The priest wrote, “…your beloved-
ness preceded your birth….You are
the beloved because you belong to
God from all eternity. God loved you

before you were born, and God will
love you after you die.” And the
“therefore” comes into focus, and
so the lines are drawn and here the

internecine battle is fought. “But
the womb is mine.” “But what is in
the womb is not. Cutting, therefore,
is murder.” But there are those who

do not believe any of that and make
choices based on what they believe to
be their right by law and there are
those of faith who see it in different

terms. There are those who see that
we live in a world of ethical choices,
choices which come hard and with
consequences for those who know

that in the spring, to live, to survive,
to thrive, sometimes, one must cut no
matter the pain….and who trust, that
through all the severe dilemma and all

the suffering that God waits patiently,
sufferingly so, with the affirmation that
“[y]ou are the beloved because you be-
long to God from all eternity.”