Catholic Faith
http://www.legionofmarytidewater.com/
Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Evangelium vitae
To the Bishops
Priests and Deacons
Men and Women religious
lay Faithful
and all People of Good Will
on the Value and Inviolability
of Human Life
1995.03.25
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INTRODUCTION
1. The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus' message. Lovingly
received day after day by the Church, it is to be preached with
dauntless fidelity as "good news" to the people of every age and
culture.
At the dawn of salvation, it is the Birth of a Child which is
proclaimed as joyful news: "I bring you good news of a great joy which
will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of
David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:10-11). The source of
this "great joy" is the Birth of the Saviour; but Christmas also
reveals the full meaning of every human birth, and the joy which
accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is thus seen to be the foundation
and fulfilment of joy at every child born into the world (cf. Jn 16:21).
When he presents the heart of his redemptive mission, Jesus says: "I
came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). In
truth, he is referring to that "new" and "eternal" life which consists
in communion with the Father, to which every person is freely called in
the Son by the power of the Sanctifying Spirit. It is precisely in this
"life" that all the aspects and stages of human life achieve their full
significance.
The incomparable worth of the human person
2. Man is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions
of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life
of God. The loftiness of this supernatural vocation reveals the
greatness and the inestimable value of human life even in its temporal
phase. Life in time, in fact, is the fundamental condition, the initial
stage and an integral part of the entire unified process of human
existence. It is a process which, unexpectedly and undeservedly, is
enlightened by the promise and renewed by the gift of divine life,
which will reach its full realization in eternity (cf. 1 Jn 3:1-2). At
the same time, it is precisely this supernatural calling which
highlights the relative character of each individual's earthly life.
After all, life on earth is not an "ultimate" but a "penultimate"
reality; even so, it remains a sacred reality entrusted to us, to be
preserved with a sense of responsibility and brought to perfection in
love and in the gift of ourselves to God and to our brothers and
sisters.
The Church knows that this Gospel of life, which she has received from
her Lord, 1 has a profound and persuasive echo in the heart of every
person-believer and non-believer alike-because it marvellously fulfils
all the heart's expectations while infinitely surpassing them. Even in
the midst of difficulties and uncertainties, every person sincerely
open to truth and goodness can, by the light of reason and the hidden
action of grace, come to recognize in the natural law written in the
heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15) the sacred value of human life from its very
beginning until its end, and can affirm the right of every human being
to have this primary good respected to the highest degree. Upon the
recognition of this right, every human community and the political
community itself are founded.
In a special way, believers in Christ must defend and promote this
right, aware as they are of the wonderful truth recalled by the Second
Vatican Council: "By his incarnation the Son of God has united himself
in some fashion with every human being".2 This saving event reveals to
humanity not only the boundless love of God who "so loved the world
that he gave his only Son" (Jn 3:16), but also the incomparable value
of every human person.
The Church, faithfully contemplating the mystery of the Redemption,
acknowledges this value with ever new wonder.3 She feels called to
proclaim to the people of all times this "Gospel", the source of
invincible hope and true joy for every period of history. The Gospel of
God's love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the person and the
Gospel of life are a single and indivisible Gospel.
For this reason, man-living man-represents the primary and fundamental
way for the Church. 4
New threats to human life
3. Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of the Word of
God who was made flesh (cf. Jn 1:14), is entrusted to the maternal care
of the Church. Therefore every threat to human dignity and life must
necessarily be felt in the Church's very heart; it cannot but affect
her at the core of her faith in the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son
of God, and engage her in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel of life
in all the world and to every creature (cf. Mk 16:15).
Today this proclamation is especially pressing because of the
extraordinary increase and gravity of threats to the life of
individuals and peoples, especially where life is weak and defenceless.
In addition to the ancient scourges of poverty, hunger, endemic
diseases, violence and war, new threats are emerging on an alarmingly
vast scale.
The Second Vatican Council, in a passage which retains all its
relevance today, forcefully condemned a number of crimes and attacks
against human life. Thirty years later, taking up the words of the
Council and with the same forcefulness I repeat that condemnation in
the name of the whole Church, certain that I am interpreting the
genuine sentiment of every upright conscience: "Whatever is opposed to
life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion,
euthanasia, or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity
of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or
mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human
dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment,
deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children;
as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as
mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons;
all these things and others like them are infamies indeed. They poison
human society, and they do more harm to those who practise them than to
those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme
dishonour to the Creator".5
4. Unfortunately, this disturbing state of affairs, far from
decreasing, is expanding: with the new prospects opened up by
scientific and technological progress there arise new forms of attacks
on the dignity of the human being. At the same time a new cultural
climate is developing and taking hold, which gives crimes against life
a new and-if possible-even more sinister character, giving rise to
further grave concern: broad sectors of public opinion justify certain
crimes against life in the name of the rights of individual freedom,
and on this basis they claim not only exemption from punishment but
even authorization by the State, so that these things can be done with
total freedom and indeed with the free assistance of health-care
systems.
All this is causing a profound change in the way in which life and
relationships between people are considered. The fact that legislation
in many countries, perhaps even departing from basic principles of
their Constitutions, has determined not to punish these practices
against life, and even to make them altogether legal, is both a
disturbing symptom and a significant cause of grave moral decline.
Choices once unanimously considered criminal and rejected by the common
moral sense are gradually becoming socially acceptable. Even certain
sectors of the medical profession, which by its calling is directed to
the defence and care of human life, are increasingly willing to carry
out these acts against the person. In this way the very nature of the
medical profession is distorted and contradicted, and the dignity of
those who practise it is degraded. In such a cultural and legislative
situation, the serious demographic, social and family problems which
weigh upon many of the world's peoples and which require responsible
and effective attention from national and international bodies, are
left open to false and deceptive solutions, opposed to the truth and
the good of persons and nations.
The end result of this is tragic: not only is the fact of the
destruction of so many human lives still to be born or in their final
stage extremely grave and disturbing, but no less grave and disturbing
is the fact that conscience itself, darkened as it were by such
widespread conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult to
distinguish between good and evil in what concerns the basic value of
human life.
In communion with all the Bishops of the world
5. The Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals held in Rome on 4-7 April
1991 was devoted to the problem of the threats to human life in our
day. After a thorough and detailed discussion of the problem and of the
challenges it poses to the entire human family and in particular to the
Christian community, the Cardinals unanimously asked me to reaffirm
with the authority of the Successor of Peter the value of human life
and its inviolability, in the light of present circumstances and
attacks threatening it today.
In response to this request, at Pentecost in 1991 I wrote a personal
letter to each of my Brother Bishops asking them, in the spirit of
episcopal collegiality, to offer me their cooperation in drawing up a
specific document. 6 I am deeply grateful to all the Bishops who
replied and provided me with valuable facts, suggestions and proposals.
In so doing they bore witness to their unanimous desire to share in the
doctrinal and pastoral mission of the Church with regard to the Gospel
of life.
In that same letter, written shortly after the celebration of the
centenary of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum, I drew everyone's attention
to this striking analogy: "Just as a century ago it was the working
classes which were oppressed in their fundamental rights, and the
Church very courageously came to their defence by proclaiming the
sacrosanct rights of the worker as a person, so now, when another
category of persons is being oppressed in the fundamental right to
life, the Church feels in duty bound to speak out with the same courage
on behalf of those who have no voice. Hers is always the evangelical
cry in defence of the world's poor, those who are threatened and
despised and whose human rights are violated".7
Today there exists a great multitude of weak and defenceless human
beings, unborn children in particular, whose fundamental right to life
is being trampled upon. If, at the end of the last century, the Church
could not be silent about the injustices of those times, still less can
she be silent today, when the social injustices of the past,
unfortunately not yet overcome, are being compounded in many regions of
the world by still more grievous forms of injustice and oppression,
even if these are being presented as elements of progress in view of a
new world order.
The present Encyclical, the fruit of the cooperation of the Episcopate
of every country of the world, is therefore meant to be a precise and
vigorous reaffirmation of the value of human life and its
inviolability, and at the same time a pressing appeal addressed to each
and every person, in the name of God: respect, protect, love and serve
life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice,
development, true freedom, peace and happiness!
May these words reach all the sons and daughters of the Church! May
they reach all people of good will who are concerned for the good of
every man and woman and for the destiny of the whole of society!
6. In profound communion with all my brothers and sisters in the faith,
and inspired by genuine friendship towards all, I wish to meditate upon
once more and proclaim the Gospel of life, the splendour of truth which
enlightens consciences, the clear light which corrects the darkened
gaze, and the unfailing source of faithfulness and steadfastness in
facing the ever new challenges which we meet along our path.
As I recall the powerful experience of the Year of the Family, as if to
complete the Letter which I wrote "to every particular family in every
part of the world",8 I look with renewed confidence to every household
and I pray that at every level a general commitment to support the
family will reappear and be strengthened, so that today too-even amid
so many difficulties and serious threats-the family will always remain,
in accordance with God's plan, the "sanctuary of life".9
To all the members of the Church, the people of life and for life, I
make this most urgent appeal, that together we may offer this world of
ours new signs of hope, and work to ensure that justice and solidarity
will increase and that a new culture of human life will be affirmed,
for the building of an authentic civilization of truth and love.
CHAPTER I - THE VOICE OF YOUR BROTHER'S BLOOD CRIES TO ME FROM THE
GROUND
PRESENT-DAY THREATS TO HUMAN LIFE
"Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him" (Gen 4:8): the
roots of violence against life
7. "God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the
living. For he has created all things that they might exist ... God
created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own
eternity, but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and
those who belong to his party experience it" (Wis 1:13-14; 2:23-24).
The Gospel of life, proclaimed in the beginning when man was created in
the image of God for a destiny of full and perfect life (cf. Gen 2:7;
Wis 9:2-3), is contradicted by the painful experience of death which
enters the world and casts its shadow of meaninglessness over man's
entire existence. Death came into the world as a result of the devil's
envy (cf. Gen 3:1,4-5) and the sin of our first parents (cf. Gen 2:17,
3:17-19). And death entered it in a violent way, through the killing of
Abel by his brother Cain: "And when they were in the field, Cain rose
up against his brother Abel, and killed him" (Gen 4:8).
This first murder is presented with singular eloquence in a page of the
Book of Genesis which has universal significance: it is a page
rewritten daily, with inexorable and degrading frequency, in the book
of human history.
Let us re-read together this biblical account which, despite its
archaic structure and its extreme simplicity, has much to teach us.
"Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In
the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of
the ground, and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of
their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
but for Cain and his offering he had not regard. So Cain was very
angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, ?Why are you
angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not
be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door;
its desire is for you, but you must master it'.
"Cain said to Abel his brother, ?Let us go out to the field'. And when
they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and
killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, ?Where is Abel your brother?'
He said, ?I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?' And the Lord said,
?What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me
from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has
opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When
you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you
shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth'. Cain said to the
Lord, ?My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have
driven me this day away from the ground; and from your face I shall be
hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and
whoever finds me will slay me'. Then the Lord said to him, ?Not so! If
any one slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold'. And the
Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him.
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the
land of Nod, east of Eden" (Gen 4:2-16).
8. Cain was "very angry" and his countenance "fell" because "the Lord
had regard for Abel and his offering" (Gen 4:4-5). The biblical text
does not reveal the reason why God prefers Abel's sacrifice to Cain's.
It clearly shows however that God, although preferring Abel's gift,
does not interrupt his dialogue with Cain. He admonishes him, reminding
him of his freedom in the face of evil: man is in no way predestined to
evil. Certainly, like Adam, he is tempted by the malevolent force of
sin which, like a wild beast, lies in wait at the door of his heart,
ready to leap on its prey. But Cain remains free in the face of sin. He
can and must overcome it: "Its desire is for you, but you must master
it" (Gen 4:7).
Envy and anger have the upper hand over the Lord's warning, and so Cain
attacks his own brother and kills him. As we read in the Catechism of
the Catholic Church: "In the account of Abel's murder by his brother
Cain, Scripture reveals the presence of anger and envy in man,
consequences of original sin, from the beginning of human history. Man
has become the enemy of his fellow man".10
Brother kills brother. Like the first fratricide, every murder is a
violation of the "spiritual" kinship uniting mankind in one great
family, 11 in which all share the same fundamental good: equal personal
dignity. Not infrequently the kinship "of flesh and blood" is also
violated; for example when threats to life arise within the
relationship between parents and children, such as happens in abortion
or when, in the wider context of family or kinship, euthanasia is
encouraged or practised.
At the root of every act of violence against one's neighbour there is a
concession to the "thinking" of the evil one, the one who "was a
murderer from the beginning" (Jn 8:44). As the Apostle John reminds us:
"For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that
we should love one another, and not be like Cain who was of the evil
one and murdered his brother" (1 Jn 3:11-12). Cain's killing of his
brother at the very dawn of history is thus a sad witness of how evil
spreads with amazing speed: man's revolt against God in the earthly
paradise is followed by the deadly combat of man against man.
After the crime, God intervenes to avenge the one killed. Before God,
who asks him about the fate of Abel, Cain, instead of showing remorse
and apologizing, arrogantly eludes the question: "I do not know; am I
my brother's keeper?" (Gen 4:9). "I do not know": Cain tries to cover
up his crime with a lie. This was and still is the case, when all kinds
of ideologies try to justify and disguise the most atrocious crimes
against human beings. "Am I my brother's keeper?": Cain does not wish
to think about his brother and refuses to accept the responsibility
which every person has towards others. We cannot but think of today's
tendency for people to refuse to accept responsibility for their
brothers and sisters. Symptoms of this trend include the lack of
solidarity towards society's weakest members-such as the elderly, the
infirm, immigrants, children- and the indifference frequently found in
relations between the world's peoples even when basic values such as
survival, freedom and peace are involved.
9. But God cannot leave the crime unpunished: from the ground on which
it has been spilt, the blood of the one murdered demands that God
should render justice (cf. Gen 37:26; Is 26:21; Ez 24:7-8). From this
text the Church has taken the name of the "sins which cry to God for
justice", and, first among them, she has included wilful murder. 12 For
the Jewish people, as for many peoples of antiquity, blood is the
source of life. Indeed "the blood is the life" (Dt 12:23), and life,
especially human life, belongs only to God: for this reason whoever
attacks human life, in some way attacks God himself.
Cain is cursed by God and also by the earth, which will deny him its
fruit (cf. Gen 4:11-12). He is punished: he will live in the wilderness
and the desert. Murderous violence profoundly changes man's
environment. From being the "garden of Eden" (Gen 2:15), a place of
plenty, of harmonious interpersonal relationships and of friendship
with God, the earth becomes "the land of Nod" (Gen 4:16), a place of
scarcity, loneliness and separation from God. Cain will be "a fugitive
and a wanderer on the earth" (Gen 4:14): uncertainty and restlessness
will follow him forever.
And yet God, who is always merciful even when he punishes, "put a mark
on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him" (Gen 4:15). He
thus gave him a distinctive sign, not to condemn him to the hatred of
others, but to protect and defend him from those wishing to kill him,
even out of a desire to avenge Abel's death. Not even a murderer loses
his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this. And it
is pre- cisely here that the paradoxical mystery of the merciful
justice of God is shown forth. As Saint Ambrose writes: "Once the crime
is admitted at the very inception of this sinful act of parricide, then
the divine law of God's mercy should be immediately extended. If
punishment is forthwith inflicted on the accused, then men in the
exercise of justice would in no way observe patience and moderation,
but would straightaway condemn the defendant to punishment. ... God
drove Cain out of his presence and sent him into exile far away from
his native land, so that he passed from a life of human kindness to one
which was more akin to the rude existence of a wild beast. God, who
preferred the correction rather than the death of a sinner, did not
desire that a homicide be punished by the exaction of another act of
homicide".13
"What have you done?" (Gen 4:10): the eclipse of the value of life
10. The Lord said to Cain: "What have you done? The voice of your
brother's blood is crying to me from the ground" (Gen 4:10).The voice
of the blood shed by men continues to cry out, from generation to
generation, in ever new and different ways.
The Lord's question: "What have you done?", which Cain cannot escape,
is addressed also to the people of today, to make them realize the
extent and gravity of the attacks against life which continue to mark
human history; to make them discover what causes these attacks and
feeds them; and to make them ponder seriously the consequences which
derive from these attacks for the existence of individuals and peoples.
Some threats come from nature itself, but they are made worse by the
culpable indifference and negligence of those who could in some cases
remedy them. Others are the result of situations of violence, hatred
and conflicting interests, which lead people to attack others through
murder, war, slaughter and genocide.
And how can we fail to consider the violence against life done to
millions of human beings, especially children, who are forced into
poverty, malnutrition and hunger because of an unjust distribution of
resources between peoples and between social classes? And what of the
violence inherent not only in wars as such but in the scandalous arms
trade, which spawns the many armed conflicts which stain our world with
blood? What of the spreading of death caused by reckless tampering with
the world's ecological balance, by the criminal spread of drugs, or by
the promotion of certain kinds of sexual activity which, besides being
morally unacceptable, also involve grave risks to life? It is
impossible to catalogue completely the vast array of threats to human
life, so many are the forms, whether explicit or hidden, in which they
appear today!
11. Here though we shall concentrate particular attention on another
category of attacks, affecting life in its earliest and in its final
stages, attacks which present new characteristics with respect to the
past and which raise questions of extraordinary seriousness. It is not
only that in generalized opinion these attacks tend no longer to be
considered as "crimes"; paradoxically they assume the nature of
"rights", to the point that the State is called upon to give them legal
recognition and to make them available through the free services of
health-care personnel. Such attacks strike human life at the time of
its greatest frailty, when it lacks any means of self-defence. Even
more serious is the fact that, most often, those attacks are carried
out in the very heart of and with the complicity of the family-the
family which by its nature is called to be the "sanctuary of life".
How did such a situation come about? Many different factors have to be
taken into account. In the background there is the profound crisis of
culture, which generates scepticism in relation to the very foundations
of knowledge and ethics, and which makes it increasingly difficult to
grasp clearly the meaning of what man is, the meaning of his rights and
his duties. Then there are all kinds of existential and interpersonal
difficulties, made worse by the complexity of a society in which
individuals, couples and families are often left alone with their
problems. There are situations of acute poverty, anxiety or frustration
in which the struggle to make ends meet, the presence of unbearable
pain, or instances of violence, especially against women, make the
choice to defend and promote life so demanding as sometimes to reach
the point of heroism.
All this explains, at least in part, how the value of life can today
undergo a kind of "eclipse", even though conscience does not cease to
point to it as a sacred and inviolable value, as is evident in the
tendency to disguise certain crimes against life in its early or final
stages by using innocuous medical terms which distract attention from
the fact that what is involved is the right to life of an actual human
person.
12. In fact, while the climate of widespread moral uncertainty can in
some way be explained by the multiplicity and gravity of today's social
problems, and these can sometimes mitigate the subjective
responsibility of individuals, it is no less true that we are
confronted by an even larger reality, which can be described as a
veritable structure of sin. This reality is characterized by the
emergence of a culture which denies solidarity and in many cases takes
the form of a veritable "culture of death". This culture is actively
fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political currents which
encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency.
Looking at the situation from this point of view, it is possible to
speak in a certain sense of a war of the powerful against the weak: a
life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is
considered useless, or held to be an intolerable burden, and is
therefore rejected in one way or another. A person who, because of
illness, handicap or, more simply, just by existing, compromises the
well-being or life-style of those who are more favoured tends to be
looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated. In this way a
kind of "conspiracy against life" is unleashed. This conspiracy
involves not only individuals in their personal, family or group
relationships, but goes far beyond, to the point of damaging and
distorting, at the international level, relations between peoples and
States.
13. In order to facilitate the spread of abortion, enormous sums of
money have been invested and continue to be invested in the production
of pharmaceutical products which make it possible to kill the fetus in
the mother's womb without recourse to medical assistance. On this
point, scientific research itself seems to be almost exclusively
preoccupied with developing products which are ever more simple and
effective in suppressing life and which at the same time are capable of
removing abortion from any kind of control or social responsibility.
It is frequently asserted that contraception, if made safe and
available to all, is the most effective remedy against abortion. The
Catholic Church is then accused of actually promoting abortion, because
she obstinately continues to teach the moral unlawfulness of
contraception. When looked at carefully, this objection is clearly
unfounded. It may be that many people use contraception with a view to
excluding the subsequent temptation of abortion. But the negative
values inherent in the "contraceptive mentality"-which is very
different from responsible parenthood, lived in respect for the full
truth of the conjugal act-are such that they in fact strengthen this
temptation when an unwanted life is conceived. Indeed, the pro-
abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's
teaching on contraception is rejected. Certainly, from the moral point
of view contraception and abortion arespecifically different evils: the
former contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper
expression of conjugal love, while the latter destroys the life of a
human being; the former is opposed to the virtue of chastity in
marriage, the latter is opposed to the virtue of justice and directly
violates the divine commandment "You shall not kill".
But despite their differences of nature and moral gravity,
contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of
the same tree. It is true that in many cases contraception and even
abortion are practised under the pressure of real- life difficulties,
which nonetheless can never exonerate from striving to observe God's
law fully. Still, in very many other instances such practices are
rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in
matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of
freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal
fulfilment. The life which could result from a sexual encounter thus
becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs, and abortion becomes the
only possible decisive response to failed contraception.
The close connection which exists, in mentality, between the practice
of contraception and that of abortion is becoming increasingly obvious.
It is being demonstrated in an alarming way by the development of
chemical products, intrauterine devices and vaccines which, distributed
with the same ease as contraceptives, really act as abortifacients in
the very early stages of the development of the life of the new human
being.
14. The various techniques of artificial reproduction, which would seem
to be at the service of life and which are frequently used with this
intention, actually open the door to new threats against life. Apart
from the fact that they are morally unacceptable, since they separate
procreation from the fully human context of the conjugal act, 14 these
techniques have a high rate of failure: not just failure in relation to
fertilization but with regard to the subsequent development of the
embryo, which is exposed to the risk of death, generally within a very
short space of time. Furthermore, the number of embryos produced is
often greater than that needed for implantation in the woman's womb,
and these so-called "spare embryos" are then destroyed or used for
research which, under the pretext of scientific or medical progress, in
fact reduces human life to the level of simple "biological material" to
be freely disposed of.
Prenatal diagnosis, which presents no moral objections if carried out
in order to identify the medical treatment which may be needed by the
child in the womb, all too often becomes an opportunity for proposing
and procuring an abortion. This is eugenic abortion, justified in
public opinion on the basis of a mentality-mistakenly held to be
consistent with the demands of "therapeutic interventions"-which
accepts life only under certain conditions and rejects it when it is
affected by any limitation, handicap or illness.
Following this same logic, the point has been reached where the most
basic care, even nourishment, is denied to babies born with serious
handicaps or illnesses. The contemporary scene, moreover, is becoming
even more alarming by reason of the proposals, advanced here and there,
to justify even infanticide, following the same arguments used to
justify the right to abortion. In this way, we revert to a state of
barbarism which one hoped had been left behind forever.
15. Threats which are no less serious hang over the incurably ill and
the dying. In a social and cultural context which makes it more
difficult to face and accept suffering, the temptation becomes all the
greater to resolve the problem of suffering by eliminating it at the
root, by hastening death so that it occurs at the moment considered
most suitable.
Various considerations usually contribute to such a decision, all of
which converge in the same terrible outcome. In the sick person the
sense of anguish, of severe discomfort, and even of desperation brought
on by intense and prolonged suffering can be a decisive factor. Such a
situation can threaten the already fragile equilibrium of an
individual's personal and family life, with the result that, on the one
hand, the sick person, despite the help of increasingly effective
medical and social assistance, risks feeling overwhelmed by his or her
own frailty; and on the other hand, those close to the sick person can
be moved by an understandable even if misplaced compassion. All this is
aggravated by a cultural climate which fails to perceive any meaning or
value in suffering, but rather considers suffering the epitome of evil,
to be eliminated at all costs. This is especially the case in the
absence of a religious outlook which could help to provide a positive
understanding of the mystery of suffering.
On a more general level, there exists in contemporary culture a certain
Promethean attitude which leads people to think that they can control
life and death by taking the decisions about them into their own hands.
What really happens in this case is that the individual is overcome and
crushed by a death deprived of any prospect of meaning or hope. We see
a tragic expression of all this in the spread of euthanasia-disguised
and surreptitious, or practised openly and even legally. As well as for
reasons of a misguided pity at the sight of the patient's suffering,
euthanasia is sometimes justified by the utilitarian motive of avoiding
costs which bring no return and which weigh heavily on society. Thus it
is proposed to eliminate malformed babies, the severely handicapped,
the disabled, the elderly, especially when they are not
self-sufficient, and the terminally ill. Nor can we remain silent in
the face of other more furtive, but no less serious and real, forms of
euthanasia. These could occur for example when, in order to increase
the availability of organs for transplants, organs are removed without
respecting objective and adequate criteria which verify the death of
the donor.
16. Another present-day phenomenon, frequently used to justify threats
and attacks against life, is the demographic question. This question
arises in different ways in different parts of the world. In the rich
and developed countries there is a disturbing decline or collapse of
the birthrate. The poorer countries, on the other hand, generally have
a high rate of population growth, difficult to sustain in the context
of low economic and social development, and especially where there is
extreme underdevelopment. In the face of over- population in the poorer
countries, instead of forms of global intervention at the international
level-serious family and social policies, programmes of cultural
development and of fair production and distribution of
resources-anti-birth policies continue to be enacted.
Contraception, sterilization and abortion are certainly part of the
reason why in some cases there is a sharp decline in the birthrate. It
is not difficult to be tempted to use the same methods and attacks
against life also where there is a situation of "demographic explosion".
The Pharaoh of old, haunted by the presence and increase of the
children of Israel, submitted them to every kind of oppression and
ordered that every male child born of the Hebrew women was to be killed
(cf. Ex 1:7-22). Today not a few of the powerful of the earth act in
the same way. They too are haunted by the current demographic growth,
and fear that the most prolific and poorest peoples represent a threat
for the well-being and peace of their own countries. Consequently,
rather than wishing to face and solve these serious problems with
respect for the dignity of individuals and families and for every
person's inviolable right to life, they prefer to promote and impose by
whatever means a massive programme of birth control. Even the economic
help which they would be ready to give is unjustly made conditional on
the acceptance of an anti-birth policy.
17. Humanity today offers us a truly alarming spectacle, if we consider
not only how extensively attacks on life are spreading but also their
unheard-of numerical proportion, and the fact that they receive
widespread and powerful support from a broad consensus on the part of
society, from widespread legal approval and the involvement of certain
sectors of health-care personnel.
As I emphatically stated at Denver, on the occasion of the Eighth World
Youth Day, "with time the threats against life have not grown weaker.
They are taking on vast proportions. They are not only threats coming
from the outside, from the forces of nature or the ?Cains' who kill the
?Abels'; no, they are scientifically and systematically programmed
threats. The twentieth century will have been an era of massive attacks
on life, an endless series of wars and a continual taking of innocent
human life. False prophets and false teachers have had the greatest
success".15 Aside from intentions, which can be varied and perhaps can
seem convincing at times, especially if presented in the name of
solidarity, we are in fact faced by an objective "conspiracy against
life", involving even international Institutions, engaged in
encouraging and carrying out actual campaigns to make contraception,
sterilization and abortion widely available. Nor can it be denied that
the mass media are often implicated in this conspiracy, by lending
credit to that culture which presents recourse to contraception,
sterilization, abortion and even euthanasia as a mark of progress and a
victory of freedom, while depicting as enemies of freedom and progress
those positions which are unreservedly pro-life.
"Am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen 4:9): a perverse idea of freedom
18. The panorama described needs to be understood not only in terms of
the phenomena of death which characterize it but also in the variety of
causes which determine it. The Lord's question: "What have you done?"
(Gen 4:10), seems almost like an invitation addressed to Cain to go
beyond the material dimension of his murderous gesture, in order to
recognize in it all the gravity of the motives which occasioned it and
the consequences which result from it.
Decisions that go against life sometimes arise from difficult or even
tragic situations of profound suffering, loneliness, a total lack of
economic pros- pects, depression and anxiety about the future. Such
circumstances can mitigate even to a notable degree subjective
responsibility and the consequent culpability of those who make these
choices which in themselves are evil. But today the prob- lem goes far
beyond the necessary recognition of these personal situations. It is a
problem which exists at the cultural, social and political level, where
it reveals its more sinister and disturbing aspect in the tendency,
ever more widely shared, to interpret the above crimes against life as
legitimate expressions of individual freedom, to be acknowledged and
protected as actual rights.
In this way, and with tragic consequences, a long historical process is
reaching a turning-point. The process which once led to discovering the
idea of "human rights"-rights inherent in every person and prior to any
Constitution and State legislation-is today marked by a surprising
contradiction. Precisely in an age when the inviolable rights of the
person are solemnly proclaimed and the value of life is publicly
affirmed, the very right to life is being denied or trampled upon,
especially at the more significant moments of existence: the moment of
birth and the moment of death.
On the one hand, the various declarations of human rights and the many
initiatives inspired by these declarations show that at the global
level there is a growing moral sensitivity, more alert to acknowledging
the value and dignity of every individual as a human being, without any
distinction of race, nationality, religion, political opinion or social
class.
On the other hand, these noble proclamations are unfortunately
contradicted by a tragic repudiation of them in practice. This denial
is still more distressing, indeed more scandalous, precisely because it
is occurring in a society which makes the affirmation and protection of
human rights its primary objective and its boast. How can these
repeated affirmations of principle be reconciled with the continual
increase and widespread justification of attacks on human life? How can
we reconcile these declarations with the refusal to accept those who
are weak and needy, or elderly, or those who have just been conceived?
These attacks go directly against respect for life and they represent a
direct threat to the entire culture of human rights. It is a threat
capable, in the end, of jeopardizing the very meaning of democratic
coexistence: rather than societies of "people living together", our
cities risk becoming societies of people who are rejected,
marginalized, uprooted and oppressed. If we then look at the wider
worldwide perspective, how can we fail to think that the very
affirmation of the rights of individuals and peoples made in
distinguished international assemblies is a merely futile exercise of
rhetoric, if we fail to unmask the selfishness of the rich countries
which exclude poorer countries from access to development or make such
access dependent on arbitrary prohibitions against procreation, setting
up an opposition between development and man himself? Should we not
question the very economic models often adopted by States which, also
as a result of international pressures and forms of conditioning, cause
and aggravate situations of injustice and violence in which the life of
whole peoples is degraded and trampled upon?
19. What are the roots of this remarkable contradiction?
We can find them in an overall assessment of a cultural and moral
nature, beginning with the mentality which carries the concept of
subjectivity to an extreme and even distorts it, and recognizes as a
subject of rights only the person who enjoys full or at least incipient
autonomy and who emerges from a state of total dependence on others.
But how can we reconcile this approach with the exaltation of man as a
being who is "not to be used"? The theory of human rights is based
precisely on the affirmation that the human person, unlike animals and
things, cannot be subjected to domination by others. We must also
mention the mentality which tends to equate personal dignity with the
capacity for verbal and explicit, or at least perceptible,
communication. It is clear that on the basis of these presuppositions
there is no place in the world for anyone who, like the unborn or the
dying, is a weak element in the social structure, or for anyone who
appears completely at the mercy of others and radically dependent on
them, and can only communicate through the silent language of a
profound sharing of affection. In this case it is force which becomes
the criterion for choice and action in interpersonal relations and in
social life. But this is the exact opposite of what a State ruled by
law, as a community in which the "reasons of force" are replaced by the
"force of reason", historically intended to affirm.
At another level, the roots of the contradiction between the solemn
affirmation of human rights and their tragic denial in practice lies in
a notion of freedom which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute
way, and gives no place to solidarity, to openness to others and
service of them. While it is true that the taking of life not yet born
or in its final stages is sometimes marked by a mistaken sense of
altruism and human compassion, it cannot be denied that such a culture
of death, taken as a whole, betrays a completely individualistic
concept of freedom, which ends up by becoming the freedom of "the
strong" against the weak who have no choice but to submit.
It is precisely in this sense that Cain's answer to the Lord's
question: "Where is Abel your brother?" can be interpreted: "I do not
know; am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen 4:9). Yes, every man is his
"brother's keeper", because God entrusts us to one another. And it is
also in view of this entrusting that God gives everyone freedom, a
freedom which possesses an inherently relational dimension. This is a
great gift of the Creator, placed as it is at the service of the person
and of his fulfilment through the gift of self and openness to others;
but when freedom is made absolute in an individualistic way, it is
emptied of its original content, and its very meaning and dignity are
contradicted.
There is an even more profound aspect which needs to be emphasized:
freedom negates and destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading to
the destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects
its essential link with the truth. When freedom, out of a desire to
emancipate itself from all forms of tradition and authority, shuts out
even the most obvious evidence of an objective and universal truth,
which is the foundation of personal and social life, then the person
ends up by no longer taking as the sole and indisputable point of
reference for his own choices the truth about good and evil, but only
his subjective and changeable opinion or, indeed, his selfish interest
and whim.
20. This view of freedom leads to a serious distortion of life in
society. If the promotion of the self is understood in terms of
absolute autonomy, people inevitably reach the point of rejecting one
another. Everyone else is considered an enemy from whom one has to
defend oneself. Thus soci- ety becomes a mass of individuals placed
side by side, but without any mutual bonds. Each one wishes to assert
himself independently of the other and in fact intends to make his own
interests prevail. Still, in the face of other people's analogous
interests, some kind of compromise must be found, if one wants a
society in which the maximum possible freedom is guaranteed to each
individual. In this way, any reference to common values and to a truth
absolutely binding on everyone is lost, and social life ventures on to
the shifting sands of complete relativism. At that point, everything is
negotiable, everything is open to bargaining: even the first of the
fundamental rights, the right to life.
This is what is happening also at the level of politics and government:
the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on
the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the
people-even if it is the majority. This is the sinister result of a
relativism which reigns unopposed: the "right" ceases to be such,
because it is no longer firmly founded on the inviolable dignity of the
person, but is made subject to the will of the stronger part. In this
way democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves
towards a form of totalitarianism. The State is no longer the "common
home" where all can live together on the basis of principles of
fundamental equality, but is transformed into a tyrant State, which
arrogates to itself the right to dispose of the life of the weakest and
most defenceless members, from the unborn child to the elderly, in the
name of a public interest which is really nothing but the interest of
one part. The appearance of the strictest respect for legality is
maintained, at least when the laws permitting abortion and euthanasia
are the result of a ballot in accordance with what are generally seen
as the rules of democracy. Really, what we have here is only the tragic
caricature of legality; the democratic ideal, which is only truly such
when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person,
is betrayed in its very foundations: "How is it still possible to speak
of the dignity of every human person when the killing of the weakest
and most innocent is permitted? In the name of what justice is the most
unjust of discriminations practised: some individuals are held to be
deserving of defence and others are denied that dignity?" 16 When this
happens, the process leading to the breakdown of a genuinely human
co-existence and the disintegration of the State itself has already
begun.
To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to
recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a
perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others
and against others. This is the death of true freedom: "Truly, truly, I
say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin" (Jn 8:34).
"And from your face I shall be hidden" (Gen 4:14): the eclipse of the
sense of God and of man
21. In seeking the deepest roots of the struggle between the "culture
of life" and the "culture of death", we cannot restrict ourselves to
the perverse idea of freedom mentioned above. We have to go to the
heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of
the sense of God and of man, typical of a social and cultural climate
dominated by secularism, which, with its ubiquitous tentacles, succeeds
at times in putting Christian communities themselves to the test. Those
who allow themselves to be influenced by this climate easily fall into
a sad vicious circle: when the sense of God is lost, there is also a
tendency to lose the sense of man, of his dignity and his life; in
turn, the systematic violation of the moral law, especially in the
serious matter of respect for human life and its dignity, produces a
kind of progressive darkening of the capacity to discern God's living
and saving presence.
Once again we can gain insight from the story of Abel's murder by his
brother. After the curse imposed on him by God, Cain thus addresses the
Lord: "My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have
driven me this day away from the ground; and from your face I shall be
hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and wanderer on the earth, and
whoever finds me will slay me" (Gen 4:13-14). Cain is convinced that
his sin will not obtain pardon from the Lord and that his inescapable
destiny will be to have to "hide his face" from him. If Cain is capable
of confessing that his fault is "greater than he can bear", it is
because he is conscious of being in the presence of God and before
God's just judgment. It is really only before the Lord that man can
admit his sin and recognize its full seriousness. Such was the
experience of David who, after "having committed evil in the sight of
the Lord", and being rebuked by the Prophet Nathan, exclaimed: "My
offences truly I know them; my sin is always before me. Against you,
you alone, have I sinned; what is evil in your sight I have done" (Ps
51:5-6).
22. Consequently, when the sense of God is lost, the sense of man is
also threatened and poisoned, as the Second Vatican Council concisely
states: "Without the Creator the creature would disappear ... But when
God is forgotten the creature itself grows unintelligible".17 Man is no
longer able to see himself as "mysteriously different" from other
earthly creatures; he regards himself merely as one more living being,
as an organism which, at most, has reached a very high stage of
perfection. Enclosed in the narrow horizon of his physical nature, he
is somehow reduced to being "a thing", and no longer grasps the
"transcendent" character of his "existence as man". He no longer
considers life as a splendid gift of God, something "sacred" entrusted
to his responsibility and thus also to his loving care and
"veneration". Life itself becomes a mere "thing", which man claims as
his exclusive property, completely subject to his control and
manipulation.
Thus, in relation to life at birth or at death, man is no longer
capable of posing the question of the truest meaning of his own
existence, nor can he assimilate with genuine freedom these crucial
moments of his own history. He is concerned only with "doing", and,
using all kinds of technology, he busies himself with programming,
controlling and dominating birth and death. Birth and death, instead of
being primary experiences demanding to be "lived", become things to be
merely "possessed" or "rejected".
Moreover, once all reference to God has been removed, it is not
surprising that the meaning of everything else becomes profoundly
distorted. Nature itself, from being "mater" (mother), is now reduced
to being "matter", and is subjected to every kind of manipulation. This
is the direction in which a certain technical and scientific way of
thinking, prevalent in present-day culture, appears to be leading when
it rejects the very idea that there is a truth of creation which must
be ac- knowledged, or a plan of God for life which must be respected.
Something similar happens when concern about the consequences of such a
"freedom without law" leads some people to the opposite position of a
"law without freedom", as for example in ideologies which consider it
unlawful to interfere in any way with nature, practically "divinizing"
it. Again, this is a misunderstanding of nature's dependence on the
plan of the Creator. Thus it is clear that the loss of contact with
God's wise design is the deepest root of modern man's confusion, both
when this loss leads to a freedom without rules and when it leaves man
in "fear" of his freedom.
By living "as if God did not exist", man not only loses sight of the
mystery of God, but also of the mystery of the world and the mystery of
his own being.
23. The eclipse of the sense of God and of man inevitably leads to a
practical materialism, which breeds individualism, utilitarianism and
hedonism. Here too we see the permanent validity of the words of the
Apostle: "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave
them up to a base mind and to improper conduct" (Rom 1:28). The values
of being are replaced by those of having. The only goal which counts is
the pursuit of one's own material well-being. The so-called "quality of
life" is interpreted primarily or exclusively as economic efficiency,
inordinate consumerism, physical beauty and pleasure, to the neglect of
the more profound dimensions-interpersonal, spiritual and religious-of
existence.
In such a context suffering, an inescapable burden of human existence
but also a factor of possible personal growth, is "censored", rejected
as useless, indeed opposed as an evil, always and in every way to be
avoided. When it cannot be avoided and the prospect of even some future
well-being vanishes, then life appears to have lost all meaning and the
temptation grows in man to claim the right to suppress it.
Within this same cultural climate, the body is no longer perceived as a
properly personal reality, a sign and place of relations with others,
with God and with the world. It is reduced to pure materiality: it is
simply a complex of organs, functions and energies to be used according
to the sole criteria of pleasure and efficiency. Consequently,
sexuality too is depersonalized and exploited: from being the sign,
place and language of love, that is, of the gift of self and acceptance
of another, in all the other's richness as a person, it increasingly
becomes the occasion and instrument for self-assertion and the selfish
satisfaction of personal desires and instincts. Thus the original
import of human sexuality is distorted and falsified, and the two
meanings, unitive and procreative, inherent in the very nature of the
conjugal act, are artificially separated: in this way the marriage
union is betrayed and its fruitfulness is subjected to the caprice of
the couple. Procreation then becomes the "enemy" to be avoided in
sexual activity: if it is welcomed, this is only because it expresses a
desire, or indeed the intention, to have a child "at all costs", and
not because it signifies the complete acceptance of the other and
therefore an openness to the richness of life which the child
represents.
In the materialistic perspective described so far, interpersonal
relations are seriously impoverished. The first to be harmed are women,
children, the sick or suffering, and the elderly. The criterion of
personal dignity-which demands respect, generosity and service-is
replaced by the criterion of efficiency, functionality and usefulness:
others are considered not for what they "are", but for what they "have,
do and produce". This is the supremacy of the strong over the weak.
24. It is at the heart of the moral conscience that the eclipse of the
sense of God and of man, with all its various and deadly consequences
for life, is taking place. It is a question, above all, of the
individual conscience, as it stands before God in its singleness and
uniqueness. 18 But it is also a question, in a certain sense, of the
"moral conscience" of society: in a way it too is responsible, not only
because it tolerates or fosters behaviour contrary to life, but also
because it encourages the "culture of death", creating and
consolidating actual "structures of sin" which go against life. The
moral conscience, both individual and social, is today subjected, also
as a result of the penetrating influence of the media, to an extremely
serious and mortal danger: that of confusion between good and evil,
precisely in relation to the fundamental right to life. A large part of
contemporary society looks sadly like that humanity which Paul
describes in his Letter to the Romans. It is composed "of men who by
their wickedness suppress the truth" (1:18): having denied God and
believing that they can build the earthly city without him, "they
became futile in their thinking" so that "their senseless minds were
darkened" (1:21); "claiming to be wise, they became fools" (1:22),
carrying out works deserving of death, and "they not only do them but
approve those who practise them" (1:32). When conscience, this bright
lamp of the soul (cf. Mt 6:22-23), calls "evil good and good evil" (Is
5:20), it is already on the path to the most alarming corruption and
the darkest moral blindness.
And yet all the conditioning and efforts to enforce silence fail to
stifle the voice of the Lord echoing in the conscience of every
individual: it is always from this intimate sanctuary of the conscience
that a new journey of love, openness and service to human life can
begin.
"You have come to the sprinkled blood" (cf. Heb 12: 22, 24): signs of
hope and invitation to commitment
25. "The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground"
(Gen 4:10). It is not only the voice of the blood of Abel, the first
innocent man to be murdered, which cries to God, the source and
defender of life. The blood of every other human being who has been
killed since Abel is also a voice raised to the Lord. In an absolutely
singular way, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us,
the voice of the blood of Christ, of whom Abel in his innocence is a
prophetic figure, cries out to God: "You have come to Mount Zion and to
the city of the living God ... to the mediator of a new covenant, and
to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of
Abel" (12:22, 24).
It is the sprinkled blood. A symbol and prophetic sign of it had been
the blood of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant, whereby God expressed
his will to communicate his own life to men, purifying and consecrating
them (cf. Ex 24:8; Lev 17:11). Now all of this is fulfilled and comes
true in Christ: his is the sprinkled blood which redeems, purifies and
saves; it is the blood of the Mediator of the New Covenant "poured out
for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Mt 26:28). This blood, which
flows from the pierced side of Christ on the Cross (cf. Jn 19:34),
"speaks more graciously" than the blood of Abel; indeed, it expresses
and requires a more radical "justice", and above all it implores mercy,
19 it makes intercession for the brethren before the Father (cf. Heb
7:25), and it is the source of perfect redemption and the gift of new
life.
The blood of Christ, while it reveals the grandeur of the Father's
love, shows how precious man is in God's eyes and how priceless the
value of his life. The Apostle Peter reminds us of this: "You know that
you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not
with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Pt
1:18-19). Precisely by contemplating the precious blood of Christ, the
sign of his self-giving love (cf. Jn 13:1), the believer learns to
recognize and appreciate the almost divine dignity of every human being
and can exclaim with ever renewed and grateful wonder: "How precious
must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he ?gained so great a
Redeemer' (Exsultet of the Easter Vigil), and if God ?gave his only
Son' in order that man ?should not perish but have eternal life' (cf.
