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To Impose or to Give Witness
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October 16, 2012The last question posed to the two candidates at the vice-presidential debate, both Catholics, to comment on the influence of their faith in regard to the abortion issue, is my concern in writing this article. This was not an unexpected question, but certainly a significant one. The vice-president’s response was not a new one either, nor was it unexpected. It was, however, a very disappointing one for me.
His response was one that is certainly not original, but none-the-less, an often re-cycled one…which lacks conviction. He said he is personally against abortion, but would not “impose” his belief on anyone else. Whoever said Pro-Life people ever wanted to “impose their Faith on another?” There is another reality that is much more powerful and stems from conviction of Faith. It is called witness to the Faith!
A Faithful Catholic should accept and believe all that the Church teaches to be the Truth. Hence a Faithful Catholic should be ready and willing to give persuasive argumentation to support the Truth that the Church teaches. He should not shrug away and be mute in the moment when faithful witness is required!
When John the Baptist spoke out against the moral of life of Herod, Venerable Bede wrote, “Herod did not ask John to deny Christ, he only wanted John to be silent about the truth.” Too many faithful Catholics have also remained “silent” about the truth of human life. The truth is that human life begins at conception and ends at natural death.
The truth is that each and every human life has dignity from conception to natural death. This dignity comes from God himself, in whose image and likeness human life is created. To be silent about this is to be silent about truth. To fail to give persuasive argumentation in regard to this truth is to say something about the one who is Truth. Christ is the only one who can say that He possesses Truth. It was Christ himself who said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (Jn 14:6) The truth is abortion destroys a human life!
It is time to lay aside the dictum: “I am personally opposed to abortion, but I will not impose my beliefs on another!” It is old and meaningless! It totally lacks conviction and zeal for the Faith. It comes from a society that has lived through many ideologies and consumerism. Many see the emptiness and insufficiencies of life based on these foundations.
It is Faith that proposes Truth as a basis for life. This truth may be laid aside at times by society, but Truth, as such does not disappear. Only the days of ideologies are numbered!
One can conclude that to deny the most basic truth that human life is sacred from conception to natural death is a denial of the Gospel. One can only wonder where Christ is in this equation. The Christ, who said, He “came so that we may have life and have it in abundance?” (Jn 10:10)
