Fr Antoine Thomas gave a very powerful homily at the closing Mass for the Rise Up Together in the Service of Life Conference held in September.
Speaking on the devil and his jealousy of God, Fr Antoine explained that
he is so jealous of God as creator that he wants to become the creator. But he cannot, because he is an angel. So what can he do? He can attack life, not necessarily directly, but he can attack the woman spiritually, in a way that the woman can be deprived of the desire for life and to carry life.
The desire of women to become mothers has been killed by the lie that women can do anything, women can be like men and do not have to be mothers. Brought about, Fr Antoine says by the sins of pride, disobedience, vanity and the flesh.
“Jealousy” Father Antoine says “kills our intelligence. If we are jealous, we become really stupid. We become blind to the beautiful things we should rejoice about.”
“The devil” he went on to say “thinks he’s victorious. His days are counted my friends. His days are counted.” Father Antoine explained that the devil wants us to think that he has control of the world now and that there is no hope. “But the devil has already lost the battle. At the end of the day we know Jesus is already victorious.”
Our role then is to remain guarded, to be virtuous, to live a good and holy life and to know that the devil wants to destroy us.
The homily concluded with Father Antoine explaining that
the best way to live as a Christian… and to give life to others is forgiveness… So let forgiveness be in us, a source of life, not only for us, but for others if we forgive with the heart of Jesus.
“The desire of women to become mothers has been killed by the lie that women can do anything, women can be like men and do not have to be mothers”.
Do men desire to become fathers? Do they take care of the children they, the men, procreate? Or men just procreate, but do not to become fathers?
Once a man procreate his child, he, the man must say a big “yes” to God, similar to Mary’s “yes”.