(LifeSiteNews) — When we try to conform God to our wishes, the culture of death wins.
A culture of death, as defined by St. John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae, is one in which there is “a war of the powerful against the weak: a life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is considered useless, or held to be an intolerable burden, and is therefore rejected in one way or another.”
This includes both the preborn baby and the elderly or the sick who require care.
But I believe this “war of the powerful against the weak” includes so much more. A culture of death also results from actions taken by people who seek to make God conform to their wishes and thus tear down Christianity.
Don’t believe something the Catholic Church teaches? Form a new church or a new denomination. Forgo God’s rules and change them to what you want and to what’s easier.
Think that abortion should be a woman’s choice and that it doesn’t take the life of a baby, then search for a church that teaches its members to “follow the dictates of [their] own faith.”
Think you should be able to use your partner or your spouse for pleasure only and just give part of yourself to him or her? Find a church that says it’s okay with its members using birth control.
Think marriage should not be a sacred covenant between a man and a woman, find a church that claims “love is love.”
Each of these deviations from God’s laws breaks down the very fibers of faith, skewing our Lord’s words to make them conform to society’s standards.
But we have to understand that it is not God who should change; it is we who should change.
Jesus came here to save us and to give us a roadmap to eternity with Him in heaven. He founded the Catholic Church and left men who would teach not just the people around them but the generations who would come after them. Jesus never said that following Him would be easy. In fact, He told them it would be hard and that “whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
When He gave the keys to the kingdom to Peter, He said, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”
Jesus gave Peter the authority to act in His stead here on earth. And so the Catholic Church was formed, with laws and tenets meant to safeguard our souls. They are the guardrails that keep us from veering off the path to heaven. But as with any guardrails, we can break through them if we so choose. We can go our own way, do our own thing, and ignore the Church and its teachings.
But what happens to society when we do this?
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Take a look around. We have a society filled with people who have no regard for life—born or preborn. We have a society where a mother can’t be safe walking her child to the bus stop, where women repeatedly scream “my body, my choice” and actually believe it, where several states have passed laws allowing physician-assisted suicide to eliminate people deemed “burdens,” where human trafficking is rampant, where Planned Parenthood has politicians in its back pocket, where the sanctity of marriage is scoffed at, and where parents openly advocate for children to maim their bodies through”“sex-change” surgeries. And that’s just the tip of the culture-of-death iceberg.
These atrocities happen when we ignore our Heavenly Father and go our own way.
And you better believe that the devil is rejoicing at our rebellion.
Jesus told us that the gates of the netherworld would not prevail, and we can believe that this is true. But we must also know that Satan will certainly try to prevail. In fact, he works hard every day to tear down our faith and to make us believe his work is a good thing. He even tries to make us believe that his desires are our own.
This twisted logic is meant to confuse us and to turn us away from God and from what’s good and holy. In so doing, Satan has us right where he wants us, standing with him in defiance of God, telling Him we know what’s better and that our rules take precedence. Satan, the fallen angel, wants us to also fall.
This is in stark contrast to our loving and merciful Father, who wants to build us up, who teaches that His way is not the world’s, and who wants us with Him for eternity.
But to follow Him, we must stand up for the truths of our faith—proudly, unapologetically, and with love.
In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus explained that not everyone will get to heaven. That is a sad truth. Heaven is a choice, and to get there requires action. It is our job to not only get ourselves there but to get our children, our spouses, and our friends, family, and neighbors there.
If we continually rebel against God and do what we want, we are contributing to the daily victories of the culture of death. No, the culture of death will not ultimately prevail, but it may just suck you in. So examine your life, make necessary changes, and ask yourself, When the final battle is fought, whose side will I be standing on?
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Susan Ciancio is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has worked as a writer and editor since 2003; more than 16 of those years have been in the pro-life movement. Currently, she is the editor of American Life League’s Celebrate Life Magazine—the nation’s premier Catholic pro-life magazine. She is also the director and executive editor of ALL’s Culture of Life Studies Program—a pre-K-12 Catholic pro-life education organization.
