Pro-life and Mortality

           A thought, God gave us our mortality. We, as a World Religious view, look at murder as something sinful. That is to say, it distances us from God, the God who gave us life. 

          These two, Pro-life and mortality, are important companions in our relationship with God. God gave us our mortality so that we may have a life to live. God gave us the “Commandments” to help guide us in a “Pro-life” manner. This gives us the chance to live a life without considerable fear of a
pre-determined death, or, of a random act of violence. 

          Abortion, the killing of a fetus (Latin for baby), is a planned death. The fetus’s life was not given the opportunity to live. And so it is considered a sin, or separation from God. Respect for life, in general, is a given, regardless of how high or low the life form is considered. 

          In Genesis, (chapter 1), God calls all life “good” until the creation of man, then God calls the birth of humanity, “very good.” Humanity is special to God. God blessed all creation, but gave “dominion” to humanity, to “care of Gods’ creations”. (Genesis 2: 15) 

          To CARE for God’s creations. God blessed Humanity and said “Be fertile and multiply”, and take care of God’s creation. The golden rule (Matt 7: 12), the greatest commandment (Matt 22: 37-40) and 1 Corinthians 13, where love is charity and charity is kindness to all. ALL! 

          It’s almost sad that God had to put in writing “shall not kill” and soften revenge with only “an eye for and eye” (Exodus 21: 24) and finally “turn the other one (cheek) to him as well”. (Matt 5: 39) These, however, are for those of us lucky enough to live and apply Gods word. An aborted fetus has no opportunity. 

          No opportunity to live. An innocent’s death should not be chosen out of convenience. Care should be taken by husband and wife to plan for children, not to plan how to rid of children. We should not be so quick to distance ourselves from God. The road back is hard. But not impossible. 

          The hard road is true for men as well as women. In Matt 1, Joseph wanted to divorce her quietly and not expose her to shame. Exposing her to shame would have meant death by stoning for Mary and her fetus, Jesus. Instead he listened to the angel of God, and married her. And cared for them. 

          We are given our mortality to give us a chance to follow a road in life. OUR MORTALITY to experience life. Which road we choose, with its many forks and diversions, is a freedom God has given us. We must first have a life, before we can experience our mortality and our humanity to make these choices. 

May your choices come from a place of care and kindness. 

David E. Gonzales

Dad (Words of Remembrance)

Dad. As kids that’s all we really called dad, just dad. No fancy or clever nicknames. Dad, born April 1st, 1930, had an interesting sense of humor. Perhaps being born on April Fool’s Day had something to do with it? Or perhaps it was being born the seventh of ten children. Then again it could have been growing up with six sisters. But for me, I have to think it was more in line with having only one bathroom to share with the entire family. And this, with only cold water. I think this helped develop his unique sense of humor. And more often than not, it had just a little sarcasm built into the punch line.

            There’re a couple of little ditties that dad would recite with some regularity. One was based on food. The verse he would sing, reads like this:

“There’s Spam and wham and deviled ham,
And somethin' new called Zoom
Just take it home and heat it to the temperature of the room
And you can bake it, flake it, Shake it, make it, take it,

Any way you choose.
And that's the situation, when you got those, Duration Blues”

I had always thought this was some cute ditty dad had learned as a youth and just never forgot. Then about a year or so ago I did a search and found out it was a song from WWII. This song was really about rationing. Rationing was of course, a reality in his day, and so it makes sense that this would stick with him. But to me it’s more about his sense of humor, and his notion of life.

            The second ditty is a little more obscure. This one is about attitude. And it goes like this:

Your troubles will vanish like a bubble,

If you only take the trouble, just to smile.

Dad’s sense humor and his sense of life were uniquely inter-tangled. A positive attitude can make all the difference in the world.

            Dad was also a builder. Dad built a business, he built the building for the business. Dad built a second building so he could sell the business and retire. He tiled the walkway leading up to the house. Dad laid the tiles throughout the downstairs of the house. He, along with mom and I, installed the wood flooring upstairs and the stair case. Dad built the basin for the fountain. He laid the block for the planters, and designed the landscaping. And of course dad designed and built the St. Francis mission on the side of house. He then proudly named it, Mission impossible.

Dad was dad, a unique personality. He had a glow about him, a glow that made you feel like he knew something you didn’t. Dad was a provider. Work hard, play hard, play for fun, play to win, because there’s no fun in losing. Do it right the first time, because it takes even longer to do it twice. No one is going to give you anything, you have to earn it.

Goodbye dad 

Dad, family man. Dedicated and loving husband to mom for 62 years, father of three, grandfather to six.

I’ve tried to express not the physical exploits of dad, but instead the essence of dad. Each of us has a different idea or feel of what constitutes dad. Today we say goodbye to the physical dad. And I believe that God has lovingly accepted dad’s soul in to his kingdom. But the essence of dad will be with us as long as we tell our stories, and remember that “feel” that we had around, dad.

Thank you so much for being here this morning. You are all greatly appreciated, and loved.

David E. Gonzales, son