Preaching Suggestions for Healing the Shockwaves of Abortion

In the month of July, Healing the Shockwaves of Abortion focuses on the wound abortion inflicts on survivors and friends.

In April, we focused on the sibling survivors. But there are approximately ten types of “abortion survivors” in our population today, and they all suffer because they could have been aborted. Survivors experience a guilt and anxiety about being alive. They feel a tremendous loss in their lives and do not necessarily understand why.

In a society in which abortion occurs frequently, anyone who is conceived but not protected by law can be considered a survivor.

Our preaching needs to convey to survivors that they have unconditional value. They are alive because God wants them alive; they have value not because of an accident, or because of the will of someone else. They deserve to be here, because God chose them out of love.

Moreover, friends are impacted by the abortion that a friend has. Perhaps the friend was pressuring, suggesting, paying for or otherwise cooperating in the abortion. This sin will cause remorse and pain, and the friend will need to grieve the child who was killed.

In other circumstances, the friend may have tried to stop the abortion but failed, or perhaps was just silent and passive. This, too, will cause regret. And in some cases the friend had no idea of the abortion until it was too late. Such a friend still needs to grieve the loss of a child who would have been part of the friend’s life had he or she survived.

Below you will find homily suggestions for each of the Sundays of July, based on the readings. The themes of being a prophet, repentance, and human solidarity come through in various of these Sundays. The theme of survivors and friends intersects with these themes. A prophet, who speaks about God’s perspective on human events, must speak up about the widespread wound of abortion and the urgent need for healing among those who may not have known that abortion wounded them.

Repentance, of course, is a theme that speaks particularly to friends who were complicit in the abortion. We all have to repent together, because one person’s abortion is many people’s sin.

The theme of solidarity, finally, reinforces the whole “Shockwaves” theme, because we are saying that after abortion, nobody hurts alone and nobody heals alone. It is solidarity that urges us to promote healing, and the healing of everyone together.

Sunday, July 5, 2015 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday, July 12, 2015 - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday, July 19, 2015 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday, July 26, 2015 - Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time