Second Place Essay
Second Place Essay
St. Timothy School, Union
A young lady comes home from her minimum wage job and sees a pile of bills with big red “OVERDUE” stamps staring her in the face. She struggles to pay even for herself, living paycheck to paycheck. Now she has an even bigger worry; she will soon have another mouth to feed. This is the sad reality for many women in the modern-day world. Their hard life is seemingly made more difficult by welcoming a child into the world. Most even struggle to get day-to-day necessities. By choosing to welcome a new life, they are being extremely selfless and putting God’s plan before their own. My assistance with the Madonna House has shown me the struggles of women and children. Women need many material goods to support themselves and a child. By grasping St. John Paul II’s concept of radical solidarity, I make their struggle my struggle and embrace God’s love.
To start, God had your entire life planned out for you before you are born. The Bible proves this in Jeremiah 1:5 when it states, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations” (New American Bible Revised Edition). This illustrates that all life is extremely precious and endowed with God given dignity from the moment of conception. In the above quote the Lord is speaking to Jeremiah, but what he says is true for everyone; we all have a right to life. All life should be loved and cared for, from the moment of conception. This is important to me because I believe that all children should be treated as they are made in the image of God, because they are.
Furthermore, as a young man who has grown up in a privileged life, I strive to understand the struggles that the women and children who live in poverty go through every day. At Thanksgiving I led a prayer for the unborn, the born, and mothers. At that moment I was filled with the Holy Spirit. It made me understand how to make their struggle my struggle by helping all those I see that need it. Jesus Christ himself states, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (New American Bible Revised Edition, John 13:34). Jesus is telling us to love everyone in our lives, no matter the good or bad they have done. That is very similar to St. John Paul II’s concept of radical solidarity.
The Madonna House is a non-profit organization that gives mothers and their children a home to live in while they search for a job and a good source of income. They teach mothers how to care for their child, how to care for themselves, and how to live with a child in their lives. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes even more urgent when it involves the disadvantaged, in whatever area this may be…” (1932). The Madonna House lives out Pope John Paul II’s belief of radical solidarity by fulfilling all of the criteria in the passage. The Catechism tells us that when we see those in need, we should do anything we can to help them. I heard this quote and applied it to my daily life by attempting to help one person a day. At a recent family reunion, I asked my family to bring donations for the Madonna House. Almost all of them brought items for the donation. Just a few of the items they brought were shampoo, conditioner, baskets, and crib sheets. By praying for and donating to the Madonna House, I hope to embody the works of Christ. My grandfather was a chairman of the Diocese of Covington Pro-Life Commission from 2003 to August 2006. I wish to follow in his footsteps and inspire young children to be pro-life as well.
As shown above, St. John Paul II’s idea of radical solidarity should be guiding principle for all young Catholics leading through faith. The struggle of women and children in this modern world is too much for them to bear alone. I practice radical solidarity by making the struggle of women and children my own, and by loving all women and children just as Christ himself did. If we all do this, then we can make Heaven on earth.
