A Reflection for the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children
Find today’s readings here.
“The LORD called me from birth,
from my mother’s womb he gave me my name” (Is 49:1).
The first time I thought about protecting an unborn child in something more than an abstract or political way was in the weeks before the birth of my first niece. In normal times, there is very little a soon-to-be aunt living over 200 miles away can do to protect such a child. But these were not normal times. It was late February, early March 2020 and as my sister’s due date neared, the fear and uncertainty surrounding this novel coronavirus swelled. Determined to be there for the birth, I meticulously followed the C.D.C.’s handwashing guidelines, avoided crowds and eventually asked a colleague who had young kids if she thought I should leave New York City for the less-densely populated suburbs of Virginia. Go, she said.
I think most people would have acted similarly, if not with more caution than me. Within my sister’s womb was someone precious and vulnerable to forces beyond her control; someone who, though yet invisible to the world, had a name.
That is a word that is repeated throughout today’s readings: name. In the first reading, the Prophet Isaiah proclaims, “The LORD called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name” (49:1).
Then we hear in today’s responsorial Psalm: “O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!” (8:9).
In the second reading, Paul addresses the Ephesians, saying, “I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (3:14).
What is it to be named by God? It is more than just a signal, a word to differentiate one animate mass from another. To be named is to be recognized, to be called to a unique mission in the world, like Isaiah: “You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory” (49:3). To be named by God is to be loved by God, as St. Paul beseeches the Father on behalf of the Ephesians:
…that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge (3:17-19).
Not only has God called us each by name, to serve and be loved by him; God became an infant in the womb of Mary and was given the name Jesus, Son of the Most High. In today’s Gospel, Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is with child despite her old age. Though Jesus remains invisible to the world, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb” (Lk 1:41). John the Baptist not only recognizes the unborn Jesus but rejoices in his presence.
Today, the U.S. church commemorates the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. Names are too often missing in our heated debates over the issue of abortion: The names of our anonymous opponents, to whom we ascribe the most base motives; the names of women, many of them poor or in unstable or abusive relationships, who do not feel equipped to bring a child into the world; and most tragically, the names of the hundreds of thousands of babies who are lost to abortion every year in this country, and millions more around the world.
God has called every person by name, born and unborn. On this day of prayer and penance, we should ask ourselves: Do we, like Mary, go out of our way to come to the aid of vulnerable pregnant women? Do we, like John, recognize and rejoice in the presence of invisible life?
