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PAuE 5—January 10,1974
T he C hristian Value of Life
BY RUSSELL SHAW
On January 22, 1973, the American people were put on
notice that respect for life can no longer be taken for granted as
a value in our society. On that day the Supreme Court struck
down the abortion laws of Texas and Georgia. In doing so, they
withdrew virtually all legal protection from unborn children.
action. Those who see the pro-abortion tide of recent years as a
serious violation of the principle of respect for human life must
support all responsible efforts, through legislatures and courts,
to achieve as much protection as possible under the Supreme
Court’s doctrine for the unborn child. They must also seek legal
protection through “conscience clauses” for the right of
individuals and hospitals which reject abortion.
The Supreme Court’s abortion decision did not create the
problem of disrespect for human life, although it did make it
more acute. In a real sense the court’s action dramatized the
fact that there has been a steady erosion of respect for life
throughout the 20th century.
What is the Christian view of life and the respect due it? Pope
John XXIII put the matter clearly in his famous encyclical
Peace on Earth: “Every man has the right to life, to bodily
integrity, and to the means which are necessary and suitable for
the proper development of life.”
People concerned about the erosion of respect for life in our
society can and should continue to say “no” - loud and clear -
to abuses. But they should not become locked into a posture of
negativism. It is not simply that they are “opposed” to assaults
on human life, but rather that they are “for” everything that
will protect and enhance life.
Saying “no” to attacks on life is important. But saying “yes”
to life itself is even more important.
Applied to abortion, this suggests several specific courses of
It is also essential to extend compassion and practical
assistance to women who experience problems associated with
pregnancy. The model of the nationwide Birthright program
should be studied and imitated everywhere. For their part, men
should stop thinking of pregnancy - and abortion - as matters
that involve women only. Undoubtedly the well-known “double
standard” of morality - favoring men - has played a significant
role in the growth of a pro-abortion mentality.
Pro-life people must recognize and communicate the fact that
there can be no “weighing” of lives - that it is unreasonable and
wrong to assign greater value to some lives than to others.
Abortion is the most dramatic example of this but it is far from
the only one. The same mentality is at work in any form of
discrimination based, for example, on national origin or skin
color.
Respect for life rules out all picking and choosing among
human lifes - with some lives to be respected a great deal, some
a little, and some not at all. Respect for life is a chain no
stronger than its weakest link. Those who value all lives equally
are challenged to make each link as strong as it can possibly be.
Active Program Illustrates Concern
BY FATHER CARL J. PFEIFER, S.J.
In recent years “respect for life” has often been narrowed
down to concerns about abortion and mercy killing. While these
are important areas of concern in today’s world, Christian
respect for life is much broader.
During the entire month of November, Good Shepherd parish
in Alexandria, Va., experienced some of the broader
implications of Christian respect for life. The month began with
a special liturgy to celebrate Veteran’s Day. Planned by the large
contingent of military personnel, the liturgy helped create a
mood of reflection on the value of life. Further liturgies focused
on the care needed to sustain life, the responsibility each shares
for the quality of life experienced in the wider social
community, and respect for the rights of others to a full and
happy life.
The parish social development committee invited an expert in
social problems to speak after each Mass on the needs of people
in the surrounding community. He invited parishioners to
become involved and suggested practical ways that they might
help others live more fully.
Meanwhile the religious education committee carefully
planned experiences designed to guide youngsters to deepen
their respect for life. Small groups of children, organized in
family learning teams, visited a community center, Christ
House, in Alexandria. They came into firsthand contact with
people dedicated to sharing food, clothing and lodging with
those in need.
The parish program climaxed near the end of November with
a bike-a-thon to raise money for Christ House. All parishioners
were invited to participate on Sunday afternoon. Sponsors gave
money to bikers according to their mileage; they in turn gave
the money to Christ House. The month ended with the
ordination of a deacon in the parish whose main task was to
work with prisoners at Lorton Reformatory.
of coordinated planning can be particularly beneficial to
religious education programs, which often tend to be isolated
from real issues and involvement with social concerns.
One parent, who was very much impressed with the focus of
the parish during November, was led to reflect on what she and
her husband might do to help their children grow in respect and
concern. After talking the matter over with her husband, she
noted ways they (and other parents) might help their own
youngsters develop a sensitivity and respect for life. They agreed
that children can be helped to develop a respect or reverence for
life by the way parents:
- Treat friends and neighbors;
-- Respond to the needs of others in their community whom
they do not know personally;
- Allocate time to devote themselves to volunteer church or
civic community activities;
- Show respect and responsibility for themselves;
- Order their lives and establish priorities;
- Exemplify in their own life-style the respect for life they
encourage in their youngsters.
