Wounded Healers: An Easter Message

Death, in all its forms - including abortion - will never have the final word

Since we are God's people, we are the people of life.

Highlights

By Father Frank Pavone
Priests for Life (www.priestsforlife.org/)
3/31/2018 (6 years ago)

Published in Lent / Easter

Keywords: abortion, pro-life. redemption, resurrection, Easter

Christ is risen! "Death has no more power over Him!" (Rom.6:9) The central fact of human history and the foundational truth of our Faith is celebrated in the Easter Season, namely, that Jesus Christ broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the tomb.  He broke the chains of death, furthermore, not only for Himself but for us!

On this day of days, on this feast of feasts, we rejoice in the victory of life! This victory is not just a hope; it is a fact. God, in Christ, has destroyed the power of death! In all its forms -- including abortion -- death can never have the final word!

When Jesus Christ rose from the dead He overthrew the entire kingdom of death. He robbed death of its power. By his Resurrection, He opened the door for our resurrection, too. 

God is in the business of destroying death (see Is.25:8). "O death, I will be your death," Hosea foretold (Hos.13:14).  

His new life came at the cost of suffering and that aspect of his salvific work is not hidden away after the resurrection. When Jesus appeared to the apostles after his death on the cross, His wounds were still showing although He was alive. It is interesting to note that His glorified body still had wounds.

The wounds were the ones by which our salvation was paid for. We too are wounded people, but we should not let this stop us from believing God still works through us. His wounds are still visible so that we can know that we share in eternal life even while we still have our wounds.

He said, "Peace be with you," as He imparted to the apostles the power to forgive sins through the Holy Spirit.  And he breathed on them. This points back to the story of creation when His spirit hovered over the waters and God brought order out of that original chaos. Through the forgiveness of sins, He also brings peace to human hearts in the midst of the chaos caused by sin. He restores hope to humans wounded by so a great sin as abortion.

Since we are God's people, we are the people of life. We bear witness to what God continues to do in our midst. We stand against death in all its forms. Its most destructive form, both in principle and statistically, is abortion. 

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This is why we are pro-life, and the victory of this day is the starting point and foundation of the pro-life movement. The gift of life, placed in our hands today, is what -- in the words of Pope Saint John Paul II's encyclical The Gospel of Life -- we proclaim, celebrate, and serve.

We announce and apply this victory to every segment of our society. We say to our culture, in effect, "Hurry up! God has accomplished His work, and we must run to share in its fruit! God's design for life is unfolding in a definitive way, and this is our chance to catch hold of it and participate in it!"

Christ is Risen, Life is victorious!##

Priests for Life is the world's largest Catholic organization focused exclusively on ending abortion.

Please also see our ministries for healing after abortion: Rachel's Vineyard and Silent No More Awareness Campaign at abortionhealing.com