Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for a pro-life Mass at Xavier College Preparatory.
“Like a mustard seed…”
January 29, 2021
“The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed… the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.”
These words of Jesus seem especially appropriate as I have the joy of celebrating Mass with you at Xavier “For Giving Thanks to God for the Gift of Human Life.” Thank you for inviting me again, as you have for many years now, to join you in prayer on or near the anniversary of the tragic U.S. Supreme Court decision: “Roe v Wade,” which removed all legal protection from our unborn brothers and sisters in America.
Followers of Christ have always held that the Commandment of God, “Thou shall not kill” includes children in the womb. No Catholic can in good conscience support abortion. Pope St John Paul II, speaking in Washington, DC, in October 1979 affirmed this, saying, “Nothing surpasses the greatness or dignity of a human person.” For that reason, the Church “will stand up every time that human life is threatened.” Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have continued this same defense of pre-born children, as well as the defense of those threatened by child abuse, exploitation, and abandonment of the sick and elderly.
Therefore, we American Bishops affirmed, this past November, that the continued injustice of abortion remains the “preeminent priority” of the Church. The fact that not all our fellow citizens agree with this preeminent priority should not surprise us. Followers of Jesus, in every century have been called to be, as Jesus Himself is, “a sign of contradiction,” defending those overlooked and most vulnerable in society.
In our First Reading today, the Letter to the Hebrews told the first Christian converts from Judaism (Heb 10:32f), “Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a great contest of suffering. At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and affliction; at other times you associated yourselves with those so treated.” We should not be surprised that faithful witness to Jesus brings harsh criticism our way and even persecution. However, it should concern us, and be a wake-up call for us, if our words and actions never stir up controversy, never rouse the opposition of others; for there is a great difference between the Kingdom of God and the world in which we live.
Even before His own suffering, death and Resurrection, Jesus told His first disciples (Mt 10:16-20),
“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves… …they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors… When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak… For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
Dear students of Xavier, you have an irreplaceable role as young women in bearing witness to Jesus and His Gospel of Life. Do not let anyone dissuade you otherwise or undercut your confidence that the Lord’s grace is at work within your minds and hearts. How important it is that the thousands of tragic deaths that occur every day in America because of abortion are not forgotten. We must we do all we can to bring an end to that evil and reach out to all mothers and fathers and others who have been wounded emotionally and spiritually by abortion.
Pope St. John Paul II, in his encyclical The Gospel of Life (#99), spoke of the special Pro-Life witness of women. He wrote:
“In transforming culture so that it supports life, women occupy a place, in thought and action, which is unique and decisive. It depends on them to promote a ‘new feminism’ which rejects the temptation of imitating models of ‘male domination,’ in order to acknowledge and affirm the true genius of women in every aspect of the life of society…”
What is the Lord calling young women like you to do at this pivotal juncture in American history? It is more than refusing to be part of the culture of death, although that is a necessary first step. The culture of death must be transformed; a culture of life must be constructed; and this requires prayer, thought and action. At the heart of this is the need to affirm the sensitivity and insights that women have into Jesus’ Parable of the mustard seed (Mk 4:30). “The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed… the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.”
Dr. Mary Healy, a Biblical scholar in Detroit, writes (Hebrews, 211), “…in Jesus’ death on the Cross—paradoxically, at the moment of greatest hiddenness—God’s innermost mystery is finally and fully revealed…Christ’s humanity, torn and crushed by human sin, opened the way into the very heart of God.” Jesus emptied Himself of the glory He shared from all eternity with His heavenly Father. At His conception in His mother Mary’s womb, He became smaller than a mustard seed. Then, 33 years later, in His suffering on the Cross, He let Himself be made “smaller in the world’s eyes than guilty criminals.” This is love: making a total gift of self, even until death on the Cross to rescue us from sin.
Two days ago, my niece Andrea gave birth to her first child, a healthy boy of 8 pounds 4 ounces. In the months leading up to her delivery of little Anthony III, she was constantly attentive to the tiny little baby growing within. She shared her joyful expectations with her 4th Grade students whom she teaches, and above all with her husband Tony II. What a gift Andrea’s femininity and motherhood have been for many others. She has helped the rest of us have an even greater appreciation of why Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. Some of the most sacred moments in life occur in what may seem to be too small be matter, as if the life of little Tony III were of less value, in Andrea’s womb, six months ago than it is today.
Jesus began to redeem the world at the moment He was conceived in His mother Mary’s womb. That’s when the Word of God became Flesh, when the Son of God entered human history. And Mary’s cousin Elizabeth recognized God’s presence in Mary’s womb when she came to visit and assist her in her pregnancy. The way God chose to rescue human history from the sin of Adam and Eve seemed to most of the world to be too little to matter, too hidden to be noticed. But both Mary and Elizabeth knew the wisdom of what Jesus would teach to His disciples (Mt 18:3), “Unless you turn and become like children you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.”
Each woman is created by God to experience love and to express love through the vocation of motherhood, whether it be physical motherhood like that of Andrea or your own mom; or be spiritual motherhood like that of Sister Joan and the other Sisters who serve and teach at Xavier. Pope St. John Paul II put it this way:
“Motherhood involves a special communion with the mystery of life, as it develops in the woman’s womb…. This unique contact with the new human being developing within her gives rise to an attitude towards human beings, not only towards her own child, but every human being, which profoundly marks the woman’s personality… Women first learn and then teach others that human relations are authentic if they are open to accepting the other person… This is the …indispensable prerequisite for an authentic cultural change.”
Dear young women of Xavier, You are created to be the temple of the Holy Spirit – a temple of love and a sanctuary of life.
