God IS love. This is the very essence of Trinity since there is the one who loves, the one who is loved and the love that passes from one to the other. Love is God’s very essence. It is his very nature, his whole being. So, in the trinity we find the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end of love, full, complete, nothing to be added and nothing to be taken away. Before all else was – this love was; all encompassing, complete, and eternal. Yes, God is love. But God is also life. He is not just alive as a tree or bird may be but rather, as Saint Thomas Aquinas tells us, He is Life itself. He is the very act of being. So, God does not have life as a possession or an attribute, as we do, but He is being itself, life itself. God’s love is creative, and from His love all other life springs forth. We know something about that, since in one way or another we have each experienced the life-giving force of love, be it the creative power of art, science, engineering, teaching, or be it the intimacy between a husband and wife. Love is creative and it follows the pattern laid down by our God.
As the author of life, it is only God who has the authority to give life and to take it. God and God alone is the Lord of Live and Death. He alone has sovereignty over it, and he alone delegates that to others as he wills – to doctors, to parents, to others, in limited ways and as situations may demand. But in each and every one of these situations God remains the Lord of Life and at no point are we to do with life simply as we please. The Catechism teaches that all human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God himself, and this human life remains forever in a special and unique relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. If we recognize that truth, we easily see that each life has a God given dignity which no government, no court, no loud and demanding court of public opinion can or should try to supplant. This is why the Catholic Church stands firm and teaches without apology or compromise the affront to God and to life that abortion, suicide, euthanasia, and cloning are and will always be. To reject and destroy life is to blind oneself to love. It is the shattering of wisdom and clarity; it is the abandonment of conscience, and it is the embrace of confusion and loss. It is the ascendance of darkness and death, and yes evil.
This loss of conscience, of clarity, this clear rejection of the God’s plan of life, is thrown into clear relief with the recently passed ‘Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act’ (August 10, 2026) which permits abortion throughout pregnancy removing all statutory limitations. Let us pause just there. Imagine abortion up until the moment of birth. With this new law, it will be up to the physician’s judgement, with all time limits and restrictions removed.
This is where we have now arrived, and I fear will continue from. This is what our Commonwealth puts on display and promotes as patient care. Is this care for the child? Is this care for the mother? Is this care for our youth, and especially for our young girls, who continue to witness how little society and culture appear to really care for them.
So, what can we do? In the recent letter from the Bishops of Massachusetts on this subject, we are told to pray, to witness, to speak up and to choose life and to promote that message within our families and to our youth. But we must also prepare, for the repeal of this law, though in process, is unlikely, and there will be many broken lives, many broken hearts, truly suffering souls who will need our attention. There will be many who will for the rest of their lives carry the heavy burden of a momentary yet truly devastating decision. We, you and I, will find ourselves in times and places where we can share the message we have each received, the message of forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy, and peace. The message that tells us that this God of Life is also the God of Love who rejects no one who comes to Him. This God who invites without restraint all to come into and abide in the love relationship of the triune God. For within him we live and move and have our being. Within him is a mercy unfathomable, deep and without limit. As we look upon the other, the hurting and broken hearted, we must see in each the face of Jesus and so be moved to comfort them. We must share with them the solace that is found only in the One who created us, gave us life, loved us into being.
As we sit now before our Lord, we pray for all those impacted by abortion by suicide, and by euthanasia (currently illegal in the Commonwealth but legal in Vermont and Maine). We pray that God gives us his mercy, that we experience his love in our lives and that we carry his message of forgiveness and mercy wherever it needs to be heard.
Amen.
Deacon Peter Bujwid
St Agnes Church, Arlington, Massachusetts
As the author of life, it is only God who has the authority to give life and to take it. God and God alone is the Lord of Live and Death. He alone has sovereignty over it, and he alone delegates that to others as he wills – to doctors, to parents, to others, in limited ways and as situations may demand. But in each and every one of these situations God remains the Lord of Life and at no point are we to do with life simply as we please. The Catechism teaches that all human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God himself, and this human life remains forever in a special and unique relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. If we recognize that truth, we easily see that each life has a God given dignity which no government, no court, no loud and demanding court of public opinion can or should try to supplant. This is why the Catholic Church stands firm and teaches without apology or compromise the affront to God and to life that abortion, suicide, euthanasia, and cloning are and will always be. To reject and destroy life is to blind oneself to love. It is the shattering of wisdom and clarity; it is the abandonment of conscience, and it is the embrace of confusion and loss. It is the ascendance of darkness and death, and yes evil.
This loss of conscience, of clarity, this clear rejection of the God’s plan of life, is thrown into clear relief with the recently passed ‘Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act’ (August 10, 2026) which permits abortion throughout pregnancy removing all statutory limitations. Let us pause just there. Imagine abortion up until the moment of birth. With this new law, it will be up to the physician’s judgement, with all time limits and restrictions removed.
This is where we have now arrived, and I fear will continue from. This is what our Commonwealth puts on display and promotes as patient care. Is this care for the child? Is this care for the mother? Is this care for our youth, and especially for our young girls, who continue to witness how little society and culture appear to really care for them.
So, what can we do? In the recent letter from the Bishops of Massachusetts on this subject, we are told to pray, to witness, to speak up and to choose life and to promote that message within our families and to our youth. But we must also prepare, for the repeal of this law, though in process, is unlikely, and there will be many broken lives, many broken hearts, truly suffering souls who will need our attention. There will be many who will for the rest of their lives carry the heavy burden of a momentary yet truly devastating decision. We, you and I, will find ourselves in times and places where we can share the message we have each received, the message of forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy, and peace. The message that tells us that this God of Life is also the God of Love who rejects no one who comes to Him. This God who invites without restraint all to come into and abide in the love relationship of the triune God. For within him we live and move and have our being. Within him is a mercy unfathomable, deep and without limit. As we look upon the other, the hurting and broken hearted, we must see in each the face of Jesus and so be moved to comfort them. We must share with them the solace that is found only in the One who created us, gave us life, loved us into being.
As we sit now before our Lord, we pray for all those impacted by abortion by suicide, and by euthanasia (currently illegal in the Commonwealth but legal in Vermont and Maine). We pray that God gives us his mercy, that we experience his love in our lives and that we carry his message of forgiveness and mercy wherever it needs to be heard.
Amen.
Deacon Peter Bujwid
St Agnes Church, Arlington, Massachusetts
October 18, 2026
