Life Reflections™

Boom & Echo

The greatest commandment is the love commandment. To love God and neighbor is to be connected to God.

As reported by Apostle Luke (10:29-37) in the Road to Jericho parable, Jesus challenges us as to love's fullest meaning and its relationship to our understanding of the common good. We are drawn into this parable through love as it manifests itself in the mercy of the Good Samaritan (a person despised more than pagans by the elite of the times). Is the Road to Jericho parable, as told by Jesus, outside-in or inside-out in its teaching effect on the listener/reader?

Consider the priest and the Levite. Neither were moved to compassion or defaulted to the protection of innocent human life. Their paradigm pit life itself against personal free will. To ensure life is lived as God intended, must not people of a society live a Culture of Life driven by life itself including the protection of all innocent human life?

From a scientific point of view, a boom and an echo are inside-out. Metaphorically and by way of mental imagery, consider the boom as living life in a continuously prospering society and the echo as the growth of the common good—the return. From conception, the development of a child is also inside-out, so why would a healthy society be any different?

From a cultural point of view, let's for a moment compare two very different approaches to the greatest commandment (through the common good) offered by two US senators who are part of the Washington elite.

Senator Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania) argues in his 2005 book that It Takes a Family (Conservatism and the Common Good), and Senator Hillary Clinton (New York) argues in her 1996 book that It Takes a Village (And Other Lessons Children Teach Us).

Early in the first chapter of his book, The Task of Stewardship, Senator Santorum lays out his challenge to Senator Clinton by declaring on page 4 that "liberalism is an ideology; conservatism is common sense". On page 10, he describes the "five pillars of American civilization: social capital, economic capital, moral capital, cultural capital, and intellectual capital." According to Santorum, these are essentially five ways to measure the growth of the "common capital", the common good of American civilization.

In her first chapter, It Takes a Village, Senator Clinton takes up most of the chapter with her family and her "I" references, declaring on page 16 of 19 that "I do not pretend to know how to nurture and protect every American child so that each one fully reaches his or her God-given potential." On page 52, she goes on to explain (referring to neuroscience, molecular biology, and psychology) that "this new information makes clear that a child's ... potential (is) not already determined at birth." Senator Clinton clarifies herself on page 210 writing "Every woman deserves the chance to realize her God-given potential."

While Senator Santorum clearly lays out the need for a healthy society to face and address its challenges which include "growing" the common good authentically in a capitalistic society by measuring "common capital" using common sense, Senator Clinton chooses a rights-over-life paradigm obviously "confused" about the truth that every person's God-given potential is embedded at conception. Such "confusion" combined with her clear statement about the "priority" right to the development of the God-given potential of women align with what Senator Santorum writes about on page 10 concerning "those who believe that America's promise lies with the village elders redesigning America from on high."

Hillary Clinton's outside-in approach ultimately pits woman against her child in her womb—a logic that becomes an illogic. Government then excuses the woman from her responsibilities through a death sentence for the new God-given life. Unless the life issue is treated as primordial, as Senator Santorum does on page 240, stating "Abortion was (is) the taking of an innocent human life " and on page 241, "Abortion puts the liberty and happiness rights of the mother before the life rights of her child", the common good is in reduction.

Santorum believes that family is the critical engine for "building capital" and he argues that "fostering the formation, stability, and success of the traditional family" is the road to ensuring future prosperity. Senator Santorum's view of the future and continued prosperity is inside-out, traditional family-by-traditional family building the common good.

In contrast, Senator Clinton's approach to the wellness of America is through a "village", a monolithic, outside-in, imposed way of carrying out a nation's business—the invert of how our great nation has been built. Outside-in is contrary to God's plan of generations because this "imposed" way of living and doing eventually impedes in some way the development of one's personal gifts. A liberal culture of "freedom and responsibility" (apparently the new twist on the "Choice" culture), executed top-down, is also an outside-in culture because of its rights-over-life focus which puts life itself at risk by personal will. How can a monolithic, outside-in, "It Takes a Village" approach possibly ensure a Culture of Life?

Only a Culture of Life integrates with God's plan of generations. Built on traditional marriage & family and foreclosing the life destructive forces of a rights-over-life paradigm (which pits a mother against her child in her womb), a Culture of Life is energized by the intuitive, common practice of traditional family. This practice includes love, life-long commitment, mercy, reconciliation, and forgiveness which helps generate an "infinite source" for the common good buildup of family, community, state, and nation. In other words, an inside-out way of living that is "tuned into" nature and concerns itself with the potential and future of others in relations, and is therefore tied to the buildup of the common good.

Your support as a member of Pro-Life Maryland will make a real difference. You'll be empowering our lobbying team, our legislative team, and our educational outreach and evangelization efforts. Click here www.prolifemaryland.org to make your contribution now through our secure site.

Prayer of the Faithful
Almighty God, we give you thanks for those who are courageously fighting to preserve the rights and lives of the innocent. Lord, we ask you to protect and strengthen our pro- life legislators, and enlighten the hearts and minds of all of our elected officials to the truth about the gift of human life. We also pray for all those who are suffering from debilitating diseases. May we live in communion with them, and serve to heal and alleviate their suffering by promoting effective and ethical treatments that uphold the dignity of the human person. Lord, please help us to work tirelessly to protect innocent human life by softening hearts and helping others to recognize the sacredness of life when it is most vulnerable. Help us always to be like the Good Samaritan in our daily efforts to do your will. All praise and glory to you. Amen

Anthony R. Souza, MTS
President & CEO