By Judie Brown
John Lennon, whose song “Imagine” suggests thinking about a world without war, causes to die for, or religion, was not a religious man. But his idea of a world where peace reigns is worthy of consideration. Though it may not be obvious to some, the promise of a world where the virtues of faith, hope, and love exist could only occur in a place where Christ and His truth are central.
Saint Paul taught this truth in 1 Corinthians 13:12-13, writing, “Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known. As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love.”
So the obvious question in today’s rush to kill anyone perceived to be inconvenient is this: Where would one seek the love that Saint Paul writes about?
First, we would seek it in Christ and in His gift of Himself in the Eucharist.
Second, we seek it in the development of the human person created in the image and likeness of God. Some call that the “voyage of life,” and others describe it as the beginning of a human being. At ALL, we prefer to say “from creation to birth.” But whatever terms you employ, the message is the same: A human being begins at his beginning, and his identity as a human person is a gift from God, translated through the act of procreation and made possible by loving, nurturing, and sacrificing in order to bring him into the world.
Such a magnificent gift is not hard to imagine, but in our world today it is rejected at an alarming rate. This is so in part because not everyone wishes to explain the facts in a way that enlightens. Such people prefer to disguise truth under the cloak of choice. And perhaps this is why women who use the tool of chemical abortion are “significantly more likely to end up in [an] emergency room.” Indeed, researchers found that emergency department “visit acuity following chemical abortion is persistently and significantly higher than for surgical abortion or live birth.”
Imagine the restoration of sound medical practice that would spare these women from so much suffering!
Consider the aging and physically ill among us who are convinced that they are protected from elder abuse and neglect until it is too late. This sad fact prompted Wesley Smith to write that “eliminating suffering by eliminating the sufferer is not seen by euthanasia supporters as a vice, but as a virtue.”
Imagine a society in which the cardinal virtues were embraced in the practice of medicine, thus eliminating discrimination against our elders and those who experience debilitating illnesses.
Human Coalition president Jeff Bradford and its vice president of strategic relationships, Benjamin Watson, have given us a wise approach to the current world of misinformation and political deception, writing for Newsweek on “the moral principle [that] both parties get wrong about abortion.” They explain:
The issue hidden by polling numbers is that approval for legal abortion isn’t just about whether the practice is intrinsically moral. It’s also about whether it’s acceptable to look away from tragedy when it happens outside your home. . . .
Pro-lifers—no matter which presidential candidate is elected in November—must boldly advocate for policies that both protect preborn children and provide vulnerable women with support.
We have to show people the gift of life. The witness of the happy, secure mothers and thriving children we help establish will help once again make it believable that the death of children isn’t necessary to be happy—and, being “unnecessary,” is therefore unthinkable.
St. John Paul II wrote, “The splendor of truth shines forth in all the works of the Creator and, in a special way, in man, created in the image and likeness of God Truth enlightens man’s intelligence and shapes his freedom, leading him to know and love the Lord.”
Imagine a nation comprised of people committed to the splendor of truth and to protecting the preborn, their mothers, their fathers, and their grandparents. Imagine a world committed to the protection of all human beings.
Imagine!