Witnesses for Life
by Leon J. Suprenant, Jr.

We’d been through it all before. Baby Monica was fifth baby we had lost in utero, the others being Perpetual, Felicity, Raymond, and Barnabas. Yet this time was different.

My wife Maureen and I already have four beautiful daughters. Maureen is also the primary caregiver for my mother, who lives with us and who was hospitalized for three months last winter. She also lost little Barnabas last winter. Even so, Maureen and I were thrilled to discover that she was pregnant last summer and eagerly looked forward to our little "Y2K baby." But then, in September, an ultrasound showed that the baby had died.

This time, however, the miscarriage developed sudden and severe complications. Maureen was rushed via ambulance from the doctor’s office to the emergency room. She nearly bled to death. As it was, despite emergency surgery, blood transfusions, and hospitalization, she’s been left with a constant, high-pitched ringing in her ears that was likely caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain during this traumatic episode.

Not Just Theory

Most women in our contraceptive, secular culture would have had the "good sense" to "stop at two," and would not have gone through what happened to Maureen. Those of you with large families (more than two kids) are well aware of the various uncomplimentary comments that family, friends, and even total strangers at grocery stores feel obliged to make about our life choices, even though the Church "see[s] in large families a sign of God’s blessing and the parents’ generosity" (Catechism, no. 2373). And while Maureen for the most part received excellent, compassionate care, there were some not-so-subtle reminders of our society’s values, from the rolled eyes of the ambulance driver when told that this was Maureen’s ninth pregnancy, to the ER doctor who asked me about "getting her tubes tied."

Maureen intellectually accepts and obeys the Church’s teachings on marital intimacy and the dignity of human life. She has also given her time to pro-life causes and has been supportive of young couples who have struggled with ordering their marriage in accordance with God’s plan. Yet her most eloquent statement on behalf of human life was made while lying semi-conscious on a hospital bed with various tubes stuck in her. While she assuredly did not go looking for suffering, she literally was proclaiming the Gospel of Life with her own blood, evangelizing me and everyone at the hospital.

God’s blessing is never absent. This experience heightened our appreciation for the gift of each other, our children who are still with us, and our children whom we believe are interceding for us right now. And, because Maureen needs to heal for several months before we can even consider another child, we’ve been able to experience firsthand the blessings of natural family planning (NFP), which has truly strengthened our marriage.

Actions Speak Louder

Catechism, no. 2472 says that "[w]itness is an act of justice that establishes the truth or makes it known." The same section provides that all Christians are called to be witnesses of the Gospel—and of the obligations that flow from it—in word and example.

CUF episcopal advisor Robert J. Carlson, Bishop of Sioux Falls, SD, provides an excellent example of what it means to be a witness. During the summers, he has some of his seminarians live with him at the bishop’s residence. He reports, "They can hear me preach and then watch me like a hawk to see if I believe anything I said."

Because we’re Christians, people are also watching us. They’re not so much interested in our spouting of Church teaching ("holding the party line"), or even in our explicitly pro-life work. What they want to see are people who take what they say home with them. Do our lives back up our words? Do we really believe what we profess?

As witnesses of the Gospel of Life, we have to continually call ourselves back to the fundamental truth that at the heart of the Gospel is not an ideology or a moral code, but a person, Jesus Christ. Christ is alive in us through faith and the sacraments, and our mission is nothing other than being Christ’s ambassadors to the world, offering hope and reconciliation in His name.

Age of Martyrs

The Church of the first millennium was born of the blood of the first Christian martyrs—those who gave the supreme witness to the truths of the faith (cf. Catechism, no. 2473). On the threshold of the third millennium, Pope John Paul II exhorts us to remember the ageless witness of the martyrs who proclaimed the Gospel by laying down their lives out of love of God.

I vividly remember a talk given by Prof. Stanley Hauerwas of Duke, in which he said that if there’s nothing worth dying for then there’s nothing worth living for. Our lives here on earth have meaning and purpose. Life is indeed worth living, and that’s the fundamental truth proclaimed by the pro-life movement. Martyrdom is far from a rejection of the goodness and value of human life. Rather, it bears witness to the paradoxical truth that those who cling to this life will lose it, while those who lose this life out of love of God and neighbor will save it (cf. Jn. 12:25).

Sometimes we think of the Christian martyrs as figures of the distant past or rare heroes like St. Maximilian Kolbe. But, as Pope John Paul II says, the Church right now is a Church of martyrs. In recent months, China, India, Sudan, Congo, and East Timor, among other places, have witnessed the intense persecution of Christians. The stories of these Christians form the "archives of truth" (Catechism, no 2474) that the rest of us must treasure.

Seed of Christians

"The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians." Pope John Paul II applies this ancient maxim, attributed to Tertullian (c. 160-c. 222), to the situation today, as he fully anticipates a great harvest or "springtime" of holiness and fidelity in the new millennium.

Where is the seed in our own backyard? After all, our government is only executing its criminals (that’s bad enough!), and not Christians per se.

I think of the victims already claimed by the "culture of death" in our country, especially the millions of babies who have been killed with government approval since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. I also think of the terminally ill, as we stave off the relentless push for legalized euthanasia.

But I also think of the everyday witnesses for life that surround us. I think of Maureen and all the heroic women who choose life even at great personal sacrifice. I think of Dr. Schaerth (featured in this month's issue) and other pro-life physicians who courageously put their beliefs into practice. And I think of all the "hidden martyrs" who, in their own journey of faith, experience suffering that is truly salvific. Their quiet fidelity is building up the Church in our midst and ushering in a new generation of saints.

For this issue’s "Pope Speaks" column, I have chosen Pope John Paul II’s recent "Letter to the Elderly," which addresses another group of people that is shamefully neglected by our society. The Holy Father’s poignant message is one of solidarity (he’s 79 himself) and hope, as he proclaims to those of us in the twilight of our lives—and to all people—that the love of God extends beyond the grave.

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