Friday of the
Second Week in Ordinary Time
(I Samuel 24:3-21; Mark 3:13-19)
The man sat down.
He said that he had five children -- four still living. He said one died in childbirth and gave his
name. He resembled Jesus in the gospel
today naming his apostles.
Jesus gives special names to three of the troupe. He will call Simon “Peter” or “Rock” because
of the latter’s dependability. He names
James and John “Boanerges” because of their impetuosity. Jesus does not equivocate like many others. He names his disciples as he finds them with
their various virtues and vices.
Today we remember fifty million or so mostly nameless
victims of abortion. We cannot give each
an individual name like the man who still has a large place in his heart for
his stillborn. But we can offer a prayer
for them collectively. We can also name
the crime that blithely allowed them to die.
Let’s call it “irresponsible individualism.” By doing so, we are saying that their right
to life has been denied so that their parents might forsake the responsibility
of caring for them. But let us not condemn
those parents too quickly. No doubt, many
of them were victimized in different ways that moved them to do such a horrible
thing. So we want to include them also
in our prayer today.
