Hajja Salesjana October - December 2018

1 5 and live it genuinely day by day, for life is God’s gift to us. What we make out of it is our gift to Him in return. Just like Mary, at the foot of the cross and when she heartbreakingly held her tortured, dead Son’s body in her arms, we too need to be open to God’s will and accept when and how God calls us and our loved ones back to our Heavenly abode, where he went before us to prepare a place for us, so that where He is, we too may be. Just like Mary we too need to acknowledge that God is the source of life and it is He alone and none other, who has ownership over it, and over all of us, who live, breathe and have our being in Him. Every breath is a gift from Him. H e n c e , in a time when life is being threatened from the womb to the tomb, we need to turn to Our Blessed Mother, the Help of us Christians, that She may intercede with us as we strive to spread a culture of life that goes diametrically against the onslaught of the culture of death and irresponsibility that is spreading like wild fire among us. If we are true followers of Jesus Christ, we must be persons who honour life, defend life and respect life from beginning till its natural end. We can never take God’s place and pretend to dabble with the dignity and sanctity of life. When we do so, we are risking toppling over the very foundations of the society within which we live. According to St. John Paul II “ a nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope ”. Furthermore, he also reminds us that “ the legal toleration of abortion or of euthanasia can in no way claim to be based on respect for the conscience of others, precisely because society has the right and the duty to protect itself against the abuses which can occur in the name of conscience and under the pretext of freedom .” Mother Theresa also reminds us that “ any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love but to use violence to get what they want .” Finally, we must never give up and give in. Like Mary, the perpetual help of Christians, we must do our utmost to safeguard and nourish life because as our beloved Pope Francis reminds us, at all costs we must “ defend the unborn against abortion even if they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you, take you to court or kill you .” Anyone who is truly devoted to and loves Our Blessed Mother Mary must imitate her in her love for Life and its Source, God. Anyone who is a genuine believer and an authentic disciple of Jesus Christ must always be pro-life, in favour of life, a defender of life and a knight of Light. The choice is now in our hands but so will also the consequences. Let us choose wisely and allow Our Beloved Blessed Mother to teach us how to stand up and be counted as we strive to journey with her in respecting life from the womb to the tomb.