Father Dan Beeman Holy Trinity The Birth of Saint John the Baptist I have often heard people say that when it comes time to bury their loved one, they would rather call the funeral a celebration of life than a funeral Mass. The sentiment isn t bad, and while we still call it a funeral Mass, we also know that every Mass truly does celebrate the life of Jesus Christ, and the life of the one who has passed, the very soul we commend to God. But this week in Italy, it seems the Church celebrated a funeral Mass that really was, in so many ways, a celebration of life. Hundreds of Italians gathered in Rome on 16 June for the funeral Mass of Chiara Corbella, a young Catholic woman who died after postponing her cancer treatments in order to protect her unborn child. At 28 years of age, Chiara was happily married to Enrico Petrillo. They had already suffered the loss of two children, in recent years who died from birth defects. In 2010, Chiara became pregnant for the third time, and according to doctors the child was developing normally. However, Chiara was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and was advised to begin receiving treatment that would have certainly caused her baby in the womb to lose his life. Chiara decided to protect the baby - named Francisco - and opted to forgo treatment until after his birth. Her cancer quickly progressed and eventually she lost sight in one eye. After a year-long battle Chiara died on June 13, surrounded by her loved ones and convinced that she would be reunited with her two children in heaven. "I am going to heaven to take care of your brother and sister, you stay here with Dad. I will pray for you," Chiara said in a letter she wrote for her son Francisco one week before her death. Chiara knew what the Church teaches, and knew what is engrained in the heart of every person. That life and love go together. That in our very being, we understand that to have life, created by God and in His image, is to have the ability to love. And to have the very capacity to love comes because of the life God has given us. For her, to love would mean being willing to give her own life; a courage not foreign to any parent who knows their child is in danger, any soldier who enters into battle, any rescue worker who does not
hesitate to enter the building in flames. Life is worth living, and protecting life is a sign of our love. It is fitting and right that today, when the Church celebrates the very miraculous birth of John the Baptist, that you and I take a moment to acknowledge the role of God as the author of life. In Scripture we know that Elizabeth and Zechariah had longed for the gift of life in their marriage. They prayed and waited, and in her old age, after Elizabeth had long passed the age for having children, God announced to them the good news that they would have a son. Their miraculous pregnancy would be the forerunner to the miraculous pregnancy of the Virgin Mary, in the exact way that John the Baptist would be the forerunner to Jesus Christ. In the moment of joy that Elizabeth and Zechariah felt, the joy of the relatives and neighbors, they all realized that in this new life of John the Baptist was love. And their love was directed back in thanks for the gift of life. In our Catholic faith, we too have this same celebration for the gift of life. When a husband and wife enter into marriage, they enter a sacred covenant with God. In that moment, they as a couple promise together not to each other but to God Himself that they will give themselves freely, of their own will and fully, without reservation to each other. They further promise their marriage will be open to the first fruit/the first blessing of marriage the begetting of children, if it is God s will. Those promises are meant to be re-lived in every sexual expression of love between them. To give oneself freely and without reservation means that neither the husband or wife holds back any part of him or herself. The groom does not hold back his sacrifice, his desire, his love, or his very life from her. Likewise, the bride holds back nothing from her groom, not her desire, her love, her sacrifice, or her fertility. Instead, in a mutual and ultimate expression of love, they give to each other freely and without exception in being open to God s creation of love. In reality, where some find this teaching restrictive, it is actually one of the strongest statements of what we believe about the truth of love: Love always points to life; and our lives should always point to the love of God. The Church has continually taught this truth: that the union of man and woman should both unite and be open to give life. And while artificial contraception is incompatible with the promises of the marriage vow, the Church has expended tremendous research and energy into teaching her faithful this gift of Natural Family Planning as a way of spacing when a married couple conceive children. The beautiful teaching invites couples to a deeper intimacy, a more open communication, and a perpetual reminder that marriage and sexual intimacy were made as a way of learning to love more deeply; to give more freely. The most powerful part of this teaching is that the same understanding of love can be used for a couple in order to conceive when they struggle with infertility, keeping the creation of life in the marital embrace.
