And you and I are called to be Apostles of the Holy Eucharist.

DeKalb Deanery Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for Pro-life. May 22, 2012

I want to begin by not only thanking you all for all that you do in the defense of life but for all you do in the offense for life. Being here at this Holy Mass and participating in it with full, active, conscience and fruitful participation is much more of an offensive move than a defense one…And if we fully participate by fully offering our lives fully and sacrificially in love in union with Christ’s own sacrifice of love to the Father on this altar, it is the strongest act for life we can possibly do… for as you know the Holy Mass is primarily the work of He who is Life itself, Jesus Christ the great High Priest who becomes man on this altar and lays down and offers his life anew so that we may have life and have it to the full.

In preparing for this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for Pro-Life I decided to listen again to a particular talk by Fr. Hardon, who was, as many of you know, the spiritual director for Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Father’s cause for canonization has been opened as well. Fr. Hardon has been an important part of my priesthood. In fact, he indirectly, through His tapes and prayers, helped to get me through seminary. But he also directly prayed for me as he was dying.
The talk of Father’s that I am speaking of is entitled:

There is No Stopping Abortion Without the Eucharist

The talk is part of a twelve-part conference on the Blessed Sacrament, a conference which is the best I have ever heard in my life. Listening to it the first time change my faith on the Holy Eucharist. I wish I could afford to give a copy of the entire conference to every one of my parishioners.

The whole conference is an incredibly powerful message of life for it deals with the truth about Life Itself, better yet, it deals with Life Himself who is still physically present on this earth in his humanity in the Holy Eucharist. Faith in this “Mystery of our Faith” is key to winning the fight for life, not only physical life, the life of the unborn, but even more importantly the eternal life of countless souls, which can only be saved through us Catholics’ deep active living faith in the Holy Eucharist.

The particular talk of the conference on the Holy Eucharist and Abortion contains an important message that all of us in the pro-life moment should review again and again. Yes, we all know it already. But it is such and essential message for the cause of life that it needs to repeated.

Father began his talk on Abortion and the Eucharist with the following question, “What possible connection is there between murder and Jesus Christ and the Blessed Sacrament.” And “What do we mean by combining those words.” Father said, “We mean that the world wide mania of killing innocent unborn children is literally (and I mean literally) the work of the evil spirit. As Christ made so clear that the devil not only was a murderer from the beginning he is the principle agent behind every willful killing of innocent people. Especially behind what once civilized nations have now legalized by civil law.

Father went on to point out the responsibility that we Roman Catholics have throughout the world have to stop the global homicide which is plaguing most of the nations in the twentieth century. He said that “Over the years he told one audience after another, one of the main reasons for the world wide homicide millions of innocent unborn children is because Catholics are not living up to practicing their faith.

It was Catholic living their faith in those early centuries that brought the universal acceptance of abortion in the Roman Empire to an end. The early Christians believed that abortion is murder, and no murderer can reach heaven unless he or she repents. But what the early Christians also believed was that abortion is a result of the two sins of pride and lust. At root pride is self love. Even to the hatred of anyone who stands in my way. The virtue contrary to selfish pride is the Christian virtue of humble charity.

Along with selfish pride is unchastity. Unchastity is the co-cause of the worldwide murder of over 65 million unborn children every year.
In His talk Father pointed out very clearly that unless the practice of charity and chastity is restored not only is there no stopping of abortion this crime will only increase in intensity, and the number of innocent victims beyond all human calculation.

Father Hardon was truly a Master Teacher. When you look at our current world and the lack of chastity and the amount of selfish pride we begin to see just how much we need divine intervention and how our human efforts alone can not stem the tide. In light of this, Father said that us Professed Catholics must become channels of extraordinary grace to the modern world. And that we will become channels of grace to others in the measure, of our own reception of grace through the Holy Eucharist as the sacrament sacrifice of the mass, as the Communion sacrament of Holy Communion and as the presence sacrament of Christ’s Real Presence now on earth in the Holy Eucharist.

We are only channels of grace to others in the measure that we are possessed of God’s grace ourselves. And why is this important? Because there is no stopping abortion without an ocean of grace from Jesus Christ. No way will human means stop abortion. “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.” (Ephesians 6

Grace is that Divine power which enables human beings to do what is humanly impossible. We need grace to rise above our fallen human nature and live a holy life in order to attain heaven. We need grace to be able to cope with and over come the present evils of this world so that we our selves will not be overcome by the devil and the other fallen spirits. As Father said, “Either our human nature is elevated by divine grace or it becomes the inevitable victim of the wiles and wickedness of the evil spirit.

