As the Jubilee approaches, our Holy Father urges us to prayerfully reflect upon the
challenges of our time with special concern for the unique role of motherhood, the family,
and marriage.
Today I write not as a corporate strategic planner, best-selling author, or business
executive. While each of these roles has been meaningful at different times in my life,
they pale in significance when compared to the awesome responsibility of being the founder
and executive director of The Nurturing Network. For the past 15 years, this international
charity has marshaled the energy and talent of over 22,000 volunteer members who have
provided the practical, life-saving help needed by over 12,000 mothers who have turned to
us during the crisis of an unplanned pregnancy.
I also share my reflections as a wife and mother. In and through this life-altering
vocation, I have come to recognize the face of Jesus Christ up close and in living color.
It has been as both a wife and a mother that the "call to holiness" has taken on
much deeper meaning as it has been cast in the agony and ecstasy of family life. My
deepest gratitude is reserved for my husband and children who continue to nurture me with
their steadfast love and have entrusted me with the priceless gift of their very lives.
Our shared life in Christ together has taught me more than any theology course or homily
ever could about what it really means to "love one another as I have loved you"
(Jn. 13:34).
As a mother not only to our own two children but also to the thousands of women who
have turned to us at The Nurturing Network in their hour of greatest need, I have been
given a unique opportunity to observe the
dynamic forces of good and evil at work in many lives. There is an intimacy and an honesty
about the conversations that have led to my observations that may not be unlike the insights gleaned by a
priest after years of experience in the confessional. In listening to story after
heart-wrenching story of lives torn apart and left
in shambles by the ravages of that old-fashioned word, sin, I have started to reach a few
conclusions about how Satan manages to wreak so much havoc in so many well-intentioned
lives. I have started to detect a recurrent pattern of three basic lies that, once sewn
into the fiber of even the most virtuous lives, will eventually unravel the whole moral
fabric.
First, many people today do not believe that they are, as Sacred Scripture teaches us,
beloved children of God (cf. 1 Jn. 3:1). They have completely lost sight of themselves and
anyone else as having been lovingly created by an almighty and merciful Father. They no
longer see anyone as being infinitely valuable and precious in His sight.
Second, and perhaps because so many are out of touch with their own belovedness, many
people lack the inspiration and the will to behave as beloved children of God. They have
bought into the lie that they have no
moral obligations and, therefore, will suffer no negative consequences for their unloving
behavior.
And third, because we cannot give what we do not have, many people perceive little or
no responsibility to teach others that they are beloved children of God. The original lie
comes full circle.
I believe that these three most basic lies have had much to do with why so many of us
have languished for so long in our own spiritual winters. I also believe that our ability
to embrace the new millennium with undaunted hope and unwavering courage will depend
fundamentally-and even primarily-upon our willingness to expose these lies and to more
fully believe, consistently live, and patiently teach about our belovedness as children of
God.
I believe that the "new Catholic springtime," to which Our Holy Father is
calling us, will be about consistently doing the day-to-day, hard work of living as
beloved children of God. Unfortunately, given our fallen natures, we know that it will not
be enough to simply know or believe in God's love for us. We must continually look for
guidance as it is revealed to us through the Word of God and the moral teachings of the
Church. We must gain sustenance from the grace that abounds in having a fervent prayer
life and frequent participation in the sacraments -especially the Sacraments of Holy
Eucharist and Reconciliation.
We might also ask if there is any role model to whom we might turn for help in further
strengthening our resolve to live as beloved children of God. Of course, the most perfect
example for any Christian is Jesus
Christ Himself. And just as surely, His Blessed Mother provides the other most inspiring
and perfect
example for us to follow. But without taking anything away from these ideal role models, I
believe that there may be yet another in our midst who could teach us much about how to
behave as beloved children of God. I
am referring to the standard set forth by Christ Himself when He said, "Unless you.
..become like children,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 18:3).
