The Road to Heaven is Paved with Effort

“The road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions” is not actually something we should hold to be true.  |

God sees our heart, our intent, our desires and our works.  He hears all our prayers.  He recognizes what we seek to do.   He knows our whole hearts.   This is the great mercy of our God.  God is not seeking a reason to keep us from Him, He’s searching our hearts for a “yes,” for an assent on our part to His love.   We should groan with joy at the reality of how merciful our God is, He knows our weaknesses and inconstancy and still, He loves us.

Right now, those of us who are pro-life, are being accused from all sides of bad intent –and within politics, it holds that we who pray, who have hoped, who want abortion to become something unthinkable, are now facing the bad fruit that comes from seeking a worldly response of power to a problem that above all else, requires a loving and personal response.  Yes, we want abortion to become unthinkable, but not because it is codified in the world’s laws, but in all hearts.  We want abortion to not exist because we know these unborn people to be just that, people.

However, we must not pit poor against poor, or presume virtue of our own for affirming one value at the ignoring of another.  We cannot love the infant in the womb we do not see, if we do not also love the mother that we do.  If we would witness the love of God, we must help the mothers feel and know that deep love of God through our actions, which means it must be generous, fruitful, and yes, as infinite as we can manage.

This reality, of how we must minister to the persons affected by the crisis pregnancy both during and after if we do not wish to sound hollow, as if the only thing we care about, is the unborn, and not the souls of all affected. That is the charge often levied at people who identify as pro-life.  It’s one we cannot dispute except by constant witness.  We  bear the consequences of every false step amongst those who agree with us on this point.

Ideas:

1. Contact your local pregnancy center, ask what they need.
2. Donate larger size diapers and wipes to a pantry program that distributes to those in need.
3. Volunteer to walk with someone through their pregnancy.
4.  Spiritually adopt a mom.
5. Give alms to a charity that provides low income families/individuals with access to healthcare services.
6. Organize a baby shower at your parish for expectant mothers to give families the start they need.
7. Ask your parish to have a hospitality program that brings meals to new families.
8. Offer to drive women to their doctor appointments, or watch their children.
9. See a young family at mass?  Introduce yourself.
10. See a pregnant woman at mass? Introduce yourself.   Community is created by shared experiences, by connections.   Make them.These are the starts, but the real job of each of us who profess to be Pro-life is to sit  with Christ and ask Him, how do you want me to serve –and ask Him to show you the feet we need to wash.  The road to Heaven requires we want everyone to get there, and our own salvation depends on each of us helping to carry each other’s cross.