HOMILY
Respect Life Sunday – October 5, 2025
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Life: Our sign of hope!” … Today, on this 27th Sunday of the Church year, as we have done for over five decades, the Catholic Church in the United States celebrates Respect Life Sunday at the beginning of the month of October – a time set aside to promote a culture of life throughout our land. This year’s theme is linked to the great Jubilee Year of Hope and calls us to affirm the belief that every human life is a precious gift from God, especially the most vulnerable. This special season encourages us to consider the responsibility given to each of us as disciples of Jesus to promote and defend life, recognizing it as a sign of God’s promise and love.
Sadly, despite the hope that was generated with the overturning of Roe v. Wade three years ago, the challenge to protect human life has not diminished. Because our world is so often hostile to the truth of the Gospel of Life that we embrace, proclaiming the sanctity of human life can be challenging at best, can’t it? In many arenas, defense of unborn lives, the lives of those who are disabled or dying, or the lives of any vulnerable human population is met with resistance. Proclaiming the Church’s teaching on topics like abortion, assisted suicide, and the death penalty can provoke challenging and emotional responses from those who disagree. And often, we may find ourselves afraid to speak up about these issues in our families, among our coworkers, or with students in our school community. We may fear disagreement, judgement, confrontation, or misunderstanding. But as our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, encourages us, “How important it is that each and every baptized person feel himself or herself called by God to be a sign of hope in the world today.”
In response to the division that we experience throughout our land, it is incumbent upon us, as a people of faith – as disciples of Jesus – to be light in the midst of darkness – a leaven to transform our misguided world. As such, it is our responsibility to witness to our beliefs by caring for life – from life in the womb to the lives of all who are in need, particularly for many women and their children who struggle past the time of birth.
As Catholics, we too often allow voices contrary to gospel values to control the narrative about the good work that our Church – through all of you – continues to accomplish. We so rarely hear in the public forum of our Church’s long history of service to those who are most vulnerable. Few are even aware of the fact that the Catholic Church remains the largest private provider of social services in the United States to this day.
Amid the tension that this moment in our history continues to generate, we need to acknowledge with humility that the Church has not only advocated for life in the womb but has worked tirelessly to support life in all its forms from conception to natural death. In addition to serving the countless numbers of suffering lives that make their way into our midst, the Church in the United States and right here in our own diocese has developed scores of ministries dedicated to helping mothers facing challenging pregnancies and those who may struggle to care for their children after they are born. Through pregnancy care centers and parish-based ministries such as Walking with Moms in Need to Shepherds Maternity House in East Stroudsburg that provides a safe home and assistance for pregnant woman and mothers and their newborn babies to ministries that offer hope, healing and spiritual renewal to women and couples who suffer after participating in abortion, our Church continues to offer a way forward to those who seek to live the gospel of life.
In today’s gospel from Saint Luke, Jesus quite providentially speaks to the heart of this Respect Life Sunday by offering a series of pronouncements. Two are spoken of in the passage proclaimed today. Two others are found in the verses immediately preceding today’s gospel. … Jesus warns against causing scandal. … He demands forgiveness. … And Jesus proclaims that if we have faith the size of mustard seed, incredible things can happen.
Jesus also teaches a lesson from the relationship between a master and a slave. When we do what Jesus commands us to do, we don’t become heroes for a cause, nor should we expect adulation or praise. In doing what Jesus commands, we simply do what the Gospel asserts and demands of its adherents.
These words of Jesus regarding scandal, forgiveness, faith and so much more don’t point to heroic living but reflect the minimum for a life open to the Kingdom of God. They challenge all of us – those of us who embrace the teachings of the Gospel as well as those who struggle with the tenets of our faith that call us to respect life – to avoid the self-justifying posture of the Pharisees and embrace Jesus’ call for mercy, forgiveness and love.
Simply put, brothers and sisters, if we desire to live our lives as Christians with authenticity, we have no choice. We cannot merely speak of our respect for human life or self-righteously criticize those whose beliefs may be different from our own. We must enliven our words with action. We must both choose and serve life – life in the womb, life that is found on the margins of our world and even life that struggles to respect and reverence others.
The challenge to defend human life cannot be side stepped to create a false peace or sense of harmony. We must be fearless in our defense of the unborn – but also mothers in need, the elderly, the sick, the poor, those with disabilities, prisoners, immigrants and all whose lives are in jeopardy.
While the work before us can be daunting, particularly in a land that at times seems so bereft of an ethic in support of human life, the great Jubilee Year that we continue to celebrate and the words of the Prophet Habakkuk in our first reading give us hope – a hope rooted in God’s vision for humanity. “The vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come!” … God’s vision, brothers and sisters, will indeed come to pass when we claim the vision as our own!
Shortly after his election, Pope Leo shared these words to diplomats from countries around the world. “It is the responsibility of world leaders to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies.” Then he went on to share a message that speaks to every one of us. “No one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.”
Therein, we discover our responsibility as disciples of Jesus as well as our true and lasting hope!