By Judie Brown
When President Biden told an audience on September 11 that “those terrorists could not touch what no force, no enemy, no day ever could—and that is the soul of America,” he uttered words that show us how hypocritical the man can be when speaking of unimaginable horrors. While his words commemorate the nearly 3,000 people who died that day because of terrorist attacks, he has never reminded the nation that a staggering number of preborn children are killed every day in this nation by laws that protect chemical and surgical abortions. And we have not calculated the deaths occurring in the reproductive technology industries, including in vitro fertilization.
In other words, when we visualize the 9/11 memorials, we must remind others that babies in the womb face a 9/11 tragedy every single day of the year. And yes, they are human beings, people who should not be killed at the behest of their mothers who are often pressured into an act that could be avoided if our nation’s public servants and media outlets spent as much time promoting abstinence before marriage and fidelity within marriage as they do focusing on sexual satisfaction.
The so-called soul of America is articulated in our Declaration of Independence with these words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Yet it is clear that, for many years, the United States has been on a long slide away from the nation our founders envisioned. As a result, the nation’s heart has been damaged, perhaps irreparably. We all realize that nothing is impossible for God, but the vast majority of those in positions of power do not adhere to this truth—if they even believe it. As with all things, words are cheap, but actions matter.
The Heart of the Nation Catholic website offered a reflection for this week, which is most appropriate for those of us who entrust everything to the Lord. It reads:
Before healing a man’s withered hand, Jesus asked the scribes and Pharisees in the synagogue if they thought it lawful to do something good on the Sabbath. They refused to answer but became enraged when Jesus worked the miracle. Jesus chose the Twelve Apostles after spending a night in prayer. Their world got turned upside down! The Beatitudes illustrated why as Jesus declared that people who suffered hardships would find themselves eternally blessed. Challenges we face may seem to contradict hope. Sometimes, we don’t know what to do. Jesus’ words provide the bedrock for what we can make of our lives. We need to listen and to act on His lessons. How often do we want God to revise the perfect blueprint of His plan when, instead, we should dig more deeply into the Lord’s words and pursue actions that build from there?
The soul of this nation belongs to the Lord, not to a flawed man who was elected by some of the people of this land. We must never forget that Jesus walks among us right now and lives in the souls of those faithful to His words. It is He who is the King of Glory, the Master of Justice, and the lover of every person—born and preborn.
We know and can joyfully proclaim to one and all that Jesus extends His hand in all times and in every circumstance. This is the soul of nation dedicated to respect for the human person in every situation and at every moment.
