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dying to be pro-life
“It was I who begot you in Christ Jesus through my preaching of the gospel.” —1 Corinthians 4:15
St. Paul was the spiritual father of the Corinthian Christians. He begot them through the preaching of the Gospel (1 Cor 4:15). He was also the spiritual father of Onesimus (Phlm 10) and St. Timothy (1 Tm 1:2; 2 Tm 1:2). St. Peter was the spiritual father of St. Mark (1 Pt 5:13), and the Blessed Virgin Mary was chosen by Jesus on Calvary to be the spiritual mother of the beloved disciple and all “her offspring, on those who keep God’s commandments and give witness to Jesus” (Jn 19:26; Rv 12:17). We all are called to spiritually beget many children by sharing the Gospel.
Are you willing to be fertile and multiply spiritually? (see Gn 1:28) To conceive, birth, and disciple your spiritual children, you must suffer. You must become like a person “doomed to die in the arena” (1 Cor 4:9). To give life spiritually, you must die to self. This means becoming a fool on Christ’s account — weak, sneered at, “hungry and thirsty, poorly clad, roughly treated, wandering about homeless” (1 Cor 4:10-11). The labor you must endure to give spiritual birth often is working hard at manual labor, suffering persecution, and being slandered (1 Cor 4:12-13).
To give life we must love, and that means laying down our lives for one another (1 Jn 3:16). Therefore, we are tempted to be spiritually contraceptive and abortifacient. We are tempted to choose death rather than life (see Dt 30:19-20). However, we must reject the “culture of death” and choose life to the full (Jn 10:10) by choosing to love, even to death.
Prayer: Father, may I beget all the spiritual and biological children You are calling me to have.
Promise: “The Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath.” —Lk 6:5
Praise: Mother Teresa explained to a priest her outlook on ministry to the poor by touching the five fingers of his hand and saying, “You did it to Me” (see Mt. 25:40).
Reference:
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