Daily Mass Novena-Day 5

Daily Mass Novena-Day 5

Fr. Bryce Sibley

Fr. Sibley: So, by way of introduction, my name is Fr. Bryce Sibley. I’m the pastor and chaplain at Our Lady of Wisdom Catholic Church on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. I’m really humbled by this opportunity to be with you here today to preach this novena specifically right in the middle of the Novena, Day 5, when we are focusing on the divine maternity of Our Lady. Now, if we pay attention to the world around us, we realize that this topic of motherhood, motherhood really is at the nexus of so many of the controversial issues that we face today that we hear about in the ongoing cultural wars. And the novena prayer for the day really recognizes this when it says; “Father, protect all women from attacks against their maternal fecundity. Guard them from those who are against them and their dignity through the promotion of contraception, sterilization and abortion.” And so this rhetoric, though, that surrounds the topic of motherhood, the reality of contraception, sterilization, abortion, is usually framed or the debate is usually framed around the subject of freedom. Notice – “reproductive rights” and also “a woman’s supposed freedom to choose.” “Freedom” here is the main theme that I want to sort of want to focus on. But not really freedom as we as Christians or Catholics understand it. Freedom seen for us is seen in the relation to the true or to the good, what excels, what perfects the human being but instead a pure act of the will. This is the type of freedom that the secular world sees – an act of the will cut-off from anything which is true or good. In a real sense we could argue that freedom finds its fulfillment in the secular world in the choice of a mother to take the life of her own child. So, how radically different is this secular concept of freedom and this woman’s freedom to choose compared to Our Lady’s freedom at the Assumption? Whenever God first came to Mary, realize they He respected Her freedom – Her freedom to say “yes” or Her freedom to say “no.” As St. Bernard so beautifully put;“the whole world waited on Her word of compassion for that‘yes’ to say;‘I will be the Mother of God.’” And so Her Fiat,Her “yes,” was completely free. Why? Because She was completely sinless – the Immaculate Conception – there was nothing binding Her or holding Her back. And then Her “yes,” it was a yes of complete gift of self – that spousal gift of self to God in their willingness to serve Him in any way that He willed. But most importantly Her “yes”Her “free yes” was a profound yes to life – but life in its most supernaturaland expansive dimension; the“yes” that led to the salvation of the world and freedom for all from sin and death through Jesus Christ. But the chilling fact is as we sort of continue to reflect on this is that the freedom to choose – the secular freedom of reproductive rights and abortion, which is so exalted in our nation and againaround the theme of motherhood – leads to exactly the opposite. Not a growth in freedom but actually a restriction of freedom. I’m going to offer to you 2 quotes today, first from our Holy Father Pope Benedict but writing before he became Pope as Joseph Ratzinger and another from Blessed John Paul II. It speaks specifically about this issue. Ratzinger says writing before his election to the papacy that the legalization of abortion “poses a real threat to the very foundations of an authentic democracy based on a stable ordering of justice. It follows thata statethat claims the prerogative of defining who is and who is not the subject of rights and that consequently accepts that some persons have the right to violate the fundamental right of life of other persons contradicts the democratic ideal. although it continues to appeal to its claim. Such a state imperils the very basis on which it governs. For when it accepts that the rights of the weakest may be violated, it also accepts the law of the jungle prevails over the rule of law.” A very, very profound quoteby saying that if we say that a woman’s “right to choose”somehow trumps the right to life of a child, we are putting the very freedoms that lie at the base of our democracy in peril. John Paul II is going to echo that same theme in his very important encyclical letter from 1995 Evangelium vitae: “This is what is happening also at the level of politics and government. The original and unalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people, even if it is the majority. This is the sinister result of a relativism which reigns and opposed. The right ceases to be such because it is no longer firmly founded on the enviable dignity of the person but is made subject to the will of the stronger part. In this way democracy, contradicting its own principals effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism.” Again in sum; the legalization and widespread acceptance of abortion under the context of “reproductive rights”or “the freedom to choose”leads instead to the overall erosion of liberty and a society and in a culture, even moving towards the reality, is John Paul II says, of tyranny or totalitarianism. I think we can see that played out in the world most specifically when we see the religious liberty or the freedom of conscience begin to be restrained. Because if a government can say who or who is not;was innocent lives and says that freedom somehow trumps the good of the other person, then all other freedoms are in peril. Why