Reflections at the March for Life

I attended the Vigil For Life Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on January 21, the eve of the March for Life.  It was a simultaneously uplifting (the liturgy (what I could see of it from the Crypt Church) was beautiful!), and humbling (the sound kept cutting in and out (and in and out), and we kept singing loudly; unfortunately, when the sound came back on, we were only in the same place as the upstairs congregation about half the time).  I am glad we were able to attend.  I hope the kids who went with me are glad, too.

Cardinal Justin Rigali gave the homily for the Mass.  He hit all the themes he touched on during the Youth Rally Mass, and in his remarks at the start of the March for Life; but something he said (and I am not sure what, exactly (sorry, Your Excellency!)) sparked the following reflection.  I am not vain enough to think that it will matter to many…but I am vain enough to think I should blog it.

To my brothers and sisters who are caught up in the culture of death, to those who have dedicated their lives to maintaining and expanding the freedom to kill the weakest among us at their most defenseless, I need to tell you:

You Cannot Win.

You can’t win!  Oh, you may win some skirmishes.  You may temporarily foist this culture of death which you hold in such high esteem on us all.  But…

You Cannot Win.

Slavery and Jim Crow were held as sacred to many, even in the supposedly enlightened North…but a Black man in habits the White House today. 

The scourge of fascism almost engulfed the world…but the fascists now have little to say that matters.

And your culture of death has threatened, too long threatened, the families o four nation.  But tens of thousands of children now march in the streets of our Capitol to say, “ENOUGH!  Enough hate! Enough death! Enough selfishness!

You Cannot Win.

Every child whose life you end is a tragedy.  But…every soul you send to heaven from the womb is a witness before God against you.  Those souls cry out to God on our behalf, that He might strengthen us, the living, to defend their brothers and sisters!

You Cannot Win.

We hate what you do.  And we will fight it with every fiber of our being.  Our country cannot continue to kill its children by the tens of thousands, every day, and hope to continue to survive.  And we hate the sin you commit every time you add to that death toll.

But, brothers and sisters…we love you.  And we pray for you, as well as for all your victims.  And we longingly await your conversion.

And we will welcome you to our ranks, when the full horror of your “choices” comes crashing in on you.  God extends His hands constantly to you, the same as He does to us.  We are all sinners.  We are all in need of God’s grace.  And God offers it too you freely, if you will just accept it.

“I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  Choose life, then, that you and your descendents may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

So says the Lord.  And because He does, we beg you:  Choose life!  Because…

You.  Cannot.  Win.

You can only leave more destruction in your wake on your way to defeat.  But you cannot win.  Life always wins in nature. Choose life. 

You Cannot Win otherwise.