The good news is that the use of Natural Family Planning in the United States in increasing. Couples are embracing the gift of life earlier in marriage, and when they face infertility, they are turning to doctors who believe their work is meant to cooperate with God as a creator, not replace him with science that knows no boundary. Non-Catholics and non-christians have joined with us in understanding that a contraceptive mentality doesn t just close a marriage to life, but distracts the couple from fully giving themselves to one another. For those who struggle with this teaching, or for those who were raised at a time when they didn t hear this teaching proclaimed strongly; or for those who think this teaching is reduced only to the rhythm method instead of a natural and powerful gift of love, the Church simply asks you to open your marriage and your hearts to that same promise: life and love are meant to go together. Consider that the Lord may be speaking through this powerful teaching with something that will better guide your marriage and your heart to love and celebrate life. For those of us who are unmarried or past the age of conceiving children, we are to be supportive of young families, encourage an openness to life, and see the beauty in the families that surround us. I am convinced that there is no more difficult job or vocation in the world than being a parent. I see your struggles and your heartache when your children are suffering or when they are lost, I know your pain when you see them go astray or when you have to say goodbye. I have grieved with parents who have lost their children in the womb or in the world; I have celebrated when God has worked nothing less than miracles to preserve the life of your babies born pre-maturely or to finally have the pregnancy test read positive after years of waiting. I have learned what it means to be called father by watching fathers love their children and cling to their wives in thanks for the gift of life. Right now in our country, as we continue this Fortnight for Freedom a time of prayer to protect our religious liberty, we understand that our faith is under attack. As I told you this winter when Bishop DiLorenzo called on us to pray for an end to this attack on our religious liberty, we are not being persecuted for the Church s stance on contraception. We re being attacked for our belief that we cannot love without being open to life, believing in life, defending life. And as the Obama Administration comes after the Catholic Church for believing that our very nature as Catholics is about connecting life and love, we have to stand firm in what we know to be true. The Health and Human Services mandate would not only require Catholics to pay for and provide contraception, but also to sterilize women and pay for pills that induce abortions in women and destroy human life. That directly violates everything we stand for as a people of life! Remember, the HHS mandate is not just making these things legal, it is forcing us to pay for them and participate in them!
This week, as we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist, a miraculous pregnancy where life and love were joined in the foretelling of Jesus, He Who is the ultimate union of life and love, you and I must connect life and love in our own actions. Do we love powerfully because it is a part of the very life that God has given us? Do we heroically defend the fact that our faith calls us to respect life even at our own expense or in the face of difficulty? Do we have such a desire for the life that is given by God that we cannot help but respond in truth and in love to a world that does not understand? As we witness the gift of human life take on the miracle of spiritual life in Baptism, we have a lot to celebrate! But as we watch with wonder and awe as new children are Baptized, do we invite in our hearts, the power of the Holy Spirit to bring life to us anew, to speak up for the Church into which these children are now being born again? Will we stand in solidarity with mothers like Chiara who would rather give their own life than see their child die? Next week we will talk more in detail about our religious liberties as Americans and Catholics, as people of good will. This week, I simply invite you to pray about how life and love are connected in your own heart as a Catholic. Do you celebrate life with the same exuberance and joy that Elizabeth and Zechariah shared, that caused Saint Mary to burst out into song, that gives parents pride and changes their lives forever? I started the homily with a somber, a difficult story of a woman who gave up her own life for her son. Interestingly enough, where you and I might think the story was about loving, that woman s husband, the father of that son, he saw it more about her being loved. After his wife s funeral, he said, When my son grows up, I will tell him how beautiful it is to let oneself be loved by God, because if you feel loved you can do anything," and this is "the most important thing in life: to let yourself be loved by God in order to love others." "I will tell him that this is what his mother, Chiara, did. She allowed herself to be loved, and in a certain sense, I think she loved everyone because of that. I feel her more alive than ever. To see her give her life for my son with peace, it tells me that in life and in death, love and life can never be separated.
1. For our Holy Father and the Bishops who teach the truth of Christ to the world, that they always have compassion and charity in their message, we pray. 2. For President Obama and his administration, that their hearts be converted to respect every human life and to allow Catholics to live according to our beliefs, we pray. 3. For the protection of our military and for the defense of our nation, we pray. 4. For families who desire children, for married couples who are expecting, and for those who have suffered the loss of children, that they be carried by the love of God, we pray. 5. For those who are ill and in need of God s healing, especially: Mike Frost, David Phillips, Manoli Phillips that they know the healing of Jesus, we pray. 6. For those who have died and for: 5:00pm the intentions of Holy Trinity Parish 9:00am the repose of the soul of Robert Thomas 11:00am the protection of the United States Navy which is the intention of this Mass, we pray.