can’t they be restricted? Or why can’t they be limited? We must proclaim the Gospel of Life and the Gospel of Truth and the Gospel of Freedom that freedom must be rooted in the truth about the value of life and the dignity of the human person. Of course, you can get into a much larger and longer critique of this but we want to focus on that which is positive. Looking at the solution, how do we remedy this in our nation and in our world? Of course, it’s important to use political means and social means. They are necessary. As citizens in a republic we have a responsibility to speak up and be proactive working for true freedom and the respect for life. But we’ve also got to realized,though, there’s a deeper problem here – apolitical problem yes but more specifically a moral problem. And so we may be able to change all the laws that we can but if it’s a moral problem we as Christians and Catholics need to make an appeal to the conscious, to the hearts of individuals; specifically women and mothers to remind them as John Paul II did so often of their dignity and importance and the beauty of the vocation to motherhood, a vocation, which is really rooted in the openness and love to the child and to other people. John Paul II said; that “a mother’s vocation to love is an indispensable prerequisite for authentic cultural change.” So, if we’re going to reallychange the culture from a culture of death to a culture of life, the mother or mothers must be central to this endeavor. We also have to be willing to speak out to women, women who are often faced with this choice of abortion, to let them know that there are other options – options which come from other individuals, from the Church and God willing from our own society. But most importantly to reach out to women who have had abortions to show them the compassion, to show them the mercy that comes from Christ. If any of you have been to the Pro-life March in D.C., at the very, very beginning of the March they had the women who’ve had abortions and they often hold their signs “I regret my abortion”. That is a very, very powerful testimony, the true value of freedom and the meaning and the dignity of human life and motherhood. But more importantly than a political problem or even a moral problem, we’ve got to realize that we are facing a spiritual problem. This is where we come back to the theme of the day today; “The Divine Motherhood of Mary.” Looking at the Book of Revelation,chapter 12, the very famous passage of the woman clothed with the sun who is in travail about to give birth and the dragon, the demon, the evil one is attacking her, trying to destroy the child. And we know through tradition that is speaking about Our Lady but it’s also speaking about the Church. But I think – and I’m sure others, God willing, would agree with me – that we can also see something of a spiritual battle played out in our world today with the real war against women and the attack on motherhood and the attack on the child, which at its root is really part of a much deeper spiritual battle. So, if this is the case then absolution is simple – go to Mary. That’s what we’re all about here in praying this novena consecrating our nation to Our Lady, consecrating our nation to the Mother of God. This consecration is tremendously fruitful. As I said before I’m chaplain at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The chapel there is Our Lady of Wisdom. We call ourselves the Raging Cajun Catholics – that’s the mascot of the university. We’re all Cajuns in Lafayette. But last year about this time we had a 5-week course for the parish and for the students in St. Louis de Montfort’s “Total Concentration to Jesus through Mary.” And on the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, we had over 200 people make that Total Consecration. Then afterwards we went out at the statue of Our Lady of Fatima and with the Blessed Sacrament through the university to the very quad. We had some period ofAdoration and we consecrated the university, 17,000 students, to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And I can tell you that’s the real marking date there where we began to see a complete transformation. There are so many wonderful things now going on on campus and with our ministry. We have to 250 students in Bible studies guided by the FOCUS missionaries. And the FOCUS missionaries have been there for over a year. We’ve seen an explosion of vocations, both for men and women, long lines for Confession, large crowds at Daily Mass – so much going on! I’m convinced what we’ve seen happen at ULcan be representative instead of a microcosm of what can happen on anational level if we go to Mary and make that consecration, not only as individuals but for our nation. Really there is great hope. I work with the young people all the time – to see their love for the Lord, their devotion to the Eucharist, their devotion to Our Lady and their tremendous openness to life. Again, if you’ve been to March for Life, if you’re 40 years old, you’re an old person. It’s all young people; most have been born after 1973 who understand the truth and what freedom really means. And so today, in the middle of our devotion, we pray to Our Lady for a deeper respect for the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death, the dignity of women and the vocation to motherhood and an authentic understanding of an expression of freedom in our nation. Amen.

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