If you have the opportunity to attend daily Mass on this second day of Lent, you will hear a familiar phrase that has become a rallying cry for the pro-life movement. So much so, that it has even become a popular bumper sticker and has made its way onto official state license plates.
From the book of Deuteronomy we are told to “Choose life.” But what is most striking about this passage from which we pro-lifers draw inspiration is that it is much more than a plea for human rights. The context of the reading is more of a political message from God warning that a nation that does not choose life, will not only be guilty of destroying life, but will also destroy its identity as a nation and will lose favor and protection from God.
In fact, the reading doesn’t even really focus on the victims of evil much at all, but takes it as a given that killing kills. (Something that astonishingly we need to remind people of today) Rather, the passage explains that nations that turn their backs on the natural law as outlined in the commandments of God, and therefore turn their backs on life itself, will cause its own destruction. No nation can stand if it does not ‘choose life’.
As we begin this season of Lent, with all of its focus on sacrifice and penance to prepare ourselves for the memorial of Christ’s victory over death, let us remember to pray for and encourage those who serve in government and represent our nation before God, that they will present to Him a nation that does indeed listen to the natural law – one that always chooses life.
“Moses said to the people:
“Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him, and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish;
you will not have a long life
on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
For that will mean life for you,
a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore
he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.””
This one almost slipped by unnoticed, but thanks to a friend I came across