Respect or reverence for life is a deeply Christian attitude.
Religious education can do much to deepen this attitude in
young and old alike, particularly when the religious education
effort is part of a total pastoral plan like that at Good Shepherd.
As my friend pointed out after the parish experience, respect
for life is mainly developed at home through the quality of
respect or reverence that family members exhibit.
r
RESPECT FOR LIFE is a chain no stronger than possibly be.” The chain of life -- linking young to old,
its weakest link. Those who value all lives equally are woman to man. (NC Sketch by Eric Smith)
challenged to make each link as strong as it can
(All Articles On This Page Copyrighted 1974 by N.C. News Service)
Know Your Faith
< , - * *
Preparing Your Mother’s Funeral With Her
I was impressed with the Good Shepherd experience as a kind
of model of total pastoral planning. The whole parish was
involved in a variety of ways with becoming more sensitive to
the value and quality of life.
Young and old shared the same experiences and were
encouraged to share their impressions with each other. This type
“OF ALL CITIES none has a greater claim to the
name Holy than does Jerusalem. In Arabic the city’s
name ‘El Quds,’ means ‘the holiness.’. . . Isaiah,
Matthew and John refer to it simply as ‘The Holy
City.’” Dominating the view of the old city of
Jerusalem is the golden Dome of the Rock.
BY FATHER JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
The name of Father Tim Shaughnessy has appeared in this
column before. Former pastor in his own Peoria diocese, first
president for the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical
Commissions, now director of the Murphy Center for Liturgical
Research at Notre Dame, Tim and I have been acquaintances for
many years, friends (the term should be used with care) over the
past decade.
Our paths met and joined at O’Hare airport this week as we
journeyed to Oklahoma City for a national liturgical meeting.
The flight gave us an opportunity to visit for an hour or so and
in the course of our conversation he spoke about his 94-year-old
mother, Julia.
She almost passed away two years earlier, but made at that
time a remarkable recovery. However, in recent weeks doctors
had discovered a fatal growth and Tim, with his sister Mary,
began the painful process of watching one’s mother gradually
die.
There was a difference here.
During the earlier illness Tim and Mary had talked easily and
frankly with their mother about her funeral. What prayers
would she like? Who should preach? How about the handling of
her body, casket and grave?
Those preparations fortunately were not needed then and
after she recovered, Julia decided to donate her body for
science. This necessitated a few changes in the funeral
arrangements since there would not be a need to provide in the
customary way for those bodily remains. The major points
nevertheless had been agreed upon.
Several Franciscan Sisters staff a nursing home near Peoria
and had been caring for Mrs. Shaughnessy through the last nine
years. Her only son often stopped to see Julia and during those
long hours when conversation frequently dragged he would read
to his mother from the Bible. She liked this and Father
Shaughnessy, with his deep love for sacred scripture, liked it
also.
A few days ago he realized they had not yet selected the
biblical passages for her funeral. With that in mind, Tim t<*ok
the revised lectionary from the nursing home chapel and recited
for this fine woman the many texts given in our new ritual.
“That’s nice .. .1 like that one, too . . .That’s the one I
want.”
After they decided on the three selections, her head slumped
to one side.
“Are you sad, mother, talking about your funeral this way?”
“No, I’m very, very happy. Just tired.”
On the second day of our convention, participants heard
from the chairman that Father Shaughnessy had been called
home because of his mother’s deteriorating condition.
I ran into Tim a few hours later at the hotel. Julia had, in
fact, died and he was waiting until 2:00 a.m. for a flight home.
Several of us spent those remaining moments with him. He
wept a little bit (“I’m not ashamed to cry”). Death of a mother,
even as a blessed end of 94 years and a beautiful entrance into
joy forever, leaves the heart empty, stunned, and heavy.
We talked more about her funeral -- the participation leaflets
and memorial cards already designed, the music chosen, the
long-time friend who would preach. In particular, he was
concerned about a procession bearing gifts through which
participants could make a memorial offering for those nuns at
the nursing home.
