REGINA CAELI
I came that they may have life!
On Sunday, 10 May 1981, John Paul II delivered the following address to the
large numbers of faithful who crowded St Peter's Square to recite the "Regina
Caeli" with the Pope and bear witness to their commitment in defence of life
from the first moment of its conception in the mother's womb. Mother Teresa of
Calcutta was among those present.
1. "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10).
The Gospel of today, the fourth Sunday of Easter, ends with these words. It
is Christ the Good Shepherd who speaks these words. It is Christ, who calls
himself "the door of the sheep" (In 10:7).
I wish to refer these words about the abundance of life first of all to the
gift of grace, which Christ brought us by his Cross and Resurrection. I wish to
refer them in the first place to the Holy Spirit, "who is the Lord and gives
life", and we confess faith in him with the words that, sixteen centuries ago,
the First council of Constantinople set on the lips of the Church.
The Holy Spirit is the author of our sanctification: he transforms man deep
down, divinizes him, makes him a participant in divine nature (cf. 2 Pt 1:4),
just as fire makes metal incandescent, just as spring water quenches thirst:
"fons vivus, ignis, caritas". Grace is communicated by the Holy Spirit through
the sacraments, which accompany man during the whole span of his existence. By
means of grace, he becomes the sweet guest of the soul: "dulcis hospes animae":
he dwells in our heart; he is the animator of secret energies, of courageous
choices, of unshakable faithfulness. He makes us live in abundance of life:
divine life itself.
Precisely through this solicitude about the abundance of life Christ
reveals himself as the Good Shepherd of human souls: the Shepherd who
foresees the definitive future of man in God; the Shepherd who knows his sheep
(cf. Jn 10:14) to the very depths of the inner truth of man, who can speak of
himself with the words of St Augustine: "My heart is restless until it rests in
Thee" (cf. Conf. I, 1).
2. Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Here you are, representatives of the parishes and communities of the whole of
Rome, gathered in St Peter's Square today to bear witness that, in the course of
these months and of the last few weeks, you have thought of human life, first of
all the life hidden under the heart of the woman-mother, the life of unborn
children. You have made this life the object of your meditation, of your
commitment as believers, as men, and as citizens, but above all you have made it
the object of your prayers. You have meditated on the special responsibility
towards conceived life, which, according to correct human sentiment, must be
surrounded by particular solicitude and protection, both on the part of the
parents themselves, and on the part of society, in particular of the men who, in
different ways, are responsible for this life.
3. By doing so, you have shown your solidarity with the invitation of your
bishops, who, during Lent, drew the attention of the whole of society to the
great threat that hovers over this fundamental value which human life is, and in
particular the life of unborn children. It is the task of the Church to reaffirm
that abortion is death, it is the killing of an innocent creature.
Consequently, the Church considers all legislation in favour of abortion as a
very serious offence against primary human rights and the divine commandment
"You shall not kill".
4. All these efforts of yours, the whole work of the Church, in Italy as in
every other part of the world, which aims at ensuring the sacred inviolability
of conceived life, I wish to present today to Christ, who said: "I came that
they may have life". In order that these human beings, the smallest, the weakest
and the most helpless, may have life; in order that this life may never be taken
from them before they are born; this is precisely the purpose we serve and will
serve, in union with the Good Shepherd, because this is a holy cause.
5. Serving this cause, we serve man and we serve society; we serve our
country. Service for man is manifested not only in the fact that we defend the
life of an unborn child. It is manifested at the same time in the fact that
we defend human consciences. We defend the rectitude of human conscience, so
that it will call good good and evil evil, so that it will live in truth. So
that man will live in truth, so that society will live in truth.
When Christ says: "I came that they may have life…", he is also thinking, in
fact he is thinking especially, of that inner life of man which is
manifested in the voice of a correct conscience.
The Church has always considered her service of conscience as being her
essential service: the service rendered to the consciences of all her sons and
daughters, but also to the conscience of every man. Since man lives a life
worthy of man when he follows the voice of a correct conscience, and when he
does not allow this conscience to be deafened in himself and to become
insensitive.
In this way men are served, precisely the poorest and the neediest, by all
those men and women in the world who dedicate themselves to the defence of life,
the life of bodies and of souls: men and women missionaries, sisters, doctors,
nurses, teachers, technicians. Let it suffice to recall again for them all, as
one well known to us, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whose voice in defence of the
life of unborn children is raised not only from India, but also from various
parts of the earth.
In Japan, she said recently: "Every child killed by abortion is a sign of
great poverty because every human life is important and has a special character
for God".
Doing everything to save man from material poverty, Mother Teresa, this
admirable witness to the dignity of mankind, does her utmost to defend his
conscience too from insensibility and spiritual death.
6. Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Let us raise our hearts in prayer to the Mother of the Redeemer, inviting her
to paschal joy, as we do now in this period. And at the same time let us pray to
the holiest of all mothers for every mother on this earth and for every
unborn child in her womb.
Let us pray for the mothers whose consciences are most threatened when they
allow their child's life to be taken. Christ said: "When a woman is in travail
she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the
child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into
the world" (Jn 16:21). Let us pray for such joy in life even if it is offset by
suffering and inner struggle. Let us pray for the joy of consciences, "that they
may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10)
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