Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praise be Jesus and Mary.
I was praying the office of readings this morning.
The first reading is from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 30.
And these words stood out to me.
Choose life. Choose life.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade,
when abortion was legalized in our country.
We just had the annual March for Life a few days ago.
And among the signs popular among Protestants
or lifers is the simple sign that says,
Choose life.
It's a choice that must be made by every individual soul
and then also every individual nation.
Now let's see what the context of these words is in the reading.
It says,
Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live
by loving the Lord your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
So the exhortation is to choose life.
How do we go about choosing life according to the word of God?
By loving the Lord your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
And then it also tells us why we want to choose life.
That you and your descendants,
may live.
That we may live.
Now this is referring to life in this world,
but also in the next.
That we may live in this world with God's blessings.
That we may live supernaturally,
have grace in our soul.
That our souls may be alive and vivified
by God's own life, by his grace.
And also that we may have eternal life.
So for these reasons, we ought to choose life.
Now, it's not obligatory.
It's not mandatory.
Nobody's required to.
We all have a choice to make.
We can choose life or not.
These two paths are set before everyone.
Again, the reading says,
Here then, I have today set before you
life and prosperity, or death and gloom.
So this is a choice.
This is a choice.
This is a choice.
This is the choice that we have.
Life and prosperity, or death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes, and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the Lord, your God, will bless you.
Okay, again, this is an exhortation
to every individual soul
and individual person.
And entire nations.
If, however, you turn away your hearts
and will not listen,
but are led astray,
and adore and serve other gods,
such as the gods of pleasure and convenience,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish.
Okay, again, you will certainly perish.
What's that mean?
You will perish spiritually,
that is, you will be living in mortal sin
without the grace of God,
without his life in your soul,
and temporally as well.
Your nation will perish
if you do not choose life.
Now, it's interesting
how the official Latin translation of this
says,
Elige Vitam.
Okay, Eligere.
That happens to be the word
that the word elect
comes from that word,
Eligere.
So another way to translate that is
elect life,
which we can understand to mean
we need to elect pro-life politicians.
We need to vote these people into office.
But last year, that did not happen.
The majority of Catholics,
chose death on the ballot in November.
So we had before us the choice of
electing life and prosperity
or death and doom.
And we voted for, we chose death and doom,
and we will get just what we deserve.
That is, we will certainly perish.
Now, we shouldn't lose hope.
Okay, souls who want to be faithful to God,
should not lose hope,
notwithstanding the majority have chosen death and doom.
But we should turn to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Only she can save us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness
of the pro-life cause.
Why?
Because she is the first to have chosen life
when she welcomed he who is the life
into her womb.
Remember, this also means choosing life.
Jesus Christ said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
So another way to understand this passage
when it says choose life,
means to choose Jesus Christ.
And Our Lady did that at the Annunciation.
And so for this reason, we turn to her,
our only hope in this hour of darkness
and death and doom.
Our Lady of Guadalupe,
pray for us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
z
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.