Jn 3:16)!". 20
Furthermore, Christ's blood reveals to man that his greatness, and
therefore his vocation, consists in the sincere gift of self. Precisely
because it is poured out as the gift of life, the blood of Christ is no
longer a sign of death, of definitive separation from the brethren, but
the instrument of a communion which is richness of life for all.
Whoever in the Sacrament of the Eucharist drinks this blood and abides
in Jesus (cf. Jn 6:56) is drawn into the dynamism of his love and gift
of life, in order to bring to its fullness the original vocation to
love which belongs to everyone (cf. Gen 1:27; 2:18-24).
It is from the blood of Christ that all draw the strength to commit
themselves to promoting life. It is precisely this blood that is the
most powerful source of hope, indeed it is the foundation of the
absolute certitude that in God's plan life will be victorious. "And
death shall be no more", exclaims the powerful voice which comes from
the throne of God in the Heavenly Jerusalem (Rev 21:4). And Saint Paul
assures us that the present victory over sin is a sign and anticipation
of the definitive victory over death, when there "shall come to pass
the saying that is written: ?Death is swallowed up in victory'. ?O
death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' " (1 Cor
15:54-55).
26. In effect, signs which point to this victory are not lacking in our
societies and cultures, strongly marked though they are by the "culture
of death". It would therefore be to give a one-sided picture, which
could lead to sterile discouragement, if the condemnation of the
threats to life were not accompanied by the presentation of the
positive signs at work in humanity's present situation.
Unfortunately it is often hard to see and recognize these positive
signs, perhaps also because they do not receive sufficient attention in
the communications media. Yet, how many initiatives of help and support
for people who are weak and defenceless have sprung up and continue to
spring up in the Christian community and in civil society, at the
local, national and international level, through the efforts of
individuals, groups, movements and organizations of various kinds!
There are still many married couples who, with a generous sense of
responsibility, are ready to accept children as "the supreme gift of
marriage".21 Nor is there a lack of families which, over and above
their everyday service to life, are willing to accept abandoned
children, boys and girls and teenagers in difficulty, handicapped
persons, elderly men and women who have been left alone. Many centres
in support of life, or similar institutions, are sponsored by
individuals and groups which, with admirable dedication and sacrifice,
offer moral and material support to mothers who are in difficulty and
are tempted to have recourse to abortion. Increasingly, there are
appearing in many places groups of volunteers prepared to offer
hospitality to persons without a family, who find themselves in
conditions of particular distress or who need a supportive environment
to help them to overcome destructive habits and discover anew the
meaning of life.
Medical science, thanks to the committed efforts of researchers and
practitioners, continues in its efforts to discover ever more effective
remedies: treatments which were once inconceivable but which now offer
much promise for the future are today being developed for the unborn,
the suffering and those in an acute or terminal stage of sickness.
Various agencies and organizations are mobilizing their efforts to
bring the benefits of the most advanced medicine to countries most
afflicted by poverty and endemic diseases. In a similar way national
and international associations of physicians are being organized to
bring quick relief to peoples affected by natural disasters, epidemics
or wars. Even if a just international distribution of medical resources
is still far from being a reality, how can we not recognize in the
steps taken so far the sign of a growing solidarity among peoples, a
praiseworthy human and moral sensitivity and a greater respect for life?
27. In view of laws which permit abortion and in view of efforts, which
here and there have been successful, to legalize euthanasia, movements
and initiatives to raise social awareness in defence of life have
sprung up in many parts of the world. When, in accordance with their
principles, such movements act resolutely, but without resorting to
violence, they promote a wider and more profound consciousness of the
value of life, and evoke and bring about a more determined commitment
to its defence.
Furthermore, how can we fail to mention all those daily gestures of
openness, sacrifice and unselfish care which countless people lovingly
make in families, hospitals, orphanages, homes for the elderly and
other centres or communities which defend life? Allowing herself to be
guided by the example of Jesus the "Good Samaritan" (cf. Lk 10:29-37)
and upheld by his strength, the Church has always been in the front
line in providing charitable help: so many of her sons and daughters,
especially men and women Religious, in traditional and ever new forms,
have consecrated and continue to consecrate their lives to God, freely
giving of themselves out of love for their neighbour, especially for
the weak and needy. These deeds strengthen the bases of the
"civilization of love and life", without which the life of individuals
and of society itself loses its most genuinely human quality. Even if
they go unnoticed and remain hidden to most people, faith assures us
that the Father "who sees in secret" (Mt 6:6) not only will reward
these actions but already here and now makes them produce lasting fruit
for the good of all.
Among the signs of hope we should also count the spread, at many levels
of public opinion, of a new sensitivity ever more opposed to war as an
instrument for the resolution of conflicts between peoples, and
increasingly oriented to finding effective but "non-violent" means to
counter the armed aggressor. In the same perspective there is evidence
of a growing public opposition to the death penalty, even when such a
penalty is seen as a kind of "legitimate defence" on the part of
society. Modern society in fact has the means of effectively
suppressing crime by rendering criminals harmless without definitively
denying them the chance to reform.
Another welcome sign is the growing attention being paid to the quality
of life and to ecology, especially in more developed societies, where
people's expectations are no longer concentrated so much on problems of
survival as on the search for an overall improvement of living
conditions. Especially significant is the reawakening of an ethical
reflection on issues affecting life. The emergence and ever more
widespread development of bioethics is promoting more reflection and
dialogue-between believers and non-believers, as well as between
followers of different religions- on ethical problems, including
fundamental issues pertaining to human life.
28. This situation, with its lights and shadows, ought to make us all
fully aware that we are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between
good and evil, death and life, the "culture of death" and the "culture
of life". We find ourselves not only "faced with" but necessarily "in
the midst of" this conflict: we are all involved and we all share in
it, with the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be
unconditionally pro-life.
For us too Moses' invitation rings out loud and clear: "See, I have set
before you this day life and good, death and evil. ... I have set
before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life,
that you and your descendants may live" (Dt 30:15, 19). This invitation
is very appropriate for us who are called day by day to the duty of
choosing between the "culture of life" and the "culture of death". But
the call of Deuteronomy goes even deeper, for it urges us to make a
choice which is properly religious and moral. It is a question of
giving our own existence a basic orientation and living the law of the
Lord faithfully and consistently: "If you obey the commandments of the
Lord your God which I command you this day, by loving the Lord your
God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his
statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live ... therefore choose
life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God,
obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and
length of days" (30:16,19-20).
The unconditional choice for life reaches its full religious and moral
meaning when it flows from, is formed by and nourished by faith in
Christ. Nothing helps us so much to face positively the conflict
between death and life in which we are engaged as faith in the Son of
God who became man and dwelt among men so "that they may have life, and
have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). It is a matter of faith in the Risen
Lord, who has conquered death; faith in the blood of Christ "that
speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel" (Heb 12:24).
With the light and strength of this faith, therefore, in facing the
challenges of the present situation, the Church is becoming more aware
of the grace and responsibility which come to her from her Lord of
proclaiming, celebrating and serving the Gospel of life.
CHAPTER II - I CAME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE
THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE CONCERNING LIFE
"The life was made manifest, and we saw it" (1 Jn 1:2): with our gaze
fixed on Christ, "the Word of life"
29. Faced with the countless grave threats to life present in the
modern world, one could feel overwhelmed by sheer powerlessness: good
can never be powerful enough to triumph over evil!
At such times the People of God, and this includes every believer, is
called to profess with humility and courage its faith in Jesus Christ,
"the Word of life" (1 Jn 1:1). The Gospel of life is not simply a
reflection, however new and profound, on human life. Nor is it merely a
commandment aimed at raising awareness and bringing about significant
changes in society. Still less is it an illusory promise of a better
future. The Gospel of life is something concrete and personal, for it
consists in the proclamation of the very person of Jesus. Jesus made
himself known to the Apostle Thomas, and in him to every person, with
the words: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6). This
is also how he spoke of himself to Martha, the sister of Lazarus: "I am
the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die,
yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never
die" (Jn 11:25-26). Jesus is the Son who from all eternity receives
life from the Father (cf. Jn 5:26), and who has come among men to make
them sharers in this gift: "I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly" (Jn 10:10).
Through the words, the actions and the very person of Jesus, man is
given the possibility of "knowing" the complete truth concerning the
value of human life. From this "source" he receives, in particular, the
capacity to "accomplish" this truth perfectly (cf. Jn 3:21), that is,
to accept and fulfil completely the responsibility of loving and
serving, of defending and promoting human life. In Christ, the Gospel
of life is definitively proclaimed and fully given. This is the Gospel
which, already present in the Revelation of the Old Testament, and
indeed written in the heart of every man and woman, has echoed in every
conscience "from the beginning", from the time of creation itself, in
such a way that, despite the negative consequences of sin, it can also
be known in its essential traits by human reason. As the Second Vatican
Council teaches, Christ "perfected revelation by fulfilling it through
his whole work of making himself present and manifesting himself;
through his words and deeds, his signs and wonders, but especially
through his death and glorious Resurrection from the dead and final
sending of the Spirit of truth. Moreover, he confirmed with divine
testimony what revelation proclaimed: that God is with us to free us
from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life
eternal".22
30. Hence, with our attention fixed on the Lord Jesus, we wish to hear
from him once again "the words of God" (Jn 3:34) and meditate anew on
the Gospel of life. The deepest and most original meaning of this
meditation on what revelation tells us about human life was taken up by
the Apostle John in the opening words of his First Letter: "That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands,
concerning the word of life-the life was made manifest, and we saw it,
and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with
the Father and was made manifest to us-that which we have seen and
heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us"
(1:1-3).
In Jesus, the "Word of life", God's eternal life is thus proclaimed and
given. Thanks to this proclamation and gift, our physical and spiritual
life, also in its earthly phase, acquires its full value and meaning,
for God's eternal life is in fact the end to which our living in this
world is directed and called. In this way the Gospel of life includes
everything that human experience and reason tell us about the value of
human life, accepting it, purifying it, exalting it and bringing it to
fulfilment.
"The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation"
(Ex 15:2): life is always a good
31. The fullness of the Gospel message about life was prepared for in
the Old Testament. Especially in the events of the Exodus, the centre
of the Old Testament faith experience, Israel discovered the
preciousness of its life in the eyes of God. When it seemed doomed to
extermination because of the threat of death hanging over all its
newborn males (cf. Ex 1:15-22), the Lord revealed himself to Israel as
its Saviour, with the power to ensure a future to those without hope.
Israel thus comes to know clearly that its existence is not at the
mercy of a Pharaoh who can exploit it at his despotic whim. On the
contrary, Israel's life is the object of God's gentle and intense love.
Freedom from slavery meant the gift of an identity, the recognition of
an indestructible dignity and the beginning of a new history, in which
the discovery of God and discovery of self go hand in hand. The Exodus
was a foundational experience and a model for the future. Through it,
Israel comes to learn that whenever its existence is threatened it need
only turn to God with renewed trust in order to find in him effective
help: "I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be
forgotten by me" (Is 44:21).
Thus, in coming to know the value of its own existence as a people,
Israel also grows in its perception of the meaning and value of life
itself. This reflection is developed more specifically in the Wisdom
Literature, on the basis of daily experience of the precariousness of
life and awareness of the threats which assail it. Faced with the
contradictions of life, faith is challenged to respond.
