Have You Been To Calvary Lately?

This Friday, January 25, is the Annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.  This is an important event despite the fact that it will receive next to no media coverage.  It needs to be done for the same reason we observe the anniversaries of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor and remember the Holocaust victims from WWII.  We do this to honor the victims, and in the case of abortion, we also do this to give a voice to the tens of millions of babies who had no one to speak for them and to remind the rest of the world that we are in this fight and not going away until the murder of unborn babies is recognized as such and once again declared a crime against humanity.

I have gone on this march, and it is good to be surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people who are passionately pro life and not afraid to say so.  Although it is not officially a Catholic event, the overwhelming majority of people who attend this march are Catholic.  A large number of the people are also under 30, and as can always be expected when young people get together, there is a bit of a party atmosphere involved.  That does not take away from the fact that those kids are all there as survivors of  Roe v. Wade.

Anyone under the age of 40 needs to realize that your parents could have legally killed you with the blessings of the state at any time prior to your birth, and you are as much of a survivor as anyone who has lived through a war.  At least 55 million of your potential brothers, sisters, husbands, wives and best friends were murdered.   The number is probably much higher than that because abortion statistics are usually under reported, as National Review tells us:

Pro-life activists have always been disappointed that the federal government does not have stronger reporting requirements for abortion statistics. The data from the CDC are far from perfect. Some states, most notably California, do not provide any data. Other states fail to provide complete information. That having been said, the CDC is the only source for annual abortion data from the United States.

As important as the Washington, D.C. March for Life is, it is not the front line in the war against abortion.  The real front line is right in your own town, and maybe right in your neighborhood.  It is the abortion mills which we so blithely walk by with little or no thought of the horrors which are occurring on the other side of the walls.  There is no party atmosphere when you go to an abortion clinic.  You will stand there not with hundreds of thousands, but most likely with only a handful of people at a place of incredible evil and suffering, and the people you are there to help will often look at you with pure hate and say vile things to you.  You will most definitely get a taste of the cursings and persecution that our Lord suffered at Calvary.

Credit:  aleteia.org

Msgr. Philip Reilly, often referred to as the Apostle of Life, has completely dedicated his life to fighting abortion.  He has stood outside praying and counseling in front of abortion clinics day after day for over 20 years.  He started here in Brooklyn and maintains his residence here.  But he has traveled extensively to set up pro life groups around the United States and in countries around the world.  I have heard him speak and prayed with him outside of abortion clinics.  One thing he has told us that has always stuck with me is that praying in front of an abortion clinic is the same as going to Calvary.  Abortions are the murder of innocent life, and there was never a more innocent life than the One who died on Calvary for our sins.

From Msgr. Reilly's website:

The Helpers of God's Precious Infants are a group of people committed to maintaining a loving and prayerful presence outside of the abortion mills, where God's children are put to death. We unite ourselves with these victims in solidarity with their pain, as they are put to death at this modern day Calvary. We pray in reparation for the injustice being performed on their tiny bodies. Just as Mary and John lovingly stood and prayed beneath Jesus' Cross as he died, we wish to remain with these children in the hour that they were crucified.

We pray to obtain God's mercy for the abortionist and his staff who do the killing. The message of the Helpers of God's Precious Infants to the abortionist and all who help him to kill God's children is that, though we love them, we will never accept what they do.

We plead with our voices for the lives of the babies being carried in by the pregnant women who have scheduled appointments with the abortionist that day. We ask each mother to change her mind. We reach out to her with the love of Christ; we do not judge nor condemn her for what she is planning to do. We simply promise her support and assistance if she should change her mind, and prayers for her healing and conversion if she should proceed with the killing of her child.

Most of all, we love the unborn children who will be brought there that day. These children have been rejected by their parents, and are doomed to die. The only human love they may ever encounter in their short lives may be from those of us standing outside.

It's great if you are able to attend the March for Life in Washington, D.C.  But the real battle is right in your hometown.  If at all possible, that is where we need to be, offering our prayers on behalf of the innocent babies and also praying for mercy to be shown to their parents and to all who are involved in the abortions, that they will realize the gravity of their sin and come to repentance.

From a poster offered on Msgr. Reilly's website entitled, "Calvary Today!" :

-- we may not be able to save their lives, but can we not plead on their behalf? And should they die, as usually happens (God forgive us!) let us lift up our hearts to God Almighty on their behalf ... it will be the only human love they will know on this earth ...

Here is a video from Msgr. Reilly who explains what it means to stand in front of an abortuary and how it mirrors our Blessed Mother standing at the foot of the Cross: