2022 THEME – “I AM”

Debates about abortion are characterized by phrases like “women’s rights” and “My Body, My Choice” — as if there wasn’t another human involved and whose rights must be taken into account. The preborn are real. They have already entered into this world, even though they may be hidden from us most of the time—revealed only in brief snapshots through ultrasound technology.

It is a challenge to those who are “pro-choice” to see the preborn, to recognize them.  It is a challenge to those who are pro-life to remember for whom we fight, whose lives are at stake. It is a challenge to all of us to ask ourselves what other existences we might be overlooking—those of mothers in crisis pregnancies, the elderly, or disabled—and to respond by affirming their presence, their humanity.

No human being should have to argue for his/her worth. It’s not something that’s earned. Our worth is inherent; it lies not in what we do, but in what we are: human.  While we value what abilities we have been given, they are not the source of our value. Mistaking them as such is reductionist; that is, it reduces the incredible complexity and beauty of the human person into a simply calculation of what he or she can contribute to society.  The late Dame Cicely Saunders, pioneer of modern hospice and palliative care, imparted: “You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.”

“I AM” is shout into the abyss that “I exist.”

Debates about abortion are characterized by phrases like “women’s rights” and “My Body, My Choice” — as if there wasn’t another human involved and whose rights must be taken into account. The preborn are real. They have already entered into this world, even though they may be hidden from us most of the time—revealed only in brief snapshots through ultrasound technology.

“I AM” is a claim to existence that says Notice me!”  

It is a challenge to those who are “pro-choice” to see the preborn, to recognize them.  It is a challenge to those who are pro-life to remember for whom we fight, whose lives are at stake. It is a challenge to all of us to ask ourselves what other existences we might be overlooking—those of mothers in crisis pregnancies, the elderly, or disabled—and to respond by affirming their presence, their humanity.