For the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that ended Roe v. Wade, I found myself over an hour away from the George Washington Bridge, at a convent hidden within a protective shield of greenery. Marycrest is the home of the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate, and Mother Maria Catherine there has me thinking about and Abraham Lincoln. In his second inaugural address, Lincoln famously began his conclusion with "With malice toward none, with charity for all ..."
That sounds like an American calling, doesn't it? Fifty years of legal abortion doesn't reflect that idea of malice toward none, from where I'm standing. Nor do some recent postures toward refugees seeking asylum the United States. But there is still time to reflect on what it means for a president to talk about the "mystic chord of memory," as Lincoln did in his first inaugural.
Regarding charity, in his second inaugural, Lincoln said: "With firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
We are surely a nation of walking wounded. Depending on how you look at it, we could even be considered a nation at war — not just with Iran, though there is that debacle — but with ourselves.
Over by the George Washington Bridge, back in New York, lie most of the remains of Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini. She died in 1917. Mother Tallon, the founder of Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate, died in 1954. Both women concerned themselves with orphans — Cabrini more materially, by creating homes for orphans. Tallon's mission focused on spiritual orphans, seeking to be an instrument of revitalization of faith.
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Were it not for charity, none of us would be here. That's why Mother Cabrini had a dedication to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mother Catherine does, too — she even moved her position in the chapel recently so she could have a better view of the embrace of Jesus signaling to her from one of the statues on the side of the altar. The statue sits above the humble tomb of Mother Tallon.
When the fireworks and cage fights are over, we could afford to see the synergy between a call to firmness from Lincoln and the first U.S.-born pope, Leo.
Just after visiting the birthplace of Mother Cabrini in the Lombardy region of Italy, the Chicago-born Leo emphasized the need for a universal contemplation. He said that such an activity is not reserved for monks, but for all people of faith.
Contemplation, Leo said, "helps us to have a more firm and conscious faith, and consequently to be credible and free disciples, men and women capable of reflecting the light of the Gospel in every setting and every situation of life, and of bearing witness to it even where its value is not understood or accepted."
America has been a beacon for freedom seekers because we know what we are stewards of. When we lose this — this knowledge of our participation with the eternal, even as we face White House ballroom construction, critiques of Usha Vance's Old Navy maternity wear discounts, midterm elections, and everything. We are here because of and for charity. That's the theme of the 250th. That's the point of being alive. Therein lies the solution to our sorrows and the healing of our woes.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book "A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living." She is also chair of Cardinal Dolan's pro-life commission in New York and is on the board of the University of Mary. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.
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