In his pivotal talk Father went on to point out the three main source of grace for us and for our world: Prayer, especially prayer before the Holy Eucharist, the sacraments, especially the Blessed Sacrament and confession and the connection between the two and the practice of virtue. These sources of obtaining grace are not only for us, but for obtaining grace for others, especially for those who are complicit in the culture of death.

The first source is of course prayer, but not just any prayer, prayer that is offered from the heart and with faith. For the power of our prayer depends on our faith. Prayer said with faith can work miracles. No doubt. We must Pray in faith and in trust and Jesus divine power to change hearts of stone into hearts of selfish love for the unborn.

But the most powerful prayer in the world is Eucharistic prayer. Prayer during the Sacrifice of the Mass. Prayer after receiving Holy Communion, and prayer to our risen savior in His real but hidden presence in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus as God is of course, present everywhere. But he is not present everywhere in His human nature. Is Human nature is present for us only in the Holy Eucharist. And the most efficacious prayer is praying in the presence of Jesus Human nature.

When we pray before Jesus in the Eucharist, as Father Hardon taught, “we believe…it is the same Jesus now glorified who stilled the storm at sea and raised the dead Lazareth back to life. We believe it is the same Jesus who performed wonders during His visible stay in Palestine. Christ wants to do the same in our day, provided we have the faith. To convert selfish wills, dare I say it? Wills possessed by the devil to stop murdering children.

Father made a point that what needs to be emphasized is the close relationship between these two sacraments of penance and the Holy Eucharist. Remission of sins in confession is one of the necessary conditions for being in the state of grace when receiving Holy Communion. Otherwise Holy Communion becomes an unholy sacrilege. Moreover, the more sinless we are especially assured by the Sacrament of Penance the more grace we possess and thereby become more effective channels of grace to other people.

Third source of grace - The practice of virtue. We merit grace by cooperating with the graces we receive. It is the practice of virtue, and lets hear it, the practice of virtue benefits not only the one who performs the good work but also (and hear the adverb) always, always every good work that I perform in the state of grace always obtains grace for others. And the adverb is always.

How important is the Holy Eucharist for the practice of virtue. It is indispensable. Of course we need to obtain grace from the practice of virtue. Grace for ourselves and grace for others, but watch it, the measure and degree of this grace depends on our own union with God. And there is no more effective way of becoming united with God than through receiving the living God who took on human flesh from His mother Mary.

A person is only as holy as he or she is living an Eucharistic life. Saintly people of channels of extraordinary grace for others. Can anyone doubt that the plague of abortion will (I do not say be stopped) but even reduced, except by abortioners and abortionists receiving a flood of Divine Grace through the sanctity of apostles of the Holy Eucharist. And you and I are called to be Apostles of the Holy Eucharist.

Again the thesis of Fr. Hardon’s essential talk, “There is No Stopping Abortion Without the Eucharist.” The Eucharist is the principle source of all grace. And so, there is no stopping abortion except through the devoted faith of professed Catholics who are apostles of the Blessed Sacrament. Our frequency of assisting at Holy Mass, our devotion and reverence in attending Mass even daily Mass, our efforts to stomp out liturgical abuses, frequency and fervor in receiving Holy Communion made pure by frequent confession, and on being completely detached from everything that could weaken our love for God. Our devotion to the Blessed Sacrament through Eucharistic Adoration (but hear it) and Eucharistic petition. All of these are divinely provided means of not just stopping abortion, but also we shall be cultivating a respect for human life such as the world has never known.

As Father Hardon said, “Ours is the most murderous century in human history. As believing lovers of the Holy Eucharist we are to make the next century the most self-giving and self-sacrificing century since Jesus offered His first Mass. Which is as we know began at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday night and ended on Calvary on the first Good Friday.

At the end of Mass I wish to bring Jesus out for exposition and benediction (it won’t take long and its so important) and before Him pray a prayer which Father ended His talk with the following prayer.

Jesus Christ really present in the Holy Eucharist
You want to convert the millions who are behind the worldwide homicide in our day.
You want to convert these murderers. You want to use us as the channels of your grace.
Give us dear Jesus, a deep, deep faith in your Real Presence and a total detachment to
everything in this world so that we may love you our God become man with all our hearts
by faith here on earth and face-to-face in that eternal Easter Sunday for which we were made.
Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee,
Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.
Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen
Mary Mother of God - Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Copyright © 1996 Inter Mirifica