Father Shaughnessy has done fairly extensive research on
anthropolocical and ritual elements of the liturgy. He
mentioned to me on the way to Oklahoma that the manner in
which a culture initiates and dismisses new and old members,
the way it inducts them and provides for their exodus tells us
much about that society and culture. These so-called “liminal”
moments of life and the fashion in which we experience, work
through or celebrate them, reflect deeply about our own values.
I will not be able personally to participate in the magnificent
send-off Tim, Mary, and others give Julia this Monday. But I
know it will say to all that she long ago received Jesus’ life in
Baptism, took Christ’s words seriously for nearly a century, and
now, the battle over, rejoices with her Risen Lord in heaven.
Jerusalem: Mosaic of East West Cultures
BY STEVE LANDREGAN
“Jerusalem is a mosaic, not a melting pot,” in the words of
Teddy Kolleck, the city’s Israeli mayor.
The description is accurate, for the Holy City is a vivid
mosaic of cultures of the East and of the West. Mayor Kolleck’s
distinction between a mosaic and a melting pot is equally apt,
for in a unique way, the Arabic, Byzantine, Roman, Herodian
and Israeli each retains its identity while existing side-by-side
with symbols of other cultures.
Not only in architecture, but among the people, this mosaic
exists. Hassidic Jews with their long forelocks and somber black
garb walk the streets with cowled Franciscan monks, Arab
shopkeepers wearing the familiar white keffiyeh, smartly
uniformed and miniskirted Israeli women soldiers, tourists with
their ever-present sunglasses, slacks and cameras, and handsome,
work-hardened young kibbutzniks.
Of all cities none has a greater claim to the name Holy than
does Jerusalem. In Arabic the city’s name, “El Quds,” means
“the holiness.” The Psalmist calls it “the City of our God. His
holy mountain, fairest of heights.” (Ps. 48:2-3). Isaiah, Matthew
and John refer to it simply as “The Holy City.”
While some scholars seek to link Jerusalem with the Salem of
Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18), the Holy City didn’t move into real
prominence in Biblical history until its conquest by King David
around 1000 B.C.
Jerusalem was a Jebusite city at the time of the invasion of
Canaan by Joshua, during the period of the Judges and at the
beginning of the monarchy under King Saul.
David saw the value of a political and religious center for a
united Israel that had no ethnic connection with either the
tribes of the north or the south. Jerusalem offered just such
advantages in addition to its geographical location on the border
between the rival tribal areas.
After his conquest David brought the Ark of the Covenant to
the city (2 Sm. 6:11-23). Father John L. McKenzie writes:
“David, who was trying to unite a disunited Israel, saw in the
Ark a symbol not only of the God of Israel but also of its
ancient unity; and the Ark lent sanctity to his new capital city.”
As it turned out, it was not the Ark, but the temple built by
David’s son, Solomon, (1 Kgs. 6), that was to provide the
theological symbolism for Jerusalem. It is Temple Mount, or
Mount Moriah, that best mirrors the religious history of
Jerusalem.
Solomon’s Temple ws destroyed by the Babylonians, and the
mount stood barren during the 70-year exile. When the remnant
returned from Babylon, another temple was built by
Zerubbabel, but it fell far short of Solomon’s.
It was Herod’s Temple, begun in 19 B.C., that once again
reflected the glory of the Solomonic edifice. It was within the
courts of Herod’s Temple that Christ confounded the teachers
as a youth. It was from Herod’s Temple that He drove the
moneychangers. It was in Herod’s Temple that Christ preached,
as did His apostles and disciples after Him.
The grandeur of Herod’s Temple was destroyed with the City
of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by the Romans. Once again Mount
Moriah stood abandoned.
An attempt to rebuild the temple in 132 A.D. was frustrated
in 135 A.D. by the Roman Emperor, Hadrian, who had a temple
to the Roman god, Jupiter Capitolinus, erected on the site.
Another attempt to restore the temple in 361 A.D. was stopped
by fiery eruptions from the soil. Once more Mount Moriah was
barren, looked upon as a spot cursed by God.
In 691 A.D., the followers of Mohammed built the mosque
known today as the Dome of the Rock, on the site of the
former temples. In 1099 A.D. the Crusaders occupied the
Mount and turned the mosque into a Christian shrine and
named it Templum Domini, the Temple of the Lord. In 1187
A.D. the Modems reoccupied Jerusalem and the Crescent
replaced the Cross atop the structure. It has remained there ever
since.