"But we are Roman Catholics" said the mother and father of Mary and Jodie in that heart-rending television interview; a recently married couple whose creative love had lead to the birth of twins and v hose one desire was to be a family. It spoke volumes - about marriage, about family and about the value of each life, no matter how small or disabled.
This first Sunday after the joyful celebration of Christmas, the birth of a child, the Saviour who is Christ the Lord - the Gospel relates how Mary and Joseph had to begin to let him go, though his nurture in Nazarethwas to be gradual.
Like the partnership of marriage which continually has to develop, so being a Third Millennium family means building day after day, a web binding all the members together; with all making the daily sacrifices to make each other happy and enrich family life. At home children learn to love, to be generous in serving and looking after each other, to be responsible in relating. It is within the family home that clear moral guidance for living is to be given.
This Day for Life in the fading hours of the Millennium Year reminds us of the incomparable value of every human being - of a wake up call - if one were needed - to the challenge of consistently creating a Culture of Life. This last year the devaluation of the sacredness of human life has continued to be promoted and publicised giving the false impression that it doesnt matter anymore. When human life is at its beginning or most vulnerable then it comes under threat - be it the child in the womb or the ailing person. In recent days our Government has decided to press ahead with proposals allowing embryonic stem cells to be created and destroyed, using human embryos as disposable objects. So many human lives now have no other voice but yours and mine.
Today is a day for us to say Yes to human life; Yes to respect for each person, Yes to being alongside the indoor people, Yes to Gods law of life. And a protesting no to an image of a society consisting of individuals each rejecting one another with no mutual bonds of trust and dependence.
We celebrate and thank those among us who work with the Catholic Childrens Society; those who listen and counsel mothers to be and mothers whose babies have not come to birth; those who are alongside people with disabilities and our Doctors and Nurses in homes, hospitals and especially Hospices. Your tenderness, compassion and courage, too, speak volumes about the value of each human life.
That legislation and directives from Government Departments emerge does not indicate the moral rightness of actions which conspire against human life from conception to the grave. The education of conscience begins at home and awakens a child to what is right and wrong - and it goes on throughout life so a person is able to make moral decisions and choices based on the Word of God, the moral teaching of the Church and the law inscribed by God in the human heart.
Jesus unfolded the demands of the Ten Commandments against the background of the twofold commandment of love of God and neighbour - especially the Fifth Commandment - 'You shall not kill'. God alone is the Lord of Life from its beginning to its end.
There will be opportunities for us to express our beliefs and to question those who present themselves as candidates at the General Election on the issues of the day. Our MPs need to know that we stand by the principle that every life is of equal value and that our society should be one where life is affirmed and protected for everyone.
The New Year of Our Lord 2001 commences tomorrow and our Millennium Jubilee Holy Year concludes next Sunday with the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord. May we look forward to a Faith-filled, Hope-filled and Love-filled year for each one of us, our families and the family of Arundel & Brighton.
Your light is strong,
Your love is near,
draw us beyond the limits which this world imposes,
to the life where your spirit makes all life complete.
God Bless,
Rev Mgr. Canon John Hull
Diocesan Administrator
