In this homily given at St Pat's on May 22, 2022, Fr. Mathias explains that when understood properly the universal human experience of attempting to assuage guilt through blame, defensiveness and denial cannot bring the peace that God's forgiveness brings. God's mercy is the only way to peace we all need. Therefore, we need to understand the negative response we're witnessing to the leaked majority opinion of the US Supreme Court (Dobbs vs. Mississippi) in light of this dynamic of the human heart. Since men and women have been severely hurt by abortion, we shouldn't be naive about the fact that the one of the major reasons why people are "pro-choice" is because they or people they know have had an abortion and they are trying to resolve their own personal guilt that only God's mercy can give them.
Father declares the power of God's mercy to give us peace and reminds us that if we don't believe in God's mercy we will never have peace. In light of the upcoming SCOTUS decision, Father outlines four points for us to consider in this cultural moment:
1) Changing the laws of abortion won't changes people's hearts about abortion
2) Don't take personally any attack you receive for being pro-life.
3) Nothing is more relevant than God's mercy.
4) Be apostles of mercy and never stop speaking about God's love.
Now is the chance for the Church to witness to our wounded world that Jesus is our peace precisely because he is our mercy.
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