This past Wednesday was the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court decision of Roe vs. Wade where abortion was legalized inside of this country. Due to this Supreme Court decision many people flock each year to Washington DC to march for the sanctity of human life. Of course January 22nd is not the most promising of times due to weather, any of the pilgrims who attended the March for Life this year would especially agree to this if you asked them. Despite snow and cold this is such an important matter that each of them knows that they must preach the Gospel to the world and must also join themselves together in this cause through their prayers and sacrifices. These many people who attend this march each year are a reminder for us that the Gospel and its teachings are not something that should be locked up inside of a church, but instead are something that must be brought out into the world and lived; no matter the response that may await us on the outside.
I am told time and time again by people that "I am pro life, but don't think it is right to tell others what to believe." This response of relativism can be attributed to any other moral teaching of the Church which we might accept, but don't want to teach, don't want to pray for, don't want to sacrifice for, and thus don't allow ourselves to become a true example of. Maybe this same relativism has seeped into our own lives to the point where we can only accept the Church and thus the teachings of Christ through a sense of partiality instead of through its totality. Whenever we come forward to receive our Lord present in the Body and Blood of Christ we do so accepting Christ in His totality through our response of "amen" which means "I believe." Communion is not about entering into partiality, but instead it is what binds us together in the totality of the Church and her teachings as was handed down to us by Christ our Lord. From the abundance that we receive in Holy Communion we are forever prepared to be disciples not of relativism, but of the truth.
Our Gospel from Matthew serves as a reminder of the importance of becoming both a preacher and one who lives out the truth no matter what the response we receive may be. From Isaiah we are told that He went to the Galilee of the Gentiles and thus these people who have been in darkness have finally received the great light that they had been longing for. To put this into context, starting in the time of King Solomon, Galilee was split into two kingdoms, one made up of Jewish people and the other was made up of people mixed of many different faiths especially an influx of Gentiles was found here. Naturally, the Galilee of the Gentiles would be looked down upon due to the reality of the darkness that comes through not being made up of God's chosen people. Nevertheless, Christ gives a great example of evangelization to us when He goes to this place to preach and lead people towards the light of faith because He is showing that the message of the Gospel is for all people. We to must come to this conclusion as we enter into the world to bring the light of faith to all those whom we encounter.
Matthew's Gospel again gives us a great reminder of the hardship that this evangelization can bring into our lives by saying: "he went to live in Capernaum by the sea." For anyone who has ever been to a beach we know how brutal that waves can be to the shore. A beach is not a calm place because of the waves and thus the fact Christ went to live by a sea shows the brutality that can arise as we attempt to live out our faith inside of the world. We are beaten upon through temptations that want us to cave in to these lies. We are beaten upon by the despair of hardship that attempts to force us to lose hope. We are beaten upon through the tide of relativism which separates us from Christ and His Church. We are beaten upon by fear which causes us to run instead of proclaiming our faith by our lives. We are beaten upon by laziness which causes us to never feel compelled to pray or to offer sacrifice in our lives. Despite all this that beats upon us each day, Christ came to live by the sea, to preach and to give hope that we can abandon all this for love of Him & thus usher in the light of faith amidst the darkness that is found within our life.
Despite the fear that came into the lives of each of the apostles Christ called them to true serenity. They abandoned all that they had to follow after Him who had come to bring light into their lives. Despite abandoning all to Him they continued to find themselves placed by the brutality of the sea, but with Christ they were given hope. Christ has called each of us here to follow after Him and thus to face the brutality of the sea not by giving in to it, but through overcoming it with His help. For each pilgrim that was found in Washington this past Wednesday this was the origin of their hope that this unjust law will be overturned and that all hearts may be opened to the value of human life. For this hope each hardship that they had to endure was well worth bringing the Gospel message into the world. May we to desire to bring the Gospel into the world, so that we can bring all hearts to the light of Christ and to His Church. May there be no divisions found among us as we confront the sea of temptation, relativism, despair, laziness, and fear to bring the Gospel, not in its partiality, but in its totality to the world.
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