Homily for Thursday
Week 2 of Ordinary Time
Day
of Prayer for Human Life
Jan. 22, 2026
1 Sam 18: 6-9; 19: 1-7
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence,
N.R.
Saul Threatening David
(by Jose Leonardo)
Several chapters of 1 Samuel
narrate Saul’s jealousy and paranoia, often interpreted as schizophrenia or
some other mental imbalance. Thruout,
David, the Lord’s chosen one, enjoys divine protection and Jonathan’s steadfast
friendship, and he acts uprightly while protecting himself and his family.
Today the Catholic portion of our
nation observes a day of prayer and penance for the protection of human
life. Another portion of the nation acts
or at least thinks more like Saul—moved by fear, self-interest, or grossly
misguided “compassion” to seek the lives of the innocent or to defend those who
do so; not only unborn human life, but lives perceived to be painful or just
useless.
If we perceive that it’s
acceptable, even healthy, even necessary to make some humans disposable, we’re
as sick as Saul was. Iceland proudly
asserts that it has eliminated birth defects.
They’ve eliminated the “defective” before birth. That attitude affects our entire “enlightened”
society—“enlightened” like the Third Reich. That attitude, I think, is at the root of a
great deal of the violence we lament in society: random, senseless assaults in the subways,
gang violence, carefully planned assassinations and mass shootings, revolutionary
terrorism, and the invasion of territory.
If life is cheap, disposable, and subject to one’s feelings or national
aspirations, why are we shocked?
David models patience and
dependence on God. Jonathan models
defense of the innocent. Many of the
psalms attributed to David are pleas for God to uphold him and all who are
upright. So we speak up for the unborn,
the ill, the elderly, and the refugee.
We persist in marching, lobbying, and weighing the moral character of
candidates for public office. And we
pray. 
March for Life, Jan. 19, 2018
Washington
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