Joe Biden has pledged to unify the country. Obama made the same pledge and when he left the White House, the country was more divided than when he first took office. Unifying the county is a fine idea but, as far as recent politicians go, it remains a pipe dream. Yet, it is a magic flute that continues to mesmerize the masses.
Concerning abortion, Obama told his audience at Notre Dame University that we must work together to find a middle ground. Politicians can say these things only because they sound good. With regard to abortion, however, there is no middle ground. The unborn are either dead or alive. The “middle ground” is a phantasm, the kind of thing politicians refer to when they are no longer concerned about reality and only concerned about putting the wool over people’s hearts and minds.
There is an evident disconnection between the pledge to unify the nation and the pledge to maintain abortion. Biden’s zealous promotion of abortion is well known. The pregnant woman, however, represents an existential unity between herself as mother and her unborn child. This is a ground level unity which is the prototype of all other unities — marriage, family, community, and country. To promote abortion and preach national unity is a perfect example of double-talk that rests on double-think. Biden boasts of walking a mile, but without taking the first step. His journey is aborted at the starting point.
Politics, in the proper order of things, is a branch of ethics. Ethics, itself, is based on nature, that is, the natural law which indicates what is good. Life is good; its destruction is not good. This is a realistic framework. When the order of nature is either rejected or distorted, both ethics and politics suffer. Biden’s politics, particularly concerning abortion, has nothing to do with either nature or ethics. It is a velleity that floats on the wind, a choice with no anchor in what is good. It is, therefore, a disordered fabrication that cannot possibly bring about any other kind of unity, natural or otherwise.
A little more than 2,000 years ago, a woman, having fully accepted her pregnancy despite what seemed to be unfavorable circumstance, brought a child into the world whose mission is to bring peace and unity to all men of good will. The Nativity demonstrates the morally unbreakable connection between one unity—a mother’s love for her child—and all other unities between human beings. Christmas, therefore, is intensely and uncompromisingly realistic. The natural love a mother has for her unborn child set in the context of the Holy Family and bringing forth a Savior, is a progression that mankind should be honoring, not opposing. We grow and flourish as a nation from that fundamental model of love that transpires between a mother and the child that is growing within her. Mary, then, far more than any politician, is the primary architect of unity. She offers her message to the world not so much through her words, but through her example, which includes faith, courage, hope, and unfailing love. She embodies the unity that is the precursor to all other unities.
The North Star is the brightest star in its constellation. In the middle ages it was called Stella Maris, star of the sea. This is one of the names used to refer to Mary, the Mother of God. In the sea-going voyage which is our life, Mary is our guiding star. She teaches us to begin our lives with a love that is closest to us, one that can be transmitted undiluted to others, from family members, relatives and friends to all others who inhabit this weary world. Christmas is a time to spread love, a love that seeks its perfection in unifying souls.
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Photo by David Dibert on Unsplash
