The Election Homily That's Gone Viral: Father Mathias Thelen on the Dignity of Human Life

good morning last week we began our preaching series on the principles and foundation of the late commitment to the common good so we continue that series but if you did not hear that previous homily you need to hear that homily before you understand what i'm going to say today so i want to if you're not if you haven't heard that please go back and listen to that but i want to recap a little bit about what father joe said last week that as christians we approach our engagement in political life from a biblical worldview that is we believe that god has created us in his image and likeness and yet sin has come into the world and has infected the human heart and wounded the human heart in such a way that sin can't in other words in order for us to solve any political problems we need to first look at sin in other words as christians we know that politics cannot solve the world's problem because the problems are not simply about policies or politicians or structures the problems primarily are problems of the human heart and we need salvation and the good news is that jesus gives us salvation he comes in and he makes us new and he gives us the capacity to really imbue the secular culture with the truths of the gospel with the power of transforming grace and that is why we as christians have a tempered expectation of what can be accomplished by politics alone we also are very suspicious of of a political approach that is atheistic and devoid of god and doesn't take seriously the reality of sin very skeptical of approaches that would seek to create a utopia here in this earth or just by different structures or more powerful centralized government but paradoxically because of the saving action of grace we have confidence that that we can transform culture in a way that those who aren't christian would never have that hope and the last thing i want to say before i begin this homily is just simply to say this we understand as christians that in every single political battle there is a spiritual battle at play for as saint paul says our battle is not against flesh and blood our bod our battle is not against politicians it's not against political parties our battle is against principalities and powers against satan against evil spirits that infect ideology that infects the world and so we see in every political battle a spiritual battle that's primary that needs to be addressed and understood in order for us to engage and to work for the common good so this series is about the foundations of the common good as father joe said we're not preaching on all political topics we can't about in terms of our church's understanding of how we can engage we're talking about those principles that help form the com the foundations of the common good if you're going to build a house for example you start with the foundation if you don't have the foundation it doesn't matter how good your walls are how good your roof is or how the the house is furnished you're not going to achieve what you're trying to achieve and so today i'm going to preach on affirming the dignity of human life the entire body of the church's social doctrine flows from this principle the principle of the dignity of each human person and we understand that each human person has dignity not just because each of us is unrepeatable and not just because each of us is unique that they'll never be a person in the history of the world just like you we not only believe we have inherent dignity because of that but primarily because we have been made in the image and likeness of god who created us for love who created us to live in freedom to be in relationship with him and ultimately created us to live with him forever in heaven and so loved we are by god in our dignity that he sent his only son to die so that we could be with him every single life is sacred and precious to god and we can never forget that and so the church's primary duty in society is to affirm and promote the dignity of the human person it is encyclical on the vocation and mission of the lay faithful john paul ii says this in effect the acknowledgment of the personal dignity of every human being demands the respect the defense and the promotion of the rights of the human person it is a question of inherent universal and inviolable rights no one no individual no group no authority no state can change let alone eliminate these rights because these ru because such rights find their source in god himself other words human life has so much dignity that we as christians cannot tolerate any violation of our dignity and yet look around today look around all the violations of human dignity that we see today euthanasia racism oppression of the poor slavery human trafficking we can go on and on and on but there is one violation that is the most severe and that is abortion which is the intentional killing of an innocent unborn child this issue is so serious that pope francis and the us bishop says this is the preeminent issue or a moral issue of our day it's the most important it's the preeminent issue of our day and they they say it for two reasons primarily it's preeminent for two reasons number one is to share gravity of evil both in kind and in number regarding a number of lives destroyed science confirms that human life begins at conception that that life no longer belongs to anybody it is a separate life in and of itself and therefore the church teaches to intentionally kill that life is always wrong there's no circumstance there's no intention that could ever make that act right and if you think about it it's hard to imagine a more innocent person than an unborn child what about the number since 1973 in roe versus wade some tallies say that we've had over 62 million children killed 2400 abortions per day and 98 abortions per hour which means in the time of the span of this mass almost 100 babies will be killed there is no social injustice as grave as this nothing even comes close and yet it's easy for us to become desensitized to the evolving of abortion it's out of sight out of mind we don't see babies lying on the street it's a this is a crime that commits that is committed in private and we live in a culture that has largely accepted this reality so much so that as john paul ii says that when a majority of a culture accepts the reality of abortion both in mind and in behavior it is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense of a culture's inability to discern what is right and what is wrong so that's the first reason why abortion is the preeminent moral issue we face today the second reason is that the right to life is the foundation of the common good of society itself think about it this way when an entire class of people has no rights it is not possible to achieve the common good it's not possible john paul ii in his encyclical on human life says it this way disregard for the right to life precisely because it leads to the killing of the person whom society exists to serve is what most directly conflicts with the possibility of achieving the common good pope francis said recently that if we fail to protect life no other rights matter john paul ii said it is encyclical on the lady again he says the common outcry which is justly made on behalf of human rights for example the right to health to home to work to family to culture is false and illusory if the right to life the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights is not defended with maximum determination false and illusory how many people in our culture in our world are falling under this illusion right now under this deception right now advocating for all sorts of rights in our culture all trying to address all sorts of injustices without first addressing the foundation of all rights it's like trying to build a house without having