A Call to Confidence
On this 36th annual March for Life, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) is proud to stand together with legions of Americans nationwide who brave the elements to give public witness to their opposition to abortion.Our movement has done much to fight this evil. Looking to our past, it would seem that we have done everything humanly possible to oppose the slaughter of innocents that has so scourged our nation since the infamous Roe v. Wade decision first imposed abortion-on-demand upon the American people in 1973.
We have organized. Our movement has united Americans from every walk of life, young and old, men and women. Our activists have used every peaceful and legal resource available to us to make the other side retreat. We have met the pro-abortion forces in every field and proven ourselves as a vibrant force that refuses to be silenced.
We have protested. Our movement has taken to the streets making our voices heard in front of abortion clinics, public squares and capitol buildings all over the county. Our protests have seen scores of abortion clinics shut down and thousands of babies saved. Our message is proclaimed everywhere—on radio waves, web sites, billboards, license plates and truck panels. Young voices join with old in giving public witness and continuity to our repudiation of this shame of our age.
We have prayed. Our most important actions are the prayers that rise up to heaven imploring God’s aid in this vast fight. It is the force of our supplications and rosaries that have proven so successful in closing clinics and changing hearts. It is in these ardent supplications that we have found strength beyond our own—a supernatural strength that so confounds our adversaries.
We Must Confide. However, the situation has now dramatically changed. Today, the pro-life movement faces new and grave challenges that might seem insurmountable. We are tempted to cry out that we have done the “humanly possible.” We are tempted to think that there is no way to oppose such overwhelming opposition. Many ask: what can be done?
We answer that we must hope beyond all hope; we must confide. Confidence is defined as a fortified hope. It is an extraordinary and heroic hope that does not bear hesitation or admit the slightest doubt. It rests upon an enormous faith in God and His Providence. This can be seen in the words of the psalmist: “The Lord protects my life: who will make me fear?” (Ps. 26: 1)
In face of the struggles we have ahead, we are called to carry on this cultural battle with an unshakable confidence. Indeed, the more human help becomes improbable, the more certain becomes Divine intervention. In the midst of adversity, the confident soul calmly prays all the more ardently in the darkness of the trial hoping in silence for the hour of God.
A Call to Confident Action
With noble obstinacy, we have carried our cause ahead achieving impressive victories. Now is not the time to give up the fight or diminish our activity. To the contrary, we must intensify our efforts but uniting it with a great confidence, having in mind that we look to God alone for the efficacy of our action. To make it clear that God is the cause of our good actions, it is often from the depths of trials that God grants great victories.
To use the expression of Saint Ignatius of Loyola: “Trust in God, acting nevertheless as if the success of every action depended entirely on you and not at all in God. But employing your efforts to attain this good result, do not count on them, but proceed as if everything were done by God alone and nothing by you.”
Reasons for Confidence
Indeed, in our struggle against abortion, we have every reason to practice such confidence. Our very faith demands it of us. We can confide in God’s power since everything is subject to His sovereign domain. There is no power on earth that can keep Him from helping and protecting us.
We can confide in His goodness since Our Lord’s compassion for men is without bounds. He naturally wants to relieve our affliction. His Heart is consumed with an infinite charity that loses no opportunity to aid those who confide in Him.
Above all, we can look to His Holy Mother to whom He refuses nothing. This power and goodness would incite us to direct ourselves to God and the Blessed Mother with holy audacity, asking them to secure the final victory. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself assured us, “ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7).
Beyond the Humanly Possible
Such promises should inspire us to go beyond the “humanly possible” and have no doubt that we will see Divine Intervention in this great cultural battle. Confident prayer obtains everything.
It is with the spirit of confident prayer that we must continue our struggle against abortion. Too often we have confided in the promises of men and politicians who have failed to fulfill their promises. Now is the time when we must confide all the more in Providence.
Let us publicly manifest this confidence in events like the March for Life. As an act of public confidence, the American TFP was proud to help coordinate 3,500 Public Square Rosary Rallies last October 11. Tens of thousands of Catholics gathered in public places nationwide recognizing the failure of men to solve so many problems and confiding in Our Lady’s promises at Fatima for solutions to put an end to abortion and so many other moral evils.
We are confident that all our pleas are not in vain. God has taken us this far. We are confident that he will complete His work—if we do our part. We must thus redouble our efforts and prayers since the final victory is assured in the words of the Savior who declared on the eve of His death: “Confidence! Confidence! I have overcome the world!” (John 16: 33)
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