ENCYCLICAL LETTER
EVANGELIUM VITAE
Addressed by the Supreme Pontiff
John Paul II
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
Introduction
Chapter 1: Present Day Threats to Human Life
THE VOICE OF YOUR BROTHER'S BLOOD CRIES TO ME FROM THE GROUND
Chapter 2: The Christian Message Concerning Life
I CAME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE
Chapter 3: God's Holy Law
YOU SHALL NOT KILL
Chapter 4: For a New Culture of Human Life
YOU DID IT TO ME
Conclusion
Endnotes
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- precisely 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 are
specifically 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
prospects, 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 problem 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 society 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 acknowledged, 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
develops 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 must become 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, addresses 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 imprisoned ... 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 p
