Disturbance In The Force

INSIDE THE DEATH STAR

DARTH VADER : Commence primary ignition.

A button is pressed which switches on a panel of lights. Darth Vader reaches for a lever and a bank of lights on a panel and wall light up. A huge beam of light emanates from within a cone-shaped area and converges into a single laser beam out toward Alderaan.The small green planet of Alderaan is blown into space dust.


INSIDE THE MILLENNIUM FALCON

Ben watches Luke practice the lightsaber with a small "seeker" robot. Ben suddenly turns away and sits down. He falters, seems almost faint.

LUKE : Are you all right? What's wrong?

BEN : I felt a great disturbance in the Force...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

Last night there was a great disturbance in the force. Many hearts crying out at injustice. Using the Star Wars analogy, we see how the decision of those in power and authority can affect so many people. I still remember using that analogy at the 2004 Confirmation Retreat, and Shaun replied with a quote from the movie Spideman, "With great power comes great responsibility". And how true that is, power has the ability to corrupt a person. In Star Wars we see how the "Chosen One who was to bring balance to the force" turned to the dark side, seduced by fear, anger, revenge.

Maybe that is why in today's Gospel, Jesus warns his disciples to "be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod." Both occupy positions of power, and their decisions affected the many who were under their authority. A reminder not to take the leadership role so casually.

In this weekend's Catholic News, there are 2 examples of leaders with the power to do both good and bad. In the whole hoohah over the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, there was a report of a muslim leader requesting for cartoons insulting the christian faith. And definitely the instigators for the protests also would have some leadership role. While no doubt that the cartoons were offensive, the reaction itself isn't justified either.

And also in Australia we have the issue of the RU-486 pill, an abortion pill, that the Australian government is debating on whether to make it more accessible to the public. Can you imagine how many lives of unborn children will be affected by the decisions of these leaders. How they can sleep at night I don't know. For more details on these two issues, read the Catholic News. I find what Archbishop Dennis Hart of Melbourne said particularly striking.

"With one in four pregnancies in Australia ending in abortion, the abysmal fact remains that the most dangerous place for an Australian to be is in the womb of his or her mother."

On the topic of abortion, I read an interesting article on another blog. It features an interview with the guy who started the US's largest abortion clinic. And he admits to making up slogans and falsifying statistics, to provoke emotional feelings, such that people would support abortion. The guy is now pro-life, but I really wonder at the amount of guilt that he has to deal with.

What the situation is like in Singapore I'm not too sure, but I think it's also happening here. As they say, one abortion is one too many.

Latest update...Australia has passed the bill to strip the control of the abortion pill RU-486 from the Health Ministry. And once again there is another disturbance in the force. This time from many who will not even be able to voice their pain.