El domingo de "Pro-Vida"

Disclaimer: This is going to be a rant.


Today is "Pro-Life" Sunday.  Our regular priest was sick, so a priest from the Cathedral came and celebrated the Eucharist.  He spoke terrible Spanish, so he said his homily in English and it was translated into Spanish.  I tend to dislike listening to things through an interpreter because it means listening to the exact same thing twice and I'm not that patient.  But the homily was perhaps the most painful 20 minutes of my life.

First, the priest started by saying that his Spanish was equivalent to most of the congregation's English.  I understand what he was trying to say, but many of the parishioners actually speak very good English, and since he didn't know anyone there, I thought it was extremely rude of him to assume that everyone only spoke Spanish.

The flow of the homily was also terrible because he paused every 2-3 words for the interpreter.  The key to using an interpreter is breaking what you say up into meaningful phrases because it's impossible to just translate things word for word.  So the interpreter, who was incredibly patient, had to back-track to make sure what she was saying made sense.

But my biggest problem with the homily was that all the priest basically said was that abortion was bad.  He started by explaining that Pro-Life Sunday was mostly about abortion in the U.S. because abortion is legal here "in our country."  Clearly he was not aware of his audience...the vast majority of the parishioners refer to their country of birth as "their country."  And as a whole, Hispanic Catholics are super conservative with life issues and would rather bring 10 kids into the world, even if they can't support them, than abort a pregnancy.

The reason that I got so angry during Mass was that I can't understand how people can view "Pro-Life" to mean "pro-fetus."  I hate that abortions happen, but making it illegal isn't the answer.

Here's my own Pro-Life homily:

We live in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.  As a society, we spent billions of dollars a year on cosmetic surgery, big screen TVs, cell phones that can do everything for us, and the most luxurious cars possible.  And we spend trillions of dollars making weapons each year to kill people who we see as "other."

As Christians, we believe that Jesus is the model for peace and love in our world.  As such, we have a duty to follow him and try to make the earth a better place.

Jesus was "Pro-Life".  But this doesn't just mean that he would condemn abortions.  Instead, it means giving respect to all living beings and thus working to create a society that promotes universal dignity.

A Pro-Life society would support women who are pregnant and new parents in whatever way they needed: economically, psychologically, or spiritually.  It would make sure that all people had enough nutritious foods to eat and had access to clean drinking water.  It would educate children well, regardless of the socio-economic status of their parents.  It would provide adequate health care for all.  It would protect the rights and fair wages of workers.  It would ensure that racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic practices would not exist. And it would protect the quality of life until its very end, understanding that although life is sacred, it does not need to be artificially extended forever.

Life is the greatest gift that any of us have ever received.  When you begin to think about how many things could have gone wrong from the time we were conceived to the time we turned 2 years old, it is clear that we are absolute miracles.

As Jesus (and/or Spiderman) reminds us, to those whom much is given, much is expected.  We are not only living, but living in a society that has so much potential.  If only we could harness that to make our world a better place, instead of selfishly seeking our own personal advancement.