When my Grandpa Philip Reisenauer passed away in December of 2002 one of the items I received from his belongings was a battered up Funk and Wagnalls New Practical Standard Dictionary. “Bought Oct 17, 1964 – With Gold Bond Stamps By Donald Reisenauer,” it reads in the inside front cover. This dictionary has come in handy as the definitions of words haven’t changed in it with the passing of time. In my mind perplexed at why the March for Life is called a “march” when most people aren’t marching, I decided to pull it off the shelf and look up the verb form of the word.
Under definition one it gives four-phrases explaining a military march or a walk with measured or regular steps. The second definition includes “…to go according to order.” When I looked up the same verb on dictionary.com the first definition was almost identical to my grandparents’ dictionary while the second simply says: “to walk in a stately, deliberate manner.”
As many of you know, Dcn. Dan Tuhy, our youth director, five youth from our parish, and I will be going to the March for Life this week. The reason for the “march” is to safeguard and fight for the unborn and for anyone else’s dignity which is under attack. Frankly speaking, we eight people will hardly be noticed in the hundreds of thousands of people that will be processing down the streets of D.C. on January 24th. Yet, that is how a battle is won. Every unnoticed person needs to take part in bringing order to our nation, “to go according to order,” to the order of our God to protect life. That day, according the second definition of dictionary.com, we will be walking “in a stately, deliberate manner” not for ourselves but for those unable to speak for themselves. We will be deliberate in our stand for the rights of the unborn.
At the same time, all of you too can “march.” You can go about your days according to the order that God desires to bring to your life. You can live your lives in a stately and deliberate manner as Christians. Yes. You won’t be attending the March for Life in D.C. but you can also take part in living a life for God at home and protecting those in need of protection around you. If all of us today allow our lives to be ordered, then on that day when we all have died and our belongings are passed on, our society will be walking through time in a stately, deliberate manner protecting those who aren’t able to speak for themselves.