Oct. 6, 2009: Pro-Life Mass at St. Joseph Academy

This past week, I was in retreat with 1,200 priests from all over the world in Ars, France. Ars is where St. Jean Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests died. And among the talks, one speaker really touched me. Ladies have any of you heard of a man named, Jean Vanier? He was the founder of a community called l'Arche or Noah's Ark. Ladies, do you know of anyone who has a family member with Down syndrome or developmental disability? Back in 1964, Jean Vanier saw the plight of those who have developmental disabilities in institutions and psychiatric hospitals. He was inspired to invite two men with disabilities to live with him in a real home. What began as one home experiment has now blossomed into 135 communities all over the world where 5,000 persons with disabilities live in a loving, home environment. What Jean Vanier did was to provide a community for those with developmental disabilities. In this community, a person with disability is paired with a person who is without. And so on our priest retreat, Jean Vanier told us about Eric whom he was paired with.

Imagine a child with a Down syndrome who is blind, deaf, and cannot walk. How would you feel as a mother or a father to have a child like that? Eric was that child. After few years, his parents could not care for him, so he lived in an institution until he was an adult. For most of his life, Eric felt rejected and felt worthless. Smile was lost from Eric, many years ago. Then he was invited by Jean Vanier to live with him in a l'Arche Community. Jean Vanier said that Eric had deep wounds from many years of rejection and worthlessness. Yet, Eric began to heal. Jean Vanier would bathe him, clothe him, feed him, but most of all treated him as a beautiful person made in the image and likeness of God. Jean Vanier said, here as he bathed Eric, he realized that he was washing a temple of the Holy Spirit, truly Christ disguised in the distress of the poor. And smile began to appear on Eric's face again.

Jean Vanier told us priests, "Everyone is a unique and sacred value with a right to friendship, to communion, and to a spiritual life." He said, "We find gifts where others see tragedy. Those living in our l'Arche Communities do not understand much, but they understand whether we touch with love." How do we measure worth of a life? Do we measure by what intellectual capabilities a child might have, what kind of an economic contribution a child will make in the future, whether a child will be a burden or a benefit? This question is a great temptation for mothers and fathers of our generation face today. Five years ago, my sister called me up worried and said, a doctor is telling me that my child in the womb may have Down syndrome. And the doctor was actually hinting that she should consider aborting the child; the doctor was hinting that why suffer the consequences of having a Down syndrome child when you can erase that future suffering with abortion. This is the great temptation that men and women face today. We say to God, "I want a perfect child." And when He gives us a perfect child we say to Him, "That's no perfect child. I don't want that child." It's an incredible temptation for us to say to 'no' to God with abortion; we no longer value a child as a gift, but a burden or an accident.

Instead of listening to her doctor's advice, she grabbed her rosary and started praying to the Saints in heaven. She asked the Blessed Mother and St. Gerald Magella for her child in the womb to be born healthy, yet she said to them she'll accept whatever child God gives her. When God gives us a gift, we accept with trust that the gift is meant immense value to us. So my sister and my brother-in-law trusted. Now my niece, Therese is almost 5 years old, healthy and without Down syndrome, but they would have welcomed her even if she had Down syndrome.

Dear ladies, pray that you and your future husbands will have that same trust when you have your own children. A child arrives in this world perfect in the eyes of God, regardless of the circumstances of how that child arrived here. We are to see the temple of Holy Spirit, the face of Jesus in the child whether the child is blind, deaf, crippled, or disabled; for every child is the living echo of "I love you," from God.