was a power outage and for moments over 25,000 young people sat in total
darkness. Then one young man lit a candle. Applause rang out through the
massive assembly, for all could suddenly see in the glow of that one light.
What was that light worth? What difference did it make?
In fact, that
light made all the difference in the world. They say that the overthrow of the
Communist regime in Romania started in the same way – with the lighting of one
candle by Daniel Gavarol. What else can happen with one light, one life? If
it’s a single light in a steeple of an Old North Church and the year is 1776,
that light has infinite potential, unlimited possibilities, and incredible
power to make all the difference for the future of our world.
So also is the
power and potential of the light that is each human life. Each of us has that
same power to decisively grace the world with our own unique light, a song that
only I can sing, a poem that only I can pen, a book that only I can write, an
idea that is uniquely mine - for when God made each of us, “He made an
original, not a copy, a copy, a copy…”
The potential of
each human life? Don’t think small here, and settle for an idea that somehow it
is a question that a life “matters” versus having no value. Open to the
infinite possibilities and unlimited potential of each human life - and
especially open to the “power beyond measure” of that life if that person is open
to the help of God. “God times one – you can’t put that number on the board!”Look
at Mother Teresa! Just one person open to the promptings of Grace, responding
unreservedly to the irresistible leadings of the Holy Spirit, and the Light of
that one life has forever changed our world, has lit our world with the
radiance of the noon day sun.
So what is that
light worth, the light that is each and every human life? Compare the potential
light of each human to the Light of Jesus. Oh yes, the comparison is valid. St.
Paul tells us that all the honor, wealth and prestige he had before knowing
Jesus was as dung to him. The Light
of Jesus, the Person of Jesus, was worth more to him that all rank and
privilege, than all the gold and silver in the world. But doesn’t Paul in
saying this also mirror to us the love in the heart of the Father for His Son?
Furthermore, as God’s children made in His image, this inestimable value of the
Son is precisely our worth as well in the eyes of God? Were we not bought with
the price of His blood? In union with Jesus are we not now like Christ a child
in the arms of our all-loving Father?
Only a
Judeo-Christian society resting securely on its biblical foundations can even
begin to see the grandeur and glory of even one human life. For the Bible
forces us to see the incredible sanctity of life, to see life through the eyes
of a Father’s love for us. God’s Word compels us to contemplate all human life
as the Father of us all Himself sees it: the life of even one person as
infinitely precious in His sight; the human soul as worth more to have than the
chance to have the whole world (Mt. 16:26), or the chance to gain the glory and
wealth of all creation. What more does
the Lord’s Love shown forth from the Cross tell us, if it does not tell us
this?
But is our sick
society today capable of rising up as out of the darkness of a cave into the
grandeur of this light – the light that is the inestimable value and worth of
each and every human life?
As a father
myself there have been so many powerful moments where I know I have seen that
light, where the Grace was given to see the value of even one life through the
eyes of God’s Love. Much as God Who “so loved the world”, as the Lord Who did
not spare His own life for us, what would I not give for the life of my child,
for one who is flesh of my flesh, life from my life?
There have so
many decisive defining moments in my life that have made abundantly clear for me the
answer to that question. But one some years ago I remember most of all. I
remember it all too well, in every detail. Often in fact, I relive it as if it
were yesterday, or as if it were only moments away in my recent past.
It was a day
when I almost won “Megabucks”, a lottery game in our state – and as my luck
with lottery games goes, believe me this “almost won” moment was for me a once
in a lifetime experience. I had four of the six numbers. The fifth number was
one digit off from the correct one. The sixth however was nowhere near to the
right one.
I remember remonstrating with the Lord about this: “Lord, could you not have given me wealth today?” And then I went on and on to Him about all I would do with the money to give glory and honor to God. I felt like the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7, haggling with the Lord for the healing of her daughter. Her importunate pleading paid off. The Lord was pleased with her persuasive protestations and her persistence. He answered her prayer and healed her daughter. But in answer to me the Lord was silent – or so I thought.
It was not even
an hour later after this dialogue with the Divinity that my youngest son came
home. He looked shaken and fear still cast a dark shadow across his face. In an
agitated voice he told me that on the way home only moments ago he had almost
been killed by a car while on his bicycle. The car had rapidly and recklessly backed
out of a driveway, forcing my son out into the middle of the road only then to face
an oncoming car. Miraculously he had dodged the first car and also avoided a head-on
collision with the second.
There have a
number of times in my life when I know the Risen Lord has spoken to me. One of
those moments was then, as I looked into the face of my ten year old son and
loved him. Just at that instant I heard the voice of God say to me: “Did I not
give you wealth today?”
Tears filled my
eyes. I had received this day the “wealth” only God can give, the “wealth” that
money cannot buy. God had given me the life of my son. What would I give for
that life? Would I give even “Megabuck millions” for the life of my son? You
know the answer. His life to me was and is more precious than all the gold and
silver in the world. Since that day to now my prayer before the Lord, the Father,
their Holy Spirit has always been to fill my life with their “wealth”, the “wealth”
that money cannot buy, and the “wealth” that once God gives it the world cannot
take away.
What is that “wealth”?
It is the lives of my children, my wife, my family, my friends – the lives of
all the people God has given me to love as He loves: as His children made in
His image and likeness; and as such, infinitely precious in His sight, of
inestimable value and worth. This day the Lord rejoices over each and every one
of His children, and renews them in His Love. This day He sings with joy even
because of you. (Zeph. 3:17-18)
Proclaim then in
whatever way you can the real value of each and every human life, all children
of God marked with divine dignity and called to a most divine destiny. Stand up
and stand out with the grandeur of this light of biblical truth in the face of
a dark and demented world all around us today – a sick world that aborts its
children, or even allows them to be born only to be slaughtered and sliced open
for the harvest of vital organs; a perverse world where untold thousands of
Christians and so many others are being killed in the name of some sinister and
unholy crusade.
Tell that sick
society the price paid in Christ’s Blood for each of those lives lost to the
evil inhumanity and barbarism that is really out there in the world of our own day
and time. Tell them the real value of each and every one of those lives lost –
young or old, infant or aged, black or white or blue (police!). Tell them of
the Gospel of God: of the call by the Father to each of His precious children,
to each and every human life – the divine call to Holy Communion with God
through oneness with His Son, the call of Love from the Father to an eternal
intercourse with God, the call of the Divine Bridegroom to all humanity His
Bride to become one flesh, one body, one heart, one life with Him forever.
