On the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, television networks did something dramatic. At 9:02 a.m., the exact time the bomb went off, they observed a second of silence for each of the 168 victims. The silence lasted almost three minutes. It was solemn, dramatic and unprecedented for television.

This week we commemorated another kind of explosion which resulted in enormous casualties. Thirty-one years ago the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision called Roe v. Wade. With no legislative input, the justices removed legal protection from unborn children right up to the moment of birth. Since then some forty million unborn children have been put to death.* If we were to observe a second of silence for each one of them, it would last fifteen months.

Perhaps silence is the best response. Last year a young man from our parish joined a contemplative religious community. It was not that he wanted to run away from the problems of the world. Far from it. He is very much a fighter, but he recognizes that ultimately we are not so much in a political battle as a spiritual battle - and our greatest arm is prayer.**

Today we hear about Jesus beginning his public ministry. Before doing so, he spent forty days in the desert – and before that, thirty years in relative seclusion. Jesus did not come to announce some dazzling new message, but rather to remind us of what we had forgotten. He unrolled the scroll of Isaiah, a prophet who lived eight hundred years before him. The message was one that all men know intuitively - but we need reminding - that we have a duty toward those who are in a weaker position: the poor, the aliens, the oppressed. The Bible - both Old and New Testament - teaches that God is on the side of those who have less resources to defend themselves. And no one in our society is more defenseless than an unborn child.

When Ezra read from the “book of the law,” the people heard about their obligations toward the widow, the fatherless child and the immigrant. They wept – because they realized how far they had strayed from observing God’s law.

Tears are good. They can be a prelude to peace, even joy - if we take God's word to heart and make a serious attempt to change our lives. Ezra told the people, “Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!” (Neh 8:10) Jesus announced “glad tidings.” Those tidings are glad - for those who place themselves on the side of God’s weak ones.

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