a foundation it's futile it's useless and i want to propose to you that one of the reasons why we have such the society falling down the way that it is that we've compromised in this area we've compromised in fighting for every single person having the right to life at the end of his encyclical on human life john paul ii says this very strongly he says only respect for life can be the foundation and guarantee of the most precious and essential goods of society such as democracy and peace there can be no true democracy without a recognition of every person's dignity and without respect for his or her rights there can be no true peace unless life is defended and promoted he goes on to say in this encyclical that when the majority of of a population turns against the weak and the innocent that democracy devolves into a form of tyranny of the strong against the weak some of you might be thinking father we as catholics are not one issue voters and the answer is yes you're right we're not one issue voters why because as we who have been redeemed by christ and have been enlightened by the truth every single issue of injustice matters to us because it's our responsibility to affirm the dignity of the human person every single issue matters that means that we have a right and a duty to denounce racism where we see it a writing a duty to denounce economic injustice and work for justice we need to advocate for the rights of immigrants we need to make sure that we're doing everything we can to work to end injustice but we are deceiving ourselves if we believe that any of these issues are more foundational than the right to life i know this puts us in a difficult position as catholics especially in this political environment in which we live many catholics feel they have no political home especially when we witness politicians and platforms throw unborn children under the bus for political gain but so seriously does the church take these issues when it comes to voting that she teaches very clearly that a catholic politician who consistently campaigns and votes for permission permissive abortion laws should be denied holy communion because politicians have the most responsibility of securing the rights of everyone in their jurisdiction the church also teaches very clearly and these are coming from a 2004 instruction to the us u.s bishops from the vatican it teaches that a catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil and so unworthy to present himself for holy communion if he were deliberately to vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate's permission permissive stance on abortion in other words if you vote for a pro-abortion candidate because they're pro-abortion and because they are they are permissive on that stance you are formally cooperating with evil and you shouldn't be coming to holy communion but some of you might be thinking father i'm pro-life couldn't i vote for a pro-abortion candidate if i don't agree with that candidate's position on abortion it's a good question the church continues when a catholic does not share a candidate stand in favor of abortion or euthanasia but vote to that candidate for other reasons it is considered remote material cooperation in evil which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons proportionate reasons what proportionate reasons exist in the face of the evil of abortion today i have to be completely honest given the extreme positions that are out there today on abortion i honestly do not know how a catholic who has a well-formed conscience can vote for a candidate who promises to promote and widen access to abortion especially when there are candidates in that on that same ballot who are pro-life or more pro-life than that person the only time that i think it's permissible to support a pro-abortion candidate is when one the the office to which that person is going to be elected has nothing to do with abortion maybe a trustee for the township or maybe someone maybe on the county level or if there the candidates for that particular ballot are all pro-abortion equally and you're choosing the lester of two evils some of you might be thinking father how come i've never heard this before i honestly don't know but i want to be extremely clear here i am not judging anyone based on what they voted for or what they're going to vote today or this this fault i'm not judging anyone that's not my role my role is to give principles and you to have the principles to form your conscience you to vote according to your conscience god is the one who is going to judge and so i'm fully aware of how challenging this is and i have to be completely honest this is not an easy homily for me to preach and it's not easy because i know some people who put their politics before their faith are are going to think that i'm being partisan by saying these things or they're going to think that i'm putting politics before my faith and they're gonna have a hard time with that because this is a very challenging message but i also know this is challenging because the statistics say that one in three women have had abortions see abortion hurts people it hurts women it hurts men it hurts fathers and so many women bear an unbearable burden of guilt most of their life because of what they've done and we need to be not naive as to one of their main reasons why people are pro-choice one of the main reasons why they downplay abortion is because they themselves or someone they know has had an abortion and they cannot stand the face of the fact of what they did they don't know how to handle that and so they defend abortion rights with almost religious fervor because they're trying to avoid the pain of their conscience but avoiding what happened is a form of denial and a form of denial is a form of hopelessness but i have good news when you come to know jesus when you encounter him in the midst of your your sin and your brokenness and the devastation that you've called you come to know love and mercy itself and you no longer have to deny reality you no longer have to live in denial seeking to to defend your guilty conscience you can live in freedom and you can live to help other people become free and not to commit this crime again you see this is the power of the gospel i truly believe we're not going to solve this problem this genocide of abortion by politics that's not how it's going to be solved it's going to be solved by declaring the mercy of god who loves us in the midst of our brokenness he's so in love with us so if any of you have had an abortion or you assisted someone with an abortion i have this to say god loves you do not forget that what he did on the cross is more powerful than any sin you could ever have committed and he wants you to be free he wants you to be free to fight for justice and not living guilt this is the power of the gospel you see the laity are called to promote the common good so when you vote i want you to ask yourself two questions which candidates defend the rights of life right to life for all people in which candidates deny their right to life and perpetuate the illusion that we can build a society without first first securing that right like each of us unborn children are sacred and precious to god but they have no voice but ours now is not the time for us to be silent

Channel: Diocese of Lansing

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Id: U5Ri_gPx618

Length: 17min 42sec (1062 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/SteveBolduc]

This homily applies to all nations, even though it was recorded in the US

[u/ripreckful]

Thank God for the Separation of church and state.

[u/gpearce52]

"I do not believe that just because you are opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, a child educated, a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."

-- Sr. Joan Chittister

[u/Becksauce3]

Thanks for posting!