Preaching on abortion, 4th Sunday, Year B, Pro-Life Leader Frank Pavone of Priests for Life

Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, reflects on the Sunday readings for the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 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.

Dt 18:15-20
1 Cor 7:32-35
Mk 1:21-28

The Gospel and First Reading for this Sunday raise the issue of the authority of those who speak the Word of God. Jesus taught with authority because he is the Word of God. The prophets taught with authority because God put his own words into their mouths. The Church today teaches with authority because, as the Body of Christ, she continues his teaching mission or, to be more precise, Christ himself continues teaching through his Church. Each member of the Church, by virtue of baptism and confirmation, has a prophetic role, and echoes the Word of God himself, both by words and example.

These themes are important in the battle between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death, because our opponents ask why we are “imposing our morality on everyone else.” In reality, however, we are not imposing anything. We are speaking a truth which is not our own, and which simply reflects the reality of how we are made and what the moral law is. If anything is “imposed,” it has already been imposed by God. We are witnesses to him. We have no authority of our own; we simply proclaim his Word. By that fact, moreover, we are equally bound by what we proclaim as are those to whom we proclaim it.

This is why the proclamation of the pro-life message does not imply some kind of moral superiority on the part of those who proclaim it. Rather, it implies solidarity, and a common acknowledgement of the God of life, who is Lord of those who preach and those who hear.