I am legally blind. I have been since birth. What I've come to realize during the week I spent with EMC is that so many people with full vision are more blind than I am. Whats worse is they don't know that they aren't seeing everything.
One afternoon while at our usual post outside of Planned Parenthood in the South Bronx, we had the opportunity to speak with a young woman about abortion. We tried to explain that by 8 weeks the baby already had arms and legs and fingers and toes. She began arguing with us and telling us that we were wrong. She told she had an abortion and used to work for planned parenthood that after an abortion they "separated the fetal tissue from the placental tissue and sent the two masses to pathology." She said the "fetal tissue" was only tissue and cartilage and looked more like a tadpole than a human. We tried to engage her in the question of whether its okay to kill based on level of development but she just avoided the question. I remember asking myself over and over, "Why can't she see? These babies are human, how can she not see that?" We gave her all the information we could about the Science of fetal development, but she wouldn't listen.
Our last day in the Bronx, Sean and I were inside the South Bronx Pregnancy Center, looking at some of the fetal development models. As I held that replica of a baby at 12 weeks along, my mind went back to the previous conversation. "Why can't she see?" I sat there looking at this baby and even in my blurry, unfocused, vision I could tell that it had distinct human characteristics. "How could she not see that this is a human?" She has been lied to for so long that she is now blind to the truth. She doesn't even know it. When you know you aren't seeing something you can't begin to piece together what your missing. When you think that what you see is all there is, you remain totally ignorant to the truth. It's not her fault that she can't see these babies as humans and not just tissue. just as it is not my fault that I can not see a deep puddle as anything more than a wet sidewalk. However, that does not make her right anymore than not knowing there is a puddle prevents me from getting wet. Just as I need help seeing things physically, this lady needs help seeing the facts of life. We must pray for her and for those like her who are blind to these truths.
1 comment:
Without God, we are left with misery and sin.
Misery is the state of one's soul when we believe lies and deceit which rationalize our behavior and then become defensive when we are challenged to defend our rationalization.
Beth, your analogy of stepping in the puddle brings to mind the way Msgr William Smith, a moral theologian from St. Joseph Seminary used to make the same point.
Msgr William Smith taught is from "The Splendor of Truth" written by John Paul II. The Holy Father described the errors man makes with the truth. Msgr Smith said, "you can walk into the street and be convinced you are safe... But if a truck is coming and you are hit by the truck, you are dead. You may be convinced you are safe, but you are dead."
Just as stepping in the puddle leaves you with a wet foot, (and is a much gentler analogy), for the woman to argue with the truth reveals the compromise she makes with the truth.
Thank God for your good mind and soul and gentle way to get the point across, Beth!
Cheers !
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