I believe it was for very sound reasons that Christ identified the little children as
"the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Children are resilient when injured,
quick to forgive, and slow to anger. Children experience wonder in each new day and
discover joy in every new encounter. They build bridges of love across canyons of
loneliness. They reach out to everyone in a spirit of genuine humility and trust. We
adults, on the other hand, tend to nurse old wounds, harbor resentments, and savor
grudges. We get caught up in our petty differences and the tedium of our daily chores. We
find ways to complicate even the simplest of life's joys. In appreciating the inspiring
example that children truly are, we might benefit from turning to St. Paul's famous Letter
to the Corinthians and replace the words "love is" with "children
are."
No wonder the target of Satan's most vicious attacks in our current culture of death
has been the children. Whether born or unborn, he seems to have grasped better than many
of us why Our Lord singled out the child and said, "Whoever receives one such child
in my name receives me" (Mt. 18:5). This is why the master of lies has delighted in
presiding over the extermination of a whole generation of unborn children. This is why his
thirst for the innocence and virtue of young children is so insatiable.
Have you noticed lately the hardcore pornography that any child with a computer can
dial up "on-line"
without restriction? Have you listened to the suggestive lyrics of the most popular songs,
the violent images of the prime time cartoons, the explicit nudity of the most widely
advertised videos and movies? For that matter, have you taken a l3-year-old girl shopping
recently for clothes and seen the provocative fashions being modeled for her as desirable
and attractive?
If you haven't, then I suggest that you should. It will remind you all over again that we must increase our ardor and work more effectively to put an end to this spiritual ice age that we have identified as a culture of death. To live like a beloved child of God most certainly includes protecting our children. We must do whatever it takes to win back our families from the traps that Satan has set for us. I strongly recommend that you shut off the violent programs, get rid of the explicit CDs, terminate the subscription to the questionable youth magazine, stop buying the suggestive clothing, and cancel the on-line programming until profit-driven executives get back in line with your much higher standards as a beloved child of God.
Embracing the new millennium with optimism and energy will be about evangelization. It will involve not only defying Satan's most basic lie about your belovedness and mine, but also teaching others that they are beloved children of God. Ours is not a religion that allows us to just "look out for number one." We are told again and again that we are our "brother's and sister's keeper." This means so much more than just feeling sorry for their plight. We are each called to "feed His lambs" (cf. Jn. 21:15). This is why it is not enough merely to say that we are "for life." We have a moral obligation to provide the practical means to support it.
Jesus calls each of us to care for the least of our brothers and sisters (cf. Mt. 25:31-46), and to see Him even in the face of our enemy (cf. Mt. 5:44). His warning, "So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven" (Mt. 10:32-33) is intended for all of us. His call for practical compassion and universal discipleship is a challenge to each of us if we are to help usher in the Jubilee in ways that will help build an authentic and lasting culture of life.
If you ever become puzzled as I have about what you may be called to teach, I encourage you to simply ask yourself, "What would Jesus say and do?" Each day at The Nurturing Network, I am invited to ask this question all over again. And I can almost hear Our Lord's gentle reply. Whether He was addressing the woman at the well or the woman caught in adultery, He taught her to see herself as His Father-Our Father-always does: as a beloved child of God.
He would ask us to be His guiding hand and show her that path to forgiveness of herself and those who have led her astray. He would ask us to convince her that real freedom is found in following the Way, the Truth, and the Life-not in exercising a "choice" that would kill her unborn child. He would tell us to clothe her with dignity and to feed her with compassion. He would encourage us to help her hear the words "This is My Body" in a new and profound way. He would ask us to teach her the real meaning of the phrase "and a little child shall lead them" (Is. 11 :6). For her child will lead her to her own personal victory of hope over despair and life over death.
This is the heart and soul of the evangelization of Jesus Christ to which we are all invited in the new millennium as we protect and nurture each fragile human life--0ne at a time. Mary Cunningham Agee is the founder and executive director of The Nurturing Network and recently became a member of CUFS advisory council. She is a best-selling author; charitable entrepreneur; and devoted wife and mother
