1/23/26 Upon having a Gospel of the Light of Jesus proclaimed for this Sunday, I give a related shout-out to our ‘hillbilly’ and Catholic Vice President J.D. Vance for being at the Pro Life Mass and also for attending, speaking and listening for his 2nd year in a row at the National Pro Life March on Jan. 23rd. Vance, who is one of us Catholics, brought the Gospel of Life message (echoing JPII) and the Church’s care for unborn and babies, and he shared a joyful family life message to all that he and his wife were expecting a child. ‘Maybe the first time for a sitting VP.
Vance brought light to the March for the Church’s biggest cause. It would have been good to see our Cardinal McElroy beside him in the address, though it did not happen. (Recalling how our Cardinal Gregory joined Biden and Harris on the Mall for a Covid recovery national prayer some years ago, in a striking and united pairing of Church and State.) Yet in the Jan. 22nd Vigil Mass at the ICM Basilica in DC, McElroy stood beside Bishop Conley who preached: ““Our goal is not only to make abortion illegal, our goal is to make abortion unthinkable.” In his homily, Conley expressed joy at the number of young people who attended the vigil with the goal to “build a culture of life and a civilization of love, where babies are protected in their mothers’ wombs and women are loved, heard, and cared for when they find themselves faced with very difficult and life-changing decisions.” He added: ”Our brothers and sisters in the womb are the most vulnerable and the most voiceless,” noting that the Light of Christ needs to be poured forth in a great witness to Life, and it was good to see people there at the March willing to share that, like the apostles agreeing to join Jesus up in those early Galilee days.
In other speeches at the March, varied speakers spoke of the appalling increase of abortion pills by mail allowed without any screens or medical professionals involved. This permission for it, granted in Biden’s Presidency (a Catholic!?!), with Democratic push, has led to an uptick of the estimated 1 million babies aborted in America in the past year. Gross. Dark. Horrible. No wonder that not one identified Democratic leader was among the Rally’s featured speakers—for the first time.
Thanks to our parish members and other local Catholics and the Lansing Young Adults who we hosted to attend the March. Above: Bishop Evilio walking in the March.
I was reflecting today on the admirable Saint John Paul II and his strongest Light messages in how we are to triumph over the darkness and shadows of this corrupt time.
Read Pope John Paul II Gospel of Life excerpts #17 and #29 and #76=77.
17. Humanity today offers us a truly alarming spectacle, if we consider not only how extensively attacks on life are spreading but also their unheard-of numerical proportion, and the fact that they receive widespread and powerful support from a broad consensus on the part of society, from widespread legal approval and the involvement of certain sectors of health-care personnel. As I emphatically stated at Denver, on the occasion of the Eighth World Youth Day, “with time the threats against life have not grown weaker. They are taking on vast proportions. They are not only threats coming from the outside, from the forces of nature or the Cains’ who kill the Abels’; no, they are scientifically and systematically programmed threats. The twentieth century will have been an era of massive attacks on life, an endless series of wars and a continual taking of innocent human life. False prophets and false teachers have had the greatest success.”
#29. Faced with the countless grave threats to life present in the modern world, one could feel overwhelmed by sheer powerlessness: good can never be powerful enough to triumph over evil! At such times the People of God, and this includes every believer, is called to profess with humility and courage its faith in Jesus Christ, “the Word of life” (1 Jn 1:1). The Gospel of life is not simply a reflection, however new and profound, on human life. Nor is it merely a commandment aimed at raising awareness and bringing about significant changes in society. Still less is it an illusory promise of a better future. The Gospel of life is something concrete and personal, for it consists in the proclamation of the very person of Jesus. Jesus made himself known to the Apostle Thomas, and in him to every person, with the words: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). This is also how he spoke of himself to Martha, the sister of Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn 11:25-26). Jesus is the Son who from all eternity receives life from the Father (cf. Jn 5:26), and who has come among men to make them sharers in this gift: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). 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 (cf. Jn 3:21), that is, to accept and fulfil 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.”
Live it. Bring Light. Be Light.
#76-77 With the gift of his Spirit, Christ gives new content and meaning to the law of reciprocity, to our being entrusted to one another. The Spirit who builds up communion in love creates between us a new fraternity and solidarity, a true reflection of the mystery of mutual self-giving and receiving proper to the Most Holy Trinity. The Spirit becomes the new law which gives strength to believers and awakens in them a responsibility for sharing the gift of self and for accepting others, as a sharing in the boundless love of Jesus Christ himself. “This new law also gives spirit and shape to the commandment “You shall not kill”. For the Christian it involves an absolute imperative to respect, love and promote the life of every brother and sister, in accordance with the requirements of God’s bountiful love in Jesus Christ. “He laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn 3:16).
Jesus said “I am the Light of the world” and then he said to them, who would believe and receive Him in, be light to the world, for a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
He was calling us to be a new and faithful Jerusalem in that Sermon on the Mount—people of Light. Fr. John Barry
