Being pro-life means your life too

If we are Catholics worth our scapulars, we have spent time debating the pro-life issues with those who hold different viewpoints. Sometimes those discussions can lead to food for thought on both sides.

As national and provincial marches for life roll around (see details below), it is a good time to take stock of what precisely makes a person pro-life and if we ourselves can fully claim that title.

Like many of the virtues, being pro-life takes work on the personal front. At the very least, we can profess our love for expectant mothers and make a commitment to further the pro-life cause through the gift of our time, talent and treasure. Whether it is donating to a crisis pregnancy centre or to the Sisters of Life or even befriending a single mother and her children at church. We can be pro-life for others all in a day’s work. But what about being pro-life when it comes to our own lives? Do we believe that our lives are also sacred?

St. Irenaeus said “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Do we pray for mothers to choose life for their babies while we continually neglect to choose only life-giving friendships and pastimes for ourselves? Do we punish our bodies by denying them rest and nutritious food? When we are sick or tired, are we cruel to ourselves?

In Matthew’s gospel, the Lord tells us to love our neighbours as ourselves. So many of us want the babies to live. And we desire deliverance and healing for the mothers who are unsupported in their pregnancies. Surely we don’t envision babies being born after a close brush with death only to fall asleep watching hours of mindless Netflix with a bag of chips on their laps every night?

So, the question really is: pro-life…for what? Yes, the gift of life itself is the first gift. Are we a good advertisement for why the world should choose life? Do we pray with gratitude each night before we go to bed and ask the Lord to increase our desire to live for him? Do we pray to know our gifts in order to serve him well with them?

Many self-improvement books put the onus on us to just be better! Just do it! Go get it! In the life of a Christian, however, our mandate is one of surrender: Jesus, I surrender myself to you! Take care of everything. Jesus! Teach me not to waste my life and the time, talent and treasure you have given me!

I am not here for myself. The gift of my life is meant to be a joy for the world as each person is an encounter with the very heart of Jesus. Lord, keep me from listless self-seeking! Lord, help me to be pro-life beginning with my own life so that I can show others what it is that they should choose for themselves. 

May my example not be merely one of holding placards with advice and platitudes; may my daily choosing life be the most powerful pro-life witness. So yes, go to Parliament Hill or to your local March for Life but let it be with the humility that we are all on our way to being fully pro-life.