Preaching on abortion, Trinity Sunday, Year C, Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life

Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, reflects on the Sunday readings for Trinity Sunday, Year C and their message about abortion.

For more information about what the Sunday readings, and the whole Bible, say about abortion, and for resources for your Church, see https://www.ProLifePreaching.org. You can order there the book “Proclaiming the Message of Life,” which contains these reflections for all the Sunday readings in the lectionary.

Readings:

Prv 8:22-31
Rom 5:1-5
Jn 16:12-15

Reflections:

The readings today, of course, present again the truth that God is One in Three Persons. Preaching pro-life on the Feast of the Holy Trinity leads us to comment on the reality of “communio". Seen in a unique way in the Trinity, this is a reality lived on a human level as well. It is first of all a gift, and secondly a task, consisting of a total self-giving to one another. The unity of families, nations, and the world depend on it. As the bulletin insert above indicates, this is a key reason for today’s Feast.

A particular application is in the matter of abortion. There are no two human beings closer than a mother and her unborn child. Abortion disrupts, denies, and distorts the union of these two persons, and in doing so, further destroys family and societal unity. Most marriages break up after an abortion, and the woman often experiences an inability to bond with future children or even enter into future relationships with men. Her ability to trust and to make life decisions is impaired by abortion.

Standing for life and protecting the unborn means fostering the “communio" we see, in its ultimate form, in the Trinity. Life is preserved precisely when it is given away in self-sacrificing love.