Weekly Homily of Father Mraz

3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – B

January 21-22, 2012

Our readings tell us to repent. Our first reading is about the Prophet Jonah being sent to the evil city of Nineveh to tell them that due their evil, greed and sins - that unless they repent they will be destroyed. This is echoed in the other readings. This pertains to us too today.

This Sunday, January 22 is the 39^th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in 1973 to permit abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Since this time, 53 million American citizens have been put to death, without trial or having been found guilty of any crime, just because they were conceived and were not wanted. The country revolts when convicted murderers are put to death for their crimes but we put to death children who committed no crimes, with no court judging them guilty. That is what is so astounding, when the case came before the Supreme Court in 1973 few thought that it would ever pass as the courts job is to protect innocent life. Our system is based on common law which means that precedents of other laws are used to determine cases. Each state had laws against abortion, considering it to be murder of an innocent person. Thus we had laws already which allowed unborn children in the womb to inherit from the death of their parent or others, equally with any other born child. Children in the womb had rights because they were alive and existed. If someone caused the death of an unborn child by a car accident or beating the mother or killing the mother it was seen as the crime of murder on the child in the womb. Just because they were not outside of the womb, did not mean that they had no rights, - they had the same rights as any other citizen or non citizen. That is why the Supreme Court decision to permit abortion was so startling and it still is today. Today if the child is wanted, and the mother and child are killed it is still 2 murders but if the child is not wanted and killed it is not a murder.

What are the ramifications of this: First of all there is a cheapening of all life, if you can take the life of a child who is guilty of no crime because they may be a burden economically or otherwise - then you surely can kill people who may be a burden economically or otherwise by euthanasia on the other end of life. If being wanted is the criterion for life, than people who feel unwanted can commit suicide and assisted suicide is permitted in some states. Married life is cheapened. Marriage was meant as a perfect environment to beget and raise children in a permanent, lifelong and exclusive relationship of complementary sexes of one man and one woman in self giving love. Now if children are not important then why get married? Many no longer do get married. If children are not needed to have a stable environment to grow up in then why work at a marriage? Why not take the easy way out when things get difficult and get divorced and marry somebody else? There is over a 50% divorce rate which did not exist before abortion. Why not have same sex relationships - which have no possibility of having children? Because now the complementary relationship of two different sexes each with different strengths to offer to help raise the child is not needed. If there are no children why be faithful to one spouse to be sure who is the parent of the child, so now there are many promiscuous & adulterous relationships. Why wait until marriage to have sexual relations? If you can use contraception and back it up by abortion many teenagers are using it for recreation instead understanding it as the serious obligation to bring a child into the world and raise them. Teen pregnancies are high unlike before abortion so there are many teen abortions. Women are cheapened. Instead of honoring a woman as a life giving mother who with God brings a precious life into the world they are seen as object for pleasure. Girls are cheapened. If you can choose the sex of the child like in China and India then the girls are killed because you need a boy to support you in old age. If a parent can kill a child, the children who have been born in this time when abortion is permitted are wondering why they should take care of their parents?

Look at the economic consequences of not only the 53 million less citizens by abortion but the many more also added to them by contraception who would have been born. How many is 53 million people? It would be the entire populations Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and ¾ of Oklahoma. That the entire populations of nearly 13 states. What has happened to our small towns, school districts and churches? They have shrunk, died or consolidated. Each small town had a main street with stores of each kind for any need - and often several of each - to provides the needs of the people in the community, now most towns are luck if they have a gas station and a grocery store left and many do not even have that much or maybe a minimart gas station to buy basics of milk and bread. How many school districts have gone out of existence since abortion was permitted, or have combined with neighboring districts because there are no children left. How many parishes have closed or have to work as a group because there are no longer the parishioners needed to keep them going, because there are few children to keep them in existence. With fewer people there is less demand for goods or food raised by farmers so the prices are low and the farms go out of existence. With fewer people there is no need for schools or churches so they close or combine. With no children then there is no need for stores to sell food, clothing and other needs a family would have so they close. With no children there is no need for factories to make the goods that would be sold in those local stores so they close, if there are no factories then there is no work and people are unemployed. If there is no people working and fewer working then there is no tax base to make improvements and keep up services - so roads and bridges fall apart and some towns cannot even afford a to hire a policeman.

What does this do to retirement? People think of Social Security as a bank account which what you pay in is yours and you withdraw it with interest at retirement. That is NOT what it was organized to be. When President Roosevelt started it, it was decided when you pay in you support the ones retired or unemployed and when you retire the ones paying will support you. You get credit for what you pay in but you get not your money but somebody else’s money back. One politician was condemned because he said social security was a ponzi scheme. I don’t know if it is a ponzi scheme but I do know it was founded to be a pyramid scheme. In the 1930’s & 40’s when it was started each generation was larger than the one before. So there were more young people than elderly ones. And like a pyramid each new generation had was larger like the base of the pyramid than the ones above so there were more people working and paying in to support the smaller numbers at the top. This worked until there was abortion and contraception which then limited the number of children to smaller numbers than the previous generation. The pyramid turned upside down where fewer and fewer people paying in have to support more and more people in retirement. So the taxes have to rise on the younger people paying in until they revolt and say they cannot afford it and social security goes out of business, or the elderly have to take less benefits and may have hold down part time jobs to pay their bills to keep the system from collapsing. For example you see the same in the religious orders. It used to be that there were 8 sisters working to support each retired sister, now with fewer sisters –there is one working sister supporting 8 retired sisters. Thus sisters’ salaries had to rise drastically, and now we have motherhouses closing and being sold as the orders consolidate in to larger provinces to save on costs. The same is true with social security. And if the elderly become a burden for the younger paying in - then there is reason to fear in a national health care system - that the elderly will be seen as not worthy of care so they die off and are not a burden. This has happened in places like England and Holland.

Jonah & Jesus both call us to repentance for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When we try to play God and put material things before people we all suffer as we do today. Let us work to end this scourge of abortion and euthanasia by respecting all life and seeing to it that we support organizations, vote for candidates and work for laws that respect the beauty of each life as it is created with value in God’s image and likeness born and unborn, young and old.