Preaching on abortion, 16th 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 the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 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:

Wis 12:13, 16-19
Rom 8:26-27
Mt 13:24-43 or 13:24-30

Reflections:

God gives time for repentance. This is a key theme of today’s readings, and it can be applied to the patience that the People of Life need to have as they build a Culture of Life with painstakingly slow but steady steps. Why, some might ask, does God not just stop all the abortions today? He certainly does not justify a single one of them, nor does he allow us to justify them. Moreover, he calls us to do the most we can to restore justice today.

Yet the weeds and wheat grow together; good and evil co-exist. This generous patience of the Lord by which he allows the sinner room to find repentance has led to many conversions. The website of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, for example, contains numerous testimonies of those who speak out about their abortion and healing (www.SilentNoMore.com ). Also, many abortionists have converted and now speak out publicly about it (see www.AbortionTestimony.com. ).

As we try to elect and lobby public officials, it is particularly important to emphasize the theme of patience. Weeds and wheat grow together – but they do grow. As the bishops indicate in Living the Gospel of Life, we are called to use our votes to advance the culture of life. Yet no candidate has a magic wand to end the culture of death.