Abortion & The Eighth Station

“Do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children.”

“Weep not for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children.”

As I prayed the stations of the cross this morning I was particularly struck with the eighth station. It is not as if I had not thought of this before, but the intensity of the meaning seemed to come fully alive as I reflected on the state of our country and the world in relation to abortion and destruction of the dignity and beauty of motherhood.

Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen…He knew women, through this terrible act, were going to destroy all that is good and loving in themselves, giving rise to harden hearts detached from the child they had once carried in their womb, gleefully celebrating instead their right to destroy it. Jesus knew the unborn were going to be viciously slaughtered, torn apart, burnt, and yanked from the place they should be the safest. He knew the devastation abortion was going to cause to living siblings who feel they need to justify their existence because a brother or sister were terminated. “Weep not for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children.”

I truly believe that the eighth station is for our times. He saw that abortion is the destruction of women and children- the most sacred bond there should be. The sacrament of “reproductive freedom”, “my body, my choice”, ultimately causing the bondage of millions of people many living in silent suffering or justifying what they did because to do otherwise would mean having to face the truth .

In “The Imitation of Christ”, Thomas Kempis states,  “Love is swift, sincere, pious, pleasant and delightful; strong, patient, faithful, prudent, longsuffering, courageous, and never seeking itself. For where a man seeks himself he falls from love ”

That is exactly what abortion does, it seeks itself. It is not always intentional, many women fall prey to the lies they have been fed for decades, truly believing it is the answer to their problem. The self-seeking also can be hidden by false compassion that makes a mother believe it is loving to kill her unborn child in the case of diagnosis abortions, or the belief that it is the best option given other circumstances, but the truth is, it is always “self” seeking and it is always a failure of love.

Sadly, the day will come when the reality of abortion will hit everyone. For some it will not be until the time of the death but make no mistake it will come. Abortion goes against all a woman is and there is no true peace without contrition and reconciliation.

As we continue our Lenten journey, let us pray for the women and men separated from God because of abortion. May they learn of God’s forgiveness and mercy which waits for each one of them, and may we pray for our nation and a world which seems to have lost its soul to the god of abortion, the ultimate failure of love.

TB