The Language of Lies,
the Language of Life
A Word from Geoffrey Surtees
The father of lies is the most cunning salesman among us. Madison Avenue can't touch the packaging, the pitch, the spin, the sell of the devil. Consider how he has made the question regarding the sanctity of life "a woman's personal decision"; how the deliberate and willful ending of one's life is "death with dignity"; how contraceptive sterilization can be "a marriage saving act" (to quote Fr. Richard McCormick of Notre Dame).
The medical community, too, has succumbed to the sales pitch of the devil. In order to perpetrate crimes against life, many in the "healthcare" industry choose to redescribe reality to justify their actions. Hence, the child in the womb is not a person but a mere "product of conception"; an embryo is not a human being but "biological material" to be used for experimentation; the suffering elderly are not persons with intrinsic dignity but may be liberated from their burden by "euthanasia" (literally, "a good death").
We should not, cannot, dismiss the power of such lies. They have perverted our reason and policy; they have seized our courts, schools, government, and culture by the throat. Who are we, it is asked, to interfere with someone else's personal choice? Who doesn't want to die with dignity? On the face of it, these questions beguile; below the surface, these questions bespeak the insidious nature of our times, the evil of our day.
Clearly, the fight for the sanctity of life demands that we as a culture recall the basic nature of reality and speak and act accordingly: to know life, to call it life, to preserve life. This doesn't entail massive indoctrination or a new fangled ideology; it entails the proclamation of the simple truth -- in word and deed -- that human beings should be treated as human beings. It is a truth written on the hearts of all men.
Paradoxically, to remind people of basic and abiding truths, to educate people to see the obvious reality before their face, is not an easy task. It requires diligence, patience, and most of all witness. Remember, we are not engaged in a debate with a handful of individuals but with an entire culture steeped in the ways of individualism, materialism, and relativism.
In sum, the defense of life requires a language of life. When our words reveal reality, and are not a deceptive trick to rationalize evil, then we can be said to have made some progress. And when our words are sustained and nourished by the Word Himself -- He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life -- then will be able to say with St. Paul, "If Christ is with us, who can be against us?"
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