(LifeSiteNews) — Human beings suffering the sting of misfortune long for relief, a remedy to deliver them from pain of every kind. They yearn for the knight in shining armor, the savior of sorts, the valiant prince to come swooping into their lives to slay the dragon of their miseries; all this, so they might live happily ever after. “Ah, if only…” sighs the melancholy soul, lost in vain reverie.
Far from that fantasy is the earth-shattering truth that only Jesus Christ, the Son of God made Man, has come—and still comes daily in and through His Church—into our fallen world to be our Savior. He reached down through the marvelous mystery of His Incarnation in the Virgin’s womb to deliver us from our miseries; not all of them, mind you, but from the worst of them, namely, that of sin and its most horrifying consequence, eternal damnation in the pit of Hell. Mankind’s most pressing need and primal desire for redemption and salvation are met in Him, and in Him alone.
There is no flight of fancy here, but stark, brutal reality. When this true Prince came to us from the heights of Heaven, He put within our reach deliverance from the slavery of sin and the promise of life everlasting. Yes, in Him and because of Him alone we can live happily ever after in the glory of Heaven.
Although Christ has accomplished our redemption and made it our own through the holy waters of baptism, we are not yet saved. We still inhabit this vale of tears and are weighed down daily by our own sinfulness and by the evils around us. No wonder then that we look for relief from our worldly woes. We can understand the plaintive cry of St. Paul: “Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death” (Rom. 7:24)? The same Apostle desires “to be dissolved and to be with Christ, a thing by far the better” (Phil. 1:23). Yet he, and we who strive to imitate his example of following Christ, must endure in this world until the time of God’s choosing.
What is our state while we live here below? We necessarily find ourselves in a position of having to struggle against evil, to experience it in ourselves and in others, to encounter it without respite. We are on a battlefield whether we like it or not. The land of sweet repose, replete with perfection, peopled by none but saints, where no burdens press down and no tears fall, is not ours as long as breath is within us.
Two months ago, we witnessed President Donald Trump’s brush with death by an assassin’s bullet. He recognized his escape was wrought by the hand of God. Without magnifying the man, I think many of us would agree.
What has Mr. Trump done in the wake of that apparent providential intervention, that “miracle” in Butler, Pennsylvania? Many in the Catholic media and elsewhere are reporting that Trump’s campaign has softened on pro-life issues. The Trump campaign now openly advocates the availability and use of abortifacients (for instance, Mifepristone, called the abortion pill) and in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
Catholic moral principles clearly forbid these things. Take the case of using IVF to generate human life. This technique, which bypasses the natural manner of engendering new life through the marital embrace, is immoral in all circumstances. To separate the procreative and unitive aspects of human reproduction is contrary to God’s law for mankind. Mr. Trump, a non-Catholic, and his (relatively-new-to-the-Faith) Catholic running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, are gravely in error on this life issue. In view of the Trump campaign’s weakened pro-life stance on the generation and protection of new life, some Catholics hope to get Mr. Trump and his campaign back on track in closer alignment with Catholic teaching.
In reality, there are few if any candidates for national offices who can strictly be called “pro-life.” Most of these politicians are at best “pro-life with exceptions for rape, incest, and health of the mother.” It is important to note that there are no cases in which direct, intentional abortion is medically necessary to save the life of a pregnant mother. The rationale for the “health of the mother” only obtains when performing a morally good and gravely necessary medical procedure aimed at eliminating a grave and immanent danger to the life of the mother, but an immediate non-intended effect of this life-saving procedure is the loss of a child in the womb. Such a procedure is morally licit as long as all means are taken to prevent the loss of the child. This is a case involving the principle of double effect.
By contrast, however, never can the circumstance of rape or incest justify the killing of the child in the womb, even if the psychological and emotional burden of carrying the child to term is extremely difficult. The intentional killing of a child in the womb is always gravely evil and thus forbidden. Any allowance for morally illicit exceptions on the part of these politicians is, in effect advocacy for abortion, however limited.