More than anything else, it is the problem of suffering which
challenges faith and puts it to the test. How can we fail to appreciate
the universal anguish of man when we meditate on the Book of Job? The
innocent man overwhelmed by suffering is understandably led to wonder:
"Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in
soul, who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than
for hid treasures?" (3:20-21). But even when the darkness is deepest,
faith points to a trusting and adoring acknowledgment of the "mystery":
"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be
thwarted" (Job 42:2).
Revelation progressively allows the first notion of immortal life
planted by the Creator in the human heart to be grasped with ever
greater clarity: "He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he
has put eternity into man's mind" (Ec 3:11). This first notion of
totality and fullness is waiting to be manifested in love and brought
to perfection, by God's free gift, through sharing in his eternal life.
"The name of Jesus ... has made this man strong" (Acts 3:16): in the
uncertainties of human life, Jesus brings life's meaning to fulfilment
32. The experience of the people of the Covenant is renewed in the
experience of all the "poor" who meet Jesus of Nazareth. Just as God
who "loves the living" (cf. Wis 11:26) had reassured Israel in the
midst of danger, so now the Son of God proclaims to all who feel
threatened and hindered that their lives too are a good to which the
Father's love gives meaning and value.
"The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and
the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached
to them" (Lk 7:22). With these words of the Prophet Isaiah (35:5-6,
61:1), Jesus sets forth the meaning of his own mission: all who suffer
because their lives are in some way "diminished" thus hear from him the
"good news" of God's concern for them, and they know for certain that
their lives too are a gift carefully guarded in the hands of the Father
(cf. Mt 6:25-34).
It is above all the "poor" to whom Jesus speaks in his preaching and
actions. The crowds of the sick and the outcasts who follow him and
seek him out (cf. Mt 4:23-25) find in his words and actions a
revelation of the great value of their lives and of how their hope of
salvation is well-founded.
The same thing has taken place in the Church's mission from the
beginning. When the Church proclaims Christ as the one who "went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God
was with him" (Acts 10:38), she is conscious of being the bearer of a
message of salvation which resounds in all its newness precisely amid
the hardships and poverty of human life. Peter cured the cripple who
daily sought alms at the "Beautiful Gate" of the Temple in Jerusalem,
saying: "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk" (Acts 3:6). By faith in Jesus,
"the Author of life" (Acts 3:15), life which lies abandoned and cries
out for help regains self-esteem and full dignity.
The words and deeds of Jesus and those of his Church are not meant only
for those who are sick or suffering or in some way neglected by
society. On a deeper level they affect the very meaning of every
person's life in its moral and spiritual dimensions. Only those who
recognize that their life is marked by the evil of sin can discover in
an encounter with Jesus the Saviour the truth and the authenticity of
their own existence. Jesus himself says as much: "Those who are well
have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Lk 5:31-32).
But the person who, like the rich land-owner in the Gospel parable,
thinks that he can make his life secure by the possession of material
goods alone, is deluding himself. Life is slipping away from him, and
very soon he will find himself bereft of it without ever having
appreciated its real meaning: "Fool! This night your soul is required
of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" (Lk
12:20).
33. In Jesus' own life, from beginning to end, we find a singular
"dialectic" between the experience of the uncertainty of human life and
the affirmation of its value. Jesus' life is marked by uncertainty from
the very moment of his birth. He is certainly accepted by the
righteous, who echo Mary's immediate and joyful "yes" (cf. Lk 1:38).
But there is also, from the start, rejection on the part of a world
which grows hostile and looks for the child in order "to destroy him"
(Mt 2:13); a world which remains indifferent and unconcerned about the
fulfilment of the mystery of this life entering the world: "there was
no place for them in the inn" (Lk 2:7). In this contrast between
threats and insecurity on the one hand and the power of God's gift on
the other, there shines forth all the more clearly the glory which
radiates from the house at Nazareth and from the manger at Bethlehem:
this life which is born is salvation for all humanity (cf. Lk 2:11).
Life's contradictions and risks were fully accepted by Jesus: "though
he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty
you might become rich" (2 Cor 8:9). The poverty of which Paul speaks is
not only a stripping of divine privileges, but also a sharing in the
lowliest and most vulnerable conditions of human life (cf. Phil 2:6-7).
Jesus lived this poverty throughout his life, until the culminating
moment of the Cross: "he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and
bestowed on him the name which is above every name" (Phil 2:8-9). It is
precisely by his death that Jesus reveals all the splendour and value
of life, inasmuch as his self-oblation on the Cross becomes the source
of new life for all people (cf. Jn 12:32). In his journeying amid
contradictions and in the very loss of his life, Jesus is guided by the
certainty that his life is in the hands of the Father. Consequently, on
the Cross, he can say to him: "Father, into your hands I commend my
spirit!" (Lk 23:46), that is, my life. Truly great must be the value of
human life if the Son of God has taken it up and made it the instrument
of the salvation of all humanity!
"Called ... to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:28-29):
God's glory shines on the face of man
34. Life is always a good. This is an instinctive perception and a fact
of experience, and man is called to grasp the profound reason why this
is so.
Why is life a good? This question is found everywhere in the Bible, and
from the very first pages it receives a powerful and amazing answer.
The life which God gives man is quite different from the life of all
other living creatures, inasmuch as man, although formed from the dust
of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7, 3:19; Job 34:15; Ps 103:14; 104:29), is a
manifestation of God in the world, a sign of his presence, a trace of
his glory (cf. Gen 1:26-27; Ps 8:6). This is what Saint Irenaeus of
Lyons wanted to emphasize in his celebrated definition: "Man, living
man, is the glory of God".23 Man has been given a sublime dignity,
based on the intimate bond which unites him to his Creator: in man
there shines forth a reflection of God himself.
The Book of Genesis affirms this when, in the first account of
creation, it places man at the summit of God's creative activity, as
its crown, at the culmination of a process which leads from indistinct
chaos to the most perfect of creatures. Everything in creation is
ordered to man and everything is made subject to him: "Fill the earth
and subdue it; and have dominion over ... every living thing" (1:28);
this is God's command to the man and the woman. A similar message is
found also in the other account of creation: "The Lord God took the man
and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it" (Gen 2:15).
We see here a clear affirmation of the primacy of man over things;
these are made subject to him and entrusted to his responsible care,
whereas for no reason can he be made subject to other men and almost
reduced to the level of a thing.
In the biblical narrative, the difference between man and other
creatures is shown above all by the fact that only the creation of man
is presented as the result of a special decision on the part of God, a
deliberation to establish a particular and specific bond with the
Creator: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen 1:26).
The life which God offers to man is a gift by which God shares
something of himself with his creature.
Israel would ponder at length the meaning of this particular bond
between man and God. The Book of Sirach too recognizes that God, in
creating human beings, "endowed them with strength like his own, and
made them in his own image" (17:3). The biblical author sees as part of
this image not only man's dominion over the world but also those
spiritual faculties which are distinctively human, such as reason,
discernment between good and evil, and free will: "He filled them with
knowledge and understanding, and showed them good and evil" (Sir 17:7).
The ability to attain truth and freedom are human prerogatives inasmuch
as man is created in the image of his Creator, God who is true and just
(cf. Dt 32:4). Man alone, among all visible creatures, is "capable of
knowing and loving his Creator".24 The life which God bestows upon man
is much more than mere existence in time. It is a drive towards
fullness of life; it is the seed of an existence which transcends the
very limits of time: "For God created man for incorruption, and made
him in the image of his own eternity" (Wis 2:23).
35. The Yahwist account of creation expresses the same conviction. This
ancient narrative speaks of a divine breath which is breathed into man
so that he may come to life: "The Lord God formed man of dust from the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living being" (Gen 2:7).
The divine origin of this spirit of life explains the perennial
dissatisfaction which man feels throughout his days on earth. Because
he is made by God and bears within himself an indelible imprint of God,
man is naturally drawn to God. When he heeds the deepest yearnings of
the heart, every man must make his own the words of truth expressed by
Saint Augustine: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts
are restless until they rest in you".25
How very significant is the dissatisfaction which marks man's life in
Eden as long as his sole point of reference is the world of plants and
animals (cf. Gen 2:20). Only the appearance of the woman, a being who
is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones (cf. Gen 2:23), and in whom
the spirit of God the Creator is also alive, can satisfy the need for
interpersonal dialogue, so vital for human existence. In the other,
whether man or woman, there is a reflection of God himself, the
definitive goal and fulfilment of every person.
"What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you
care for him?", the Psalmist wonders (Ps 8:4). Compared to the
immensity of the universe, man is very small, and yet this very
contrast reveals his greatness: "You have made him little less than a
god, and crown him with glory and honour" (Ps 8:5). The glory of God
shines on the face of man. In man the Creator finds his rest, as Saint
Ambrose comments with a sense of awe: "The sixth day is finished and
the creation of the world ends with the formation of that masterpiece
which is man, who exercises dominion over all living creatures and is
as it were the crown of the universe and the supreme beauty of every
created being. Truly we should maintain a reverential silence, since
the Lord rested from every work he had undertaken in the world. He
rested then in the depths of man, he rested in man's mind and in his
thought; after all, he had created man endowed with reason, capable of
imitating him, of emulating his virtue, of hungering for heavenly
graces. In these his gifts God reposes, who has said: ?Upon whom shall
I rest, if not upon the one who is humble, contrite in spirit and
trembles at my word?' (Is 66:1-2). I thank the Lord our God who has
created so wonderful a work in which to take his rest".26
36. Unfortunately, God's marvellous plan was marred by the appearance
of sin in history. Through sin, man rebels against his Creator and ends
up by worshipping creatures: "They exchanged the truth about God for a
lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator"
(Rom 1:25). As a result man not only deforms the image of God in his
own person, but is tempted to offences against it in others as well,
replacing relationships of communion by attitudes of distrust,
indifference, hostility and even murderous hatred. When God is not
acknowledged as God, the profound meaning of man is betrayed and
communion between people is compromised.
In the life of man, God's image shines forth anew and is again revealed
in all its fullness at the coming of the Son of God in human flesh.
"Christ is the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15), he "reflects the
glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature" (Heb 1:3). He is
the perfect image of the Father.
The plan of life given to the first Adam finds at last its fulfilment
in Christ. Whereas the disobedience of Adam had ruined and marred God's
plan for human life and introduced death into the world, the redemptive
obedience of Christ is the source of grace poured out upon the human
race, opening wide to everyone the gates of the kingdom of life (cf.
Rom 5:12-21). As the Apostle Paul states: "The first man Adam became a
living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit" (1 Cor 15:45).
All who commit themselves to following Christ are given the fullness of
life: the divine image is restored, renewed and brought to perfection
in them. God's plan for human beings is this, that they should "be
conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:29). Only thus, in the
splendour of this image, can man be freed from the slavery of idolatry,
rebuild lost fellowship and rediscover his true identity.
"Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die" (Jn 11:26): the gift
of eternal life
37. The life which the Son of God came to give to human beings cannot
be reduced to mere existence in time. The life which was always "in
him" and which is the "light of men" (Jn 1:4) consists in being
begotten of God and sharing in the fullness of his love: "To all who
received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become
children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the
flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:12-13).
Sometimes Jesus refers to this life which he came to give simply as
"life", and he presents being born of God as a necessary condition if
man is to attain the end for which God has created him: "Unless one is
born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:3). To give this
life is the real object of Jesus' mission: he is the one who "comes
down from heaven, and gives life to the world" (Jn 6:33). Thus can he
truly say: "He who follows me ... will have the light of life" (Jn
8:12).
