What is today? The Bishops of the USA declared today as "Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children". This is the anniversary of the horrendous "Roe v. Wade" decision that legalized abortion throughout this country. Although in many places children were already being murdered, this made it a requirement that all states allow it. Most of you reading this already know these details, but I say it to make a point. We are supposed to be doing something about the "legal protection" of the unborn.
Once again, the title is important. It is not the "day of lobbying for the legal protection..." or the "day of voting for the legal protection..." or even the "day of protesting for the legal protection..." That is not to say that we should not do those things--but that is not what is being put forward. Ostensibly, there was no problem getting people to do those other things (and that is fine, since they are needed as well). So then, why do we need to have a distinct reference to it in a liturgical observance? After all, I said Mass this morning for this exact observance.
Consider it with me for a moment. If those other things are going on, but we forget prayer, it is like showing up at the hospital for surgery but the doctor has no idea what he is supposed to be operating on. Sort of a foolish thought, right? Yes, of course it is. You can go through all the preparation for a surgical procedure, but if the doctor has never been spoken to, how much do you expect him to do? (I know I do not want a doctor operating on my while doing guess-work!). Yes, of course, God already knows what we need, but He also said He wants us to pray about it, and He promises to respond to our prayers (often, more than anything else we do!).
All the voting, lobbying, and protesting will have no genuine effect if we are not keeping prayer as the most important thing. Prayer is the proper communication with our Lord that enables all those other things to have a lasting impact on what we are doing. Yet, we are not supposed to pray just that the laws change (that is really only a small part of things). We are supposed to be praying that people's hearts change; and not just few that we know personally, but all of them. We are supposed to be praying for those people who were screaming and yelling at the students from Covington Catholic School (I am sure you read about this already). They are the ones who are influencing those around them with their hate and violence; they are the ones who are working for the legal murder of unborn children.
We are also supposed to be praying for the doctors who are murdering this nation's children. Some of them actually do repent and come to Christ for redemption. There is a long list of things that we are supposed to be praying about, but I will not give it here; I am sure you can figure it out. We need to be praying for all the details that influence this situation, and all the people who are promoting this horrible evil--we pray either for them to repent, or to be stopped (however God chooses to do that).
So then, on this "Day of PRAYER..." what are you doing? How much time did you spend in prayer? Who did you pray for? These are important questions since prayer is far more powerful than all the voting, lobbying and protesting we can come up with. It is great if millions of people show up for a march (really, it is!), but it is even better if millions of people pray. Let us remember that we serve a sovereign Lord Who promised to change the world through our prayers, and let us never lose faith in Him.
