Theme: Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society
October 5th 2013
On behalf of members of CCSJ I extend a warm welcome to all of you. This is the 4th year that our Archdiocese is observing Respect for Life Week (RFLW). At the 3rd sitting of Synod, 2009, the faithful asked for such an observance.
Strategy 3a:1 of Resolution 3 under pastoral priority 3: Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society, stated: “The Archdiocese to dedicate a week every year to the theme of ‘respect for life’.
Strategy 3a:3 states: “Each parish to conscientiously, honestly assess how it respects life, in terms of facilities for and services to persons from all walks of life and implement systems accordingly.”
Why this theme this year? After the 3rd sitting of Synod, our Archdiocese adopted a Mission Statement which reads:
We are the People of God in TT, building the civilization of Love –
Reconciliation with God, neighbour, creation and self – through:
- The New Evangelization
- Revitalizing Catholic Culture and Identity
- Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society
It takes place cialis 5 mg amerikabulteni.com due to over-dependence on the medications or side effects. Just take a dose when you anticipate love making. generic viagra online amerikabulteni.com What’s worse is that cheapest cialis online there are also chances that after a particular time period, scoliosis returns to pre-operative levels. Get a levitra pharmacy purchase Prescription A prescription will help you get to know about its role and impact.
These 3 are the Pastoral Priorities for our Archdiocese. Although they overlap with each other and run concurrently, time has been dedicated to highlight each one. The theme for RFLW this year will help us to prepare to embrace the 3rd Pastoral Priority Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society. Msgr Allan Ventour, Vicar for Pastoral Affairs, is taking the necessary action to prepare for this Pastoral Priority.
Our nation and our world are in crisis. Many have lost their moral compass. We were born with a moral compass. Blessed John XXIII reminded us in his encyclical, Peace on Earth, that God inscribed on the human heart a moral order. It is this order that should influence how we live our lives. However, many are influenced by moral relativism, individualism, selfishness which stand as obstacles in our way; and which sometimes cause us to demonstrate little or no respect for life.
All around us there are signs that many have lost respect for human life and for our environment – at all levels of society. If we are to make any progress, we must take urgent action to stem the tide. The challenge for us is to build a nation of which we can all be proud; a nation that is worthy of the struggles and sacrifices of our forebears; a nation in which the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person are paramount.
While we can pray for a respect for life, we also need to act on it. In the face of the various societal ills that confront us we cannot afford to be paralyzed by the enormity of the task to build a civilization of love. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. As Mother Teresa said: What I can do, you can’t do, and what you can do, I can’t do, but together we can do something beautiful for God.
On Wed 5 June 2013, UK’s Catholic Herald reported that “Pope Francis blamed society’s “throwaway culture” for damaging the environment and costing lives. Speaking during his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday, the Pope said: ‘We are living through a moment of crisis. We see it in the environment, but above all we see it in man and woman. The human person is in danger.
“‘Men and women are sacrificed to the idols of money and consumption. That some homeless people freeze to death on the street, that is not news. On the other hand, a drop of 10 points in the stock markets of some cities is a tragedy. That is how people are thrown away. We, people, are thrown away, as if we were trash.’”
“Today’s “throwaway culture” is also reflected in frequent waste of food, he said, adding that “food that is thrown away might as well have been stolen from the table of the poor, the hungry.”
“Noting that the United Nations had designated the day on which he was speaking (June 5) World Environment Day, Pope Francis recalled the biblical account of creation, according to which God made man and woman to “cultivate and protect the earth.”
“‘Are we truly cultivating and protecting creation?” the Pope asked. “Or are we instead exploiting and neglecting it?” (http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2013/06/05/our-throwaway-culture-is-costing-lives-says-pope-francis/ )
“He added: ‘We are often guided by the arrogance of domination, possession, manipulation, exploitation. We are losing the attitude of wonder, of contemplation, of listening to creation, and thus we are no longer able to read there what Benedict XVI calls the ‘rhythm of the love story of God with man.’”
You will recall Deuteronomy 30:19: “I set before you life or death…choose life…so that you and your descendants may live…” At last night’s Adorare at St Ann’s CCSJ’s Parish Link Coordinator, Mikkel Trestrail, and a group of youths focused on this portion of Scripture during our Lectio Divina meditation. As one writer states: “ In practicing regular times of lectio divina, we not only allow the Holy Spirit to remind us of who we are and what our mission is; we also grow in intimacy with God. As this intimacy deepens, we become more like Christ.”
We will respect all life if we strive to become more like Christ; if we allow Christian morals and values to guide our lives.
As a Eucharistic people, we have a duty to address the many threats of human life/human dignity e.g. crime and violence, abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, torture, subhuman living conditions, incest, domestic violence, pornography, arbitrary imprisonment, slavery, prostitution, human trafficking, discrimination against persons with disability, disgraceful working conditions, child labour, forced labour and forced migration, religious intolerance, racism, sexism, class bias. Paragraph 27 in the Vatican II document: Gaudium et Spes, The Church in the Modern World, lists the various threats to life.
We know of these threats. Our task is to SEE, JUDGE, AND ACT – to grasp opportunities to do as Blessed John Paul II said in The Gospel of Life and “respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life.” We cannot afford to be armchair Catholics. We are called to live in communion with each other.
The Social Doctrine of our Church requires us to build the common good. The common good “involves all members of a given society, no one is exempt from cooperating, according to one’s possibilities, in attaining it” through “the constant ability and effort to seek the good of others as though it were one’s own good.”
Our AEC Bishops reminded us in their 2008 Pastoral Letter, The Gift of Life, that: “The Church is to announce with great vigour, by word and deed, that human life is sacred and inviolable. This proclamation demands the promotion and the renewal of a culture of life. All Catholics…have a role to play in promoting a culture of life.”
And let us not forget that building a culture of life also involves promoting environmental/ecological justice. Blessed John Paul II said in 2007: “Our earth speaks to us, and we must listen if we want to survive.”
The litmus test that I use in all situations is: “What would Jesus do?” God created us in His own image and likeness – to love Him and to love our neighbour – and, as we know, our neighbour is anyone who has need of us, and this love must extend to all God’s creation.
I urge you to hold on to that moral compass that God inscribed in our hearts. The Holy Spirit is calling us to be counter-cultural; to swim against the tide of the culture of death that threatens us; to demonstrate that we are a people of life and for life – in all circumstances and at all stages.
Let us pray for a deeper respect and appreciation for life and all that sustains life. God created us to live in unity with all of creation. Let us pray that we may be a source of unity and life as we journey on.
