Wednesday of the
Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
(II Corinthians 3:4-11; Matthew 5:17-19)
It is surely a credit to pro-life advocates that they can
see in an infinitesimal human embryo a human being. What gives them confidence, of course, is the
knowledge that the embryo has all the life-producing information and dynamism
to grow into a vivacious person. St. Paul displays this
same confidence in the incipient Christian movement when he compares it to the
illustrious Jewish faith in the first reading today.
Paul acknowledges the inherent superiority of Christianity
to Judaism because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Although the Spirit’s role in Jewish prophecy
is to be recognized, its activity in the lives of all Christians is even more essential. Where Judaism depends on a code of law to keep
people in line, Christianity looks to the grace of the Spirit. Christians also have a written law, the
Sermon on the Mount. But what is
quintessential about Christian life is that this law is everywhere activated by
the Spirit of love.
We may see this Spirit at work in many pro-life
workers. Some stand voluntarily on
sidewalks in front of abortion clinics day after day. They are sometimes described as yelling at
women about to have an abortion, but this kind of behavior is not the
rule. Rather, their love shines through
as they pray for the fetus about to be annihilated and try to persuade the
mother that there is help readily available for her as well as her baby.
