As our first Action News message in 2005, we offer a happy new year to down-to-earth our callers and readers. We wish you health, happiness and holiness, but mostly holiness, since that’s what it’s all about.
We’ll Miss Fr. Commons
Fr. Thomas Commons, of the Society of the Divine Word, knows for sure that is what it is all about. Fr. Tom, a godly priest and pro-life activist, died last week at the Society of the Divine Word monastery after a lingering illness.
Fr. Tom was a fighter up to then end. He joined us on many of our Face the Truth Tours, attended our prayer vigils, and said at least fifty Masses in our office chapel, including a Mass on August 15, 2002, the 50th anniversary of his ordination.
A wake service will be Monday evening at 7:00, at the Divine Word Chapel in Techny and Waukegan Roads in Techny. The chapel is the building with the twin towers. The funeral is Monday at l0:30 AM from the same location with interment at St Mary cemetery, Techny.
We have many happy memories of Fr. Tom, such as the time he was leading us in the rosary at Albany abortuary when four squads pulled up and the police jumped out and said they had a complaint that we were carrying weapons. Fr. Commons held up his rosary and said “They were right. We are using very powerful weapons.” The police laughed, and two of them pulled their rosaries out of their pockets. They drove off without even taking the baby killers’ complaint.
Another time I was confined to a rehab center with no way to get to Mass on Sunday. Fr. Commons drove out and we had Mass in the music room. About 15 patients attended his Mass.
Fr Commons, 84, spent years in the missions of New Guinea, and kept us mesmerized with his stories of the primitive conditions, traveling by donkey from mission to mission, relating touching conversion stories, and noting the simple and down-to-earth practice of Christianity by these native people.
He was a holy man, a saintly priest and awgood friend. We are going to miss his broad smile and quick wit. But from a pragmatic perspective, it can’t hurt having another pro-life activist up there where the real power resides. Fr. Tom didn’t like or understand why we are still held up in court when we won the Scheidler v. NOW case eight to one. Maybe he’ll help us get that settled once for all.
We’re Not Equipped To Play God
We feel sorry for people who have to play god because they have never accepted the fact that there is a lawmaker whose laws are absolute. One of the main troubles with playing God is that we’re simply not equipped for it — we lack a thorough knowledge of first principles, revealed truth, the Divine Positive law, revelation, the Decalogue, and any number of necessary tools that God applies in making important decisions.
That’s how we get those editorials that try to justify the use of live human embryonic stem cells as things, for instance, even though human embryonic stem cells are human beings. These stories always relate remarkable experiments like getting a rat to walk after being injected with human embryonic stem cells, or some other discovery, like a mouse was cured by using parts of human beings who are killed in the process of curing the mouse.
Of course, they have to address that mysterious, scrupulous breed of yokels who find using human embryonic stem cells problematic. It’s not that we find it problematic, guys. We find it downright wrong, immoral, a violation of one of God’s commandment:” Thou shalt not murder.”
A Tribune editorial Monday suggests that you can start out using dead embryos, or inactive ones that are fixed so they won’t grow out of the embryonic state. So they’re ok to use.
How frightening it must be not to have any absolutes. When “thou shalt not kill” is only a vague suggestion that can be set aside if the killing is helpful or might be helpful, it ceases to have any force or meaning for those who have abandoned it.
By setting aside God’s law these pitiful human beings are forced to become their own gods, and playing god has never been smart: we’re just not equipped for it.