This political reality, namely, the predominance of a faulty, indeed immoral, stance even on the pro-life side of the political spectrum, points to one obvious fact: we as a nation wish to offend God and continue to do so by justifying grave sins and crimes that cry to Heaven for vengeance. It is as simple as that
Furthermore, how can pro-life Catholics complain about Trump and Vance falling short on the life issues when we ourselves as a group fall short at best? When a no-compromise position on life issues fails to be clearly and vigorously expounded in the pulpits and public squares by our popes, bishops and lesser clergy, and when the faithful suffer from woeful ignorance on IVF and many other matters of Catholic Faith and morals, how can we reasonably demand more of Trump and Vance than we demand of ourselves in our own Church?
Never forget that our politics are downstream from culture, and culture is a reflection of its etymological root, cultus, meaning divine worship. In other words, our politics ultimately flow from our relationship with God. When that relationship is distorted or absent, the political order in society is corrupted and perverted.
Donald Trump, like all of our politicians, is merely a reflection of our collective selves. As the citizens, so their leaders. He can hardly be blamed when the pro-life community and our churches collectively fail to be at the forefront of preaching, teaching and promoting an integral and uncompromising pro-life message, and who too easily fall short in helping the mothers and children swept up in the maelstrom of the culture of death.
We may succeed in changing laws in favor of life through the political process, and that is very good. However, the culture of death will not be overturned unless hearts are changed. We cannot hope to effectively change the hearts of others unless our own hearts are fully converted to God. If we are to change the politics of our nation and its leaders, we must first, by the grace of God, change ourselves.
Let us beware of expecting too much in this world. There will always be sin, crime, human failures and an abundance of apathy, stupidity, ignorance and malice. We are not going to be able to have Heaven on earth. “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33). Jesus says so. That means we must accept our imperfect world as it is until He comes again. Not that we are not to fight for the kingdom of God. Far from it. But we understand that no mere mortal, including President Trump, can ride in on a white steed to slay all our dragons. He, as everyone else on this side of eternity, is a flawed mortal, no knight in shining armor charging forward to save us all. That’s not how things work in the real world, especially in the realm of politics.
If President Trump has strayed off course on the life issues, we can certainly try to persuade him to do better, not least by presenting to him the Catholic case for life, which, by the way, is fundamentally an issue of natural law before it is a matter of faith.
Two other things can be done as well to benefit Trump and our fellow citizens. First, we have work to do. We must bring the Catholic case for life in its integrity to the wider public, employing a no-holds-barred approach to proclaiming the truth of the moral law.
Second, we must pray, knowing that prayer is the foundation of fruitful action in the world. We must continue to pray for our nation and its citizens, for the true conversion of our people. We must pray that President Trump does not squander the grace of that fateful split second in Butler by promoting grave offenses against God. And we must implore God for the wisdom and strength to carry on our political lives with a hearty dose of realism informed by a living and supernatural faith.
The psalmist reminds us: “Put not your trust in princes: In the children of men, in whom there is no salvation”(Psalm 145:2-3). Our political leaders are far from perfect, but have them we must. Let us live up to the challenge that is ever before us as Catholics in this world, namely, to work for the establishment of a truly Catholic social order. Pusillanimous souls may dream of a better world, but we are called as Catholic citizens to restore the order willed by God for our true well-being. That means we must pursue personal holiness and give bold witness to our Catholic Faith in the public square. Only then can we expect political leaders who will promote all that is good for society. No illusory outcome, this, but rather the redeeming power of the Gospel winning souls in an otherwise fallen world.
‘’Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: such as we are, such are the times.”
—St. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (354-430)
Fr. Martin Hansen
September 12, 2024
Feast of the Holy Name of Mary
Editor’s note: Fr. Martin Hansen is a pen name being used for privacy reasons.