At other times, Jesus speaks of "eternal life". Here the adjective does
more than merely evoke a perspective which is beyond time. The life
which Jesus promises and gives is "eternal" because it is a full
participation in the life of the "Eternal One". Whoever believes in
Jesus and enters into communion with him has eternal life (cf. Jn 3:15;
6:40) because he hears from Jesus the only words which reveal and
communicate to his existence the fullness of life. These are the "words
of eternal life" which Peter acknowledges in his confession of faith:
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we
have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God"
(Jn 6:68-69). Jesus himself, addressing the Father in the great
priestly prayer, declares what eternal life consists in: "This is
eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom you have sent" (Jn 17:3). To know God and his Son is to
accept the mystery of the loving communion of the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit into one's own life, which even now is open to eternal
life because it shares in the life of God.
38. Eternal life is therefore the life of God himself and at the same
time the life of the children of God. As they ponder this unexpected
and inexpressible truth which comes to us from God in Christ, believers
cannot fail to be filled with ever new wonder and unbounded gratitude.
They can say in the words of the Apostle John: "See what love the
Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so
we are. ... Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 Jn 3:1-2).
Here the Christian truth about life becomes most sublime. The dignity
of this life is linked not only to its beginning, to the fact that it
comes from God, but also to its final end, to its destiny of fellowship
with God in knowledge and love of him. In the light of this truth Saint
Irenaeus qualifies and completes his praise of man: "the glory of God"
is indeed, "man, living man", but "the life of man consists in the
vision of God".27
Immediate consequences arise from this for human life in its earthly
state, in which, for that matter, eternal life already springs forth
and begins to grow. Although man instinctively loves life because it is
a good, this love will find further inspiration and strength, and new
breadth and depth, in the divine dimensions of this good. Similarly,
the love which every human being has for life cannot be reduced simply
to a desire to have sufficient space for self-expression and for
entering into relationships with others; rather, it devel- ops in a
joyous awareness that life can become the "place" where God manifests
himself, where we meet him and enter into communion with him. The life
which Jesus gives in no way lessens the value of our existence in time;
it takes it and directs it to its final destiny: "I am the resurrection
and the life ... whoever lives and believes in me shall never die" (Jn
11:25-26).
"From man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting" (Gen
9:5): reverence and love for every human life
39. Man's life comes from God; it is his gift, his image and imprint, a
sharing in his breath of life. God therefore is the sole Lord of this
life: man cannot do with it as he wills. God himself makes this clear
to Noah after the Flood: "For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an
accounting ... and from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand
an accounting for human life" (Gen 9:5). The biblical text is concerned
to emphasize how the sacredness of life has its foundation in God and
in his creative activity: "For God made man in his own image" (Gen 9:6).
Human life and death are thus in the hands of God, in his power: "In
his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all
mankind", exclaims Job (12:10). "The Lord brings to death and brings to
life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up" (1 Sam 2:6). He alone can
say: "It is I who bring both death and life" (Dt 32:39).
But God does not exercise this power in an arbitrary and threatening
way, but rather as part of his care and loving concern for his
creatures. If it is true that human life is in the hands of God, it is
no less true that these are loving hands, like those of a mother who
accepts, nurtures and takes care of her child: "I have calmed and
quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother's breast; like a
child that is quieted is my soul" (Ps 131:2; cf. Is 49:15; 66:12-13;
Hos 11:4). Thus Israel does not see in the history of peoples and in
the destiny of individuals the outcome of mere chance or of blind fate,
but rather the results of a loving plan by which God brings together
all the possibilities of life and opposes the powers of death arising
from sin: "God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death
of the living. For he created all things that they might exist" (Wis
1:13-14).
40. The sacredness of life gives rise to its inviolability, written
from the beginning in man's heart, in his conscience. The question:
"What have you done?" (Gen 4:10), which God addresses to Cain after he
has killed his brother Abel, interprets the experience of every person:
in the depths of his conscience, man is always reminded of the
inviolability of life-his own life and that of others-as something
which does not belong to him, because it is the property and gift of
God the Creator and Father.
The commandment regarding the inviolability of human life reverberates
at the heart of the "ten words" in the covenant of Sinai (cf. Ex
34:28). In the first place that commandment prohibits murder: "You
shall not kill" (Ex 20:13); "do not slay the innocent and righteous"
(Ex 23:7). But, as is brought out in Israel's later legislation, it
also prohibits all personal injury inflicted on another (cf. Ex
21:12-27). Of course we must recognize that in the Old Testament this
sense of the value of life, though already quite marked, does not yet
reach the refinement found in the Sermon on the Mount. This is apparent
in some aspects of the current penal legislation, which provided for
severe forms of corporal punishment and even the death penalty. But the
overall message, which the New Testament will bring to perfection, is a
forceful appeal for respect for the inviolability of physical life and
the integrity of the person. It culminates in the positive commandment
which obliges us to be responsible for our neighbour as for ourselves:
"You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Lev 19:18).
41. The commandment "You shall not kill", included and more fully
expressed in the positive command of love for one's neighbour, is
reaffirmed in all its force by the Lord Jesus. To the rich young man
who asks him: "Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal
life?", Jesus replies: "If you would enter life, keep the commandments"
(Mt 19:16,17). And he quotes, as the first of these: "You shall not
kill" (Mt 19:18). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus demands from his
disciples a righteousness which surpasses that of the Scribes and
Pharisees, also with regard to respect for life: "You have heard that
it was said to the men of old, ?You shall not kill; and whoever kills
shall be liable to judgment'. But I say to you that every one who is
angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment" (Mt 5:21-22).
By his words and actions Jesus further unveils the positive
requirements of the commandment regarding the inviolability of life.
These requirements were already present in the Old Testament, where
legislation dealt with protecting and defending life when it was weak
and threatened: in the case of foreigners, widows, orphans, the sick
and the poor in general, including children in the womb (cf. Ex 21:22;
22:20-26). With Jesus these positive requirements assume new force and
urgency, and are revealed in all their breadth and depth: they range
from caring for the life of one's brother (whether a blood brother,
someone belonging to the same people, or a foreigner living in the land
of Israel) to showing concern for the stranger, even to the point of
loving one's enemy.
A stranger is no longer a stranger for the person who mustbecome a
neighbour to someone in need, to the point of accepting responsibility
for his life, as the parable of the Good Samaritan shows so clearly
(cf. Lk 10:25-37). Even an enemy ceases to be an enemy for the person
who is obliged to love him (cf. Mt 5:38-48; Lk 6:27-35), to "do good"
to him (cf. Lk 6:27, 33, 35) and to respond to his immediate needs
promptly and with no expectation of repayment (cf. Lk 6:34-35). The
height of this love is to pray for one's enemy. By so doing we achieve
harmony with the providential love of God: "But I say to you, love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be
children of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on
the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust"
(Mt 5:44-45; cf. Lk 6:28, 35).
Thus the deepest element of God's commandment to protect human life is
the requirement to show reverence and love for every person and the
life of every person. This is the teaching which the Apostle Paul,
echoing the words of Jesus, address- es to the Christians in Rome: "The
commandments, ?You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You
shall not steal, You shall not covet', and any other commandment, are
summed up in this sentence, ?You shall love your neighbour as
yourself'. Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the
fulfilling of the law" (Rom 13:9-10).
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen
1:28): man's responsibility for life
42. To defend and promote life, to show reverence and love for it, is a
task which God entrusts to every man, calling him as his living image
to share in his own lordship over the world: "God blessed them, and God
said to them, ?Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue
it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of
the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth' " (Gen
1:28).
The biblical text clearly shows the breadth and depth of the lordship
which God bestows on man. It is a matter first of all of dominion over
the earth and over every living creature, as the Book of Wisdom makes
clear: "O God of my fathers and Lord of mercy ... by your wisdom you
have formed man, to have dominion over the creatures you have made, and
rule the world in holiness and righteousness" (Wis 9:1, 2-3). The
Psalmist too extols the dominion given to man as a sign of glory and
honour from his Creator: "You have given him dominion over the works of
your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of
the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea" (Ps 8:6-8).
As one called to till and look after the garden of the world (cf. Gen
2:15), man has a specific responsibility towards the environment in
which he lives, towards the creation which God has put at the service
of his personal dignity, of his life, not only for the present but also
for future generations. It is the ecological question-ranging from the
preservation of the natural habitats of the different species of
animals and of other forms of life to "human ecology" properly speaking
28 - which finds in the Bible clear and strong ethical direction,
leading to a solution which respects the great good of life, of every
life. In fact, "the do- minion granted to man by the Creator is not an
absolute power, nor can one speak of a freedom to ?use and misuse', or
to dispose of things as one pleases. The limitation imposed from the
beginning by the Creator himself and expressed symbolically by the
prohibition not to ?eat of the fruit of the tree' (cf. Gen 2:16-17)
shows clearly enough that, when it comes to the natural world, we are
subject not only to biological laws but also to moral ones, which
cannot be violated with impunity".29
43. A certain sharing by man in God's lordship is also evident in the
specific responsibility which he is given for human life as such. It is
a responsibility which reaches its highest point in the giving of life
through procreation by man and woman in marriage. As the Second Vatican
Council teaches: "God himself who said, ?It is not good for man to be
alone' (Gen 2:18) and ?who made man from the beginning male and female'
(Mt 19:4), wished to share with man a certain special participation in
his own creative work. Thus he blessed male and female saying:
?Increase and multiply' (Gen 1:28). 30
By speaking of "a certain special participation" of man and woman in
the "creative work" of God, the Council wishes to point out that having
a child is an event which is deeply human and full of religious
meaning, insofar as it involves both the spouses, who form "one flesh"
(Gen 2:24), and God who makes himself present. As I wrote in my Letter
to Families: "When a new person is born of the conjugal union of the
two, he brings with him into the world a particular image and likeness
of God himself: the genealogy of the person is inscribed in the very
biology of generation. In affirming that the spouses, as parents,
cooperate with God the Creator in conceiving and giving birth to a new
human being, we are not speaking merely with reference to the laws of
biology. Instead, we wish to emphasize that God himself is present in
human fatherhood and motherhood quite differently than he is present in
all other instances of begetting ?on earth'. Indeed, God alone is the
source of that ?image and likeness' which is proper to the human being,
as it was received at Creation. Begetting is the continuation of
Creation".31
This is what the Bible teaches in direct and eloquent language when it
reports the joyful cry of the first woman, "the mother of all the
living" (Gen 3:20). Aware that God has intervened, Eve exclaims: "I
have begotten a man with the help of the Lord" (Gen 4:1). In
procreation therefore, through the communication of life from parents
to child, God's own image and likeness is transmitted, thanks to the
creation of the immortal soul. 32 The beginning of the "book of the
genealogy of Adam" expresses it in this way: "When God created man, he
made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and
he blessed them and called them man when they were created. When Adam
had lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in
his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth" (Gen 5:1-3). It
is precisely in their role as co-workers with God who transmits his
image to the new creature that we see the greatness of couples who are
ready "to cooperate with the love of the Creator and the Saviour, who
through them will enlarge and enrich his own family day by day".33 This
is why the Bishop Amphilochius extolled "holy matrimony, chosen and
elevated above all other earthly gifts" as "the begetter of humanity,
the creator of images of God".34
Thus, a man and woman joined in matrimony become partners in a divine
undertaking: through the act of procreation, God's gift is accepted and
a new life opens to the future.
But over and above the specific mission of parents, the task of
accepting and serving life involves everyone; and this task must be
fulfilled above all towards life when it is at its weakest. It is
Christ himself who reminds us of this when he asks to be loved and
served in his brothers and sisters who are suffering in any way: the
hungry, the thirsty, the foreigner, the naked, the sick, the impris-
oned ... Whatever is done to each of them is done to Christ himself
(cf. Mt 25:31-46).
"For you formed my inmost being" (Ps 139:13): the dignity of the unborn
child
44. Human life finds itself most vulnerable when it enters the world
and when it leaves the realm of time to embark upon eternity. The word
of God frequently repeats the call to show care and respect, above all
where life is undermined by sickness and old age. Although there are no
direct and explicit calls to protect human life at its very beginning,
specifically life not yet born, and life nearing its end, this can
easily be explained by the fact that the mere possibility of harming,
attacking, or actually denying life in these circumstances is
completely foreign to the religious and cultural way of thinking of the
People of God.
In the Old Testament, sterility is dreaded as a curse, while numerous
offspring are viewed as a blessing: "Sons are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward" (Ps 127:3; cf. Ps 128:3-4). This belief
is also based on Israel's awareness of being the people of the
Covenant, called to increase in accordance with the promise made to
Abraham: "Look towards heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to
number them ... so shall your descendants be" (Gen 15:5). But more than
anything else, at work here is the certainty that the life which
parents transmit has its origins in God. We see this attested in the
many biblical passages which respectfully and lovingly speak of
conception, of the forming of life in the mother's womb, of giving
birth and of the intimate connection between the initial moment of life
and the action of God the Creator.
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I
consecrated you" (Jer 1:5): the life of every individual, from its very
beginning, is part of God's plan. Job, from the depth of his pain,
stops to contemplate the work of God who miraculously formed his body
in his mother's womb. Here he finds reason for trust, and he expresses
his belief that there is a divine plan for his life: "You have
fashioned and made me; will you then turn and destroy me? Remember that
you have made me of clay; and will you turn me to dust again? Did you
not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me
with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You
have granted me life and steadfast love; and your care has preserved my
spirit" (Job 10:8-12). Expressions of awe and wonder at God's
intervention in the life of a child in its mother's womb occur again
and again in the Psalms. 35
How can anyone think that even a single moment of this marvellous
process of the unfolding of life could be separated from the wise and
loving work of the Creator, and left prey to human caprice? Certainly
the mother of the seven brothers did not think so; she professes her
faith in God, both the source and guarantee of life from its very
conception, and the foundation of the hope of new life beyond death: "I
do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave
you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of
you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of
man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life
and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the
sake of his laws" (2 Mac 7:22-23).
45. The New Testament revelation confirms the indisputable recognition
of the value of life from its very beginning. The exaltation of
fruitfulness and the eager expectation of life resound in the words
with which Elizabeth rejoices in her pregnancy: "The Lord has looked on
me ... to take away my reproach among men" (Lk 1:25). And even more so,
the value of the person from the moment of conception is celebrated in
the meeting between the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth, and between the two
children whom they are carrying in the womb. It is precisely the
children who reveal the advent of the Messianic age: in their meeting,
the redemptive power of the presence of the Son of God among men first
becomes operative. As Saint Ambrose writes: "The arrival of Mary and
the blessings of the Lord's presence are also speedily declared ...
Elizabeth was the first to hear the voice; but John was the first to
expe- rience grace. She heard according to the order of nature; he
leaped because of the mystery. She recognized the arrival of Mary; he
the arrival of the Lord. The woman recognized the woman's arrival; the
child, that of the child. The women speak of grace; the babies make it
effective from within to the advantage of their mothers who, by a
double miracle, prophesy under the inspiration of their children. The
infant leaped, the mother was filled with the Spirit. The mother was
not filled before the son, but after the son was filled with the Holy
Spirit, he filled his mother too".36
"I kept my faith even when I said, ?I am greatly afflicted' " (Ps
116:10): life in old age and at times of suffering
46. With regard to the last moments of life too, it would be
anachronistic to expect biblical revelation to make express reference
to present-day issues concerning respect for elderly and sick persons,
or to condemn explicitly attempts to hasten their end by force. The
cultural and religious context of the Bible is in no way touched by
such temptations; indeed, in that context the wisdom and experience of
the elderly are recognized as a unique source of enrichment for the
family and for society.
Old age is characterized by dignity and surrounded with reverence (cf.
2 Mac 6:23). The just man does not seek to be delivered from old age
and its burden; on the contrary his prayer is this: "You, O Lord, are
my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth ... so even to old age and
grey hairs, O God, do not forsake me, till I proclaim your might to all
the generations to come" (Ps 71:5, 18). The ideal of the Messianic age
is presented as a time when "no more shall there be ... an old man who
does not fill out his days" (Is 65:20).
In old age, how should one face the inevitable decline of life? How
should one act in the face of death? The believer knows that his life
is in the hands of God: "You, O Lord, hold my lot" (cf. Ps 16:5), and
he accepts from God the need to die: "This is the decree from the Lord
for all flesh, and how can you reject the good pleasure of the Most
High?" (Sir 41:3-4). Man is not the master of life, nor is he the
master of death. In life and in death, he has to entrust himself
completely to the "good pleasure of the Most High", to his loving plan.
In moments of sickness too, man is called to have the same trust in the
Lord and to renew his fundamental faith in the One who "heals all your
diseases" (cf. Ps 103:3). When every hope of good health seems to fade
before a person's eyes-so as to make him cry out: "My days are like an
evening shadow; I wither away like grass" (Ps 102:11)- even then the
believer is sustained by an unshakable faith in God's life-giving
power. Illness does not drive such a person to despair and to seek
death, but makes him cry out in hope: "I kept my faith, even when I
said, ?I am greatly afflicted' " (Ps 116:10); "O Lord my God, I cried
to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my
soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the
pit" (Ps 30:2-3).
47. The mission of Jesus, with the many healings he performed, shows
God's great concern even for man's bodily life. Jesus, as "the
physician of the body and of the spirit",37 was sent by the Father to
proclaim the good news to the poor and to heal the brokenhearted (cf.
Lk 4:18; Is 61:1). Later, when he sends his disciples into the world,
he gives them a mission, a mission in which healing the sick goes hand
in hand with the proclamation of the Gospel: "And preach as you go,
saying, ?The kingdom of heaven is at hand'. Heal the sick, raise the
dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons" (Mt 10:7-8; cf. Mk 6:13; 16:18).
Certainly the life of the body in its earthly state is not an absolute
good for the believer, especially as he may be asked to give up his
life for a greater good. As Jesus says: "Whoever would save his life
will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's
will save it" (Mk 8:35). The New Testament gives many different
examples of this. Jesus does not hesitate to sacrifice himself and he
freely makes of his life an offering to the Father (cf. Jn 10:17) and
to those who belong to him (cf. Jn 10:15). The death of John the
Baptist, precursor of the Saviour, also testifies that earthly
existence is not an absolute good; what is more important is remaining
faithful to the word of the Lord even at the risk of one's life (cf. Mk
6:17-29). Stephen, losing his earthly life because of his faithful
witness to the Lord's Resurrection, follows in the Master's footsteps
and meets those who are stoning him with words of forgiveness (cf. Acts
7:59-60), thus becoming the first of a countless host of martyrs whom
the Church has venerated since the very beginning.
No one, however, can arbitrarily choose whether to live or die; the
absolute master of such a decision is the Creator alone, in whom "we
live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
"All who hold her fast will live" (Bar 4:1): from the law of Sinai to
the gift of the Spirit
48. Life is indelibly marked by a truth of its own. By accepting God's
gift, man is obliged to maintain life in this truth which is essential
to it. To detach oneself from this truth is to condemn oneself to
meaninglessness and unhappiness, and possibly to become a threat to the
existence of others, since the barriers guaranteeing respect for life
and the defence of life, in every circumstance, have been broken down.
The truth of life is revealed by God's commandment. The word of the
Lord shows concretely the course which life must follow if it is to
respect its own truth and to preserve its own dignity. The protection
of life is not only ensured by the spe- cific commandment "You shall
not kill" (Ex 20:13; Dt 5:17); the entire Law of the Lord serves to
protect life, because it reveals that truth in which life finds its
full meaning.
It is not surprising, therefore, that God's Covenant with his people is
so closely linked to the perspective of life, also in its bodily
dimension. In that Covenant, God's commandment is offered as the path
of life: "I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil.
If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you
this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by
keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you
shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the
land which you are entering to take possession of" (Dt 30:15-16). What
is at stake is not only the land of Canaan and the existence of the
people of Israel, but also the world of today and of the future, and
the existence of all humanity. In fact, it is altogether impossible for
life to remain authentic and complete once it is detached from the
good; and the good, in its turn, is essentially bound to the
commandments of the Lord, that is, to the "law of life" (Sir 17:11).
The good to be done is not added to life as a burden which weighs on
it, since the very purpose of life is that good and only by doing it
can life be built up.
It is thus the Law as a whole which fully protects human life. This
explains why it is so hard to remain faithful to the commandment "You
shall not kill" when the other "words of life" (cf. Acts 7:38) with
which this commandment is bound up are not observed. Detached from this
wider framework, the commandment is destined to become nothing more
than an obligation imposed from without, and very soon we begin to look
for its limits and try to find mitigating factors and exceptions. Only
when people are open to the fullness of the truth about God, man and
history will the words "You shall not kill" shine forth once more as a
good for man in himself and in his relations with others. In such a
perspective we can grasp the full truth of the passage of the Book of
Deuteronomy which Jesus repeats in reply to the first temptation: "Man
does not live by bread alone, but ... by everything that proceeds out
of the mouth of the Lord" (Dt 8:3; cf. Mt 4:4).
It is by listening to the word of the Lord that we are able to live in
dignity and justice. It is by observing the Law of God that we are able
to bring forth fruits of life and happiness: "All who hold her fast
will live, and those who forsake her will die" (Bar 4:1).
49. The history of Israel shows how difficult it is to remain faithful
to the Law of life which God has inscribed in human hearts and which he
gave on Sinai to the people of the Covenant. When the people look for
ways of living which ignore God's plan, it is the Prophets in
particular who forcefully remind them that the Lord alone is the
authentic source of life. Thus Jeremiah writes: "My people have
committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living
waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that
can hold no water" (2:13). The Prophets point an accusing finger at
those who show contempt for life and violate people's rights: "They
trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth" (Amos 2:7);
"they have filled this place with the blood of innocents" (Jer 19:4).
Among them, the Prophet Ezekiel frequently condemns the city of
Jerusalem, calling it "the bloody city" (22:2; 24:6, 9), the "city that
sheds blood in her own midst" (22:3).
But while the Prophets condemn offences against life, they are
concerned above all to awaken hope for a new principle of life, capable
of bringing about a renewed relationship with God and with others, and
of opening up new and extraordinary possibilities for understanding and
carrying out all the demands inherent in the Gospel of life. This will
only be possible thanks to the gift of God who purifies and renews: "I
will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all
your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new
heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you" (Ezek
36:25-26; cf. Jer 31:34). This "new heart" will