This year was the best March for LIfe I've been on. It was my 7th march, 6 as a seminarian in exile out east. This was my first as a priest. It had a different feel of course, but I can point out one moment that really stood out for me.
It was the beginning of the actual march, a group of women and a few men stepped out into the street. They held high signs that said, I regret my abortion. I was kind of taken aback. I was proud of them, for their courage, for the obvious healing that had occurred in their lives, but I didn't know what to do. I was so dumbstruck I asked a kid next to me what do we do? I don't think we should cheer, how are we supposed to react? The the kids yelled the most perfect response. Something I was embarrassed I didn't think of, something that started with a few and grew. "We love you!"
The March for Life is a powerful event. An awakening of the church militant, and a great sign to us who may wonder what is ahead for our country. But, if we go to the march, or stand up here, ready for a fight we'll find one. If we seek to impose our teaching, to bend another's will we won't find success. It is frustrating that hundreds of thousands of people march every year, no matter the weather, and nothing seems to happen. We have contradicting laws, and it seems to obvious why doesn't everyone get it? The answer lies in the mouths of those outh. We love you.
It's a conversion of heart. Logic aside we have to learn how to respond with love. I'm still figuring that out, thank goodness there were kids from our diocese that knew what to do. That's something that should give us great hope, and something we can be very proud of.
"Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not taht we